Today was a day to savour. The national track and field championships, Day 2, drew a bumper crowd to Morton Stadium – with a q forming from 12 noon at the entrance gates. From the neutral respective it was the magnificent Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght AC) that they had come to see and boy did she not disappoint winning the 100 in a new national record of 11.13.
Wearing our Clonliffe hats it was an excellent Championships from the club’s perspective. Yesterday’s 2 silver medals, Grace Casey in the javelin and Efrem Gidey in the 5000, was surpassed with another 2 silvers, bronze and glittering gold from Cathal Doyle winning his 3rd national 1500 title in succession.
It was Simon Galligan who got the day off to an excellent start as he took hammer silver with a best of 57.92, achieved in round 2, unfortunately however Simon tweaked an injury and could not take any further part in the competition.
Next it was another of our field eventers and making his debut in the Clonliffe singlet Kyran Maher who captured silver in the pole vault with a best of 4.40, also competing was Dave Donegan, but unfortunately NH
Young Davey Davitt matures with every race and today in his 1st national senior final he took brilliant bronze in the 400 hurdles in a time of 51.90, 0.8 of a second off the club record.
Keith Pike put in an excellent performance in the 100, he placed 2nd in his heat in a time of 11.00 and in the semi-final went even quicker clocking 10.94. Also competing in the 100 heats: Michael Deady (11.27) 5th in heat 8, Kenji Miyauchi (11.44) 8th in heat 7 and Adam Festus (12.10) 6th in heat 2.
In the U/20 3,000 Abdi Ali Maow acquitted himself very well indeed running a fine race to take 6th place overall in a time of 8.55.39. More importantly he continues to develop as an athlete and will gain enormously as a result of this experience.
Finally the men’s 1500 where Cathal Doyle handled the pressure of being a two-time champion and race favourite superbly. He ran a ‘true racers race’ keeping an eye on everything, staying out of trouble (largely!) And then being in the right place coming off the final bend and only actually hit the front maybe 40/50 m from the line to win in 3.44.15, 2nd in 3.44.54 was Luke McCann (UCD) with Darragh McElhinney (Bantry) 3rd 3.44.67.
Now it’s fingers crossed for Cathal for Olympic selection.
A great Championships from the club’s perspective – 1 bronze, 4 silvers, 1 gold and hundreds of happy smiling Clonliffe faces!
Also at the weekend Jess Tappin won bronze in the 400H at the British Championships in Manchester with 56.86.