It was a blustery evening in Morton Stadium for Day 1 of the Clonliffe 2023 track championships. Prior to the start of the event a minutes silence in memory of Clonliffe Olympian Claire Walsh was observed. There were a total of 6 titles up for grabs. The 1st championship race of the evening was the women’s 400 which was won by last year’s champion Leah Bergin in 56.04, 2nd was Anna Heavey and Snezana Bechtina 3rd. The men’s 400 was a tighter affair, race winner was Jack Byrne (52.4) running as a guest so the championship top 3 were Oren Kenny 53.1, Jarlath Jordan 2nd and Paric McGeary 3rd.
It was on then to the evening’s middle distance event the 1500 starting off with the women’s race where Laura Tuite and Sarah Bateson quickly establish their dominance over the field and despite the efforts of both for the cause in Sundays preliminary round of the track and field league, Well clear of the field with Laura winning the club title in 4.51 ahead of Sarah 2nd with Julie Larkin taking 3rd. The men’s race was quite intriguing, at the bell there was a group of 5 athletes, Cathal McHale did his best to shake off the younger generation however down the back straight Lorcan Benjacar took control to win the championship in 4.13 ahead of Rory Quill in 2nd and Mahad Mohamed Egal taking 3rd.
Then it was back to the sprints for the 100 and a switch to the far side of the track to take advantage of the prevailing wind. The men’s race was split into 2, the A race was extremely tight and it took some time for the officials having consulted with VAR came up with the result of 1st, a guest, Anthony Dillon, 10.50, 2nd place and the club champion for 2023 was Keith Pike, 10.50, 2nd in the championship Craig Duffy, 10.50 and 3rd in the championship Pascal Touche. The final event was the women’s 100 where in the a race Leah Bergin with a 12.3 took her 2nd win of the evening ahead of Anna Heavey 2nd and Ava Usonova 3rd.
Full results:
The presentation of prizes will be made at next Tuesdays, July 4th, night 2 of the club Championships. That evening there will be championship races for 200, 800, 5000. Entry is now open using the same format by email to events.clonliffeharriersac@gmail.com. It would be appreciated if entries could be made before Friday night.