Not a night for track and field and not a night for fast times. With a strong wind, cold temperatures, but thankfully the rain had stopped, it was more a night to watch the Euro football on the box by the fire. So it was day 1 of the Dublin County juvenile track and field, and a menu that served up mainly 800s. Some impressive runs from the young Harriers with seven medals won and the highlight being the final race of the night the U/18 boys 800. In this race Aaron Hanlon ran sub two minutes, after a nippy opening lap reached in 58 seconds Aaron sat on the tail of a Tallaght athlete before making the winning move on the back straight to quickly open the gap and come home a clear winner in 1.59.7. An excellent run also in this race from Liam Ashton running even paced laps to finish very strongly and take a well deserved bronze in 2.06.7.
Earlier in the night the first Clonliffe winner was Ruth Bergin who won the U/13 600 in a packed race of some 20 athletes. Good runs in this race also by Lauren Carr and Cliona Cooley. In the girls U/12 600 Hope Soluma was 3rd with Sol just behind in 4th. David Tuite ran well in the boys U/12 race. U/14 boys saw Joseph Hession run another perfect race, taking control at the 300 to go mark and coming home in a new PB of 2.21.9. Fintan McManus was 6th with Luke Guy 10th. Although good things were expected in the boys U/15 it didn`t quite work out as David O`Hanlon was 4th (2.17.5), Greg Hossenny 6th (2.23.2) and Sean Carrigg looking very tired indeed. Alannah Cooley was very competitive in the U/15 800 well in the race and finishing in 6th place.
The U/16 girls saw the continuing Laura and Sally show. Both girls running very well as Laura Tuite took Dublin bronze with Sally just off her shoulder in 4th. Stephanie McCaul placing 7th. A really top class run in the boys U/16 race from the ever improving and ever classy Cathal Doyle in which he ran an exception final bend to propel himself from 5th to 2nd and then hang on grimly to that silver medal all the way to the finish. Cathal`s time: 2.10.68, a five second PB.
In the throws Simon Galligan won the U/18 hammer (5kg) while Manuel Calvo Curry won the U/19 (6kg) title with Akadhi Safari 2nd.
So at the end of the day ten medals and five Dublin champions. Tomorrow the championships continue in Tallaght.