On Friday last February 1st the Irish Universities Indoor Track and Field Championships took place at the magnificent Athlone IT indoor facility. There were a number of Clonliffe athletes in action for their colleges with some outstanding performances. Pride of place goes to Becky Woods who was a worthy winner of the women’s 1500m title. Becky took a fine win in a time of 4.41.62 for TCD, with a winning margin of almost six seconds. There was also another universities title for pole vaulter Ian Rogers (DIT) who won with a best vault of 4.60.
Ciaran Mackey impressed in the 400m with two sub 50 races. First off comfortably winning his semi-final with a time of 49.61 and then going even quicker in the final finishing 2nd in a time of 48.98. There was bronze won by Sara Doyle (UCD) in the 60m hurdles in a time of 9.63.
Other notable Clonliffe performances on the day included Snezana Bechtina qualifying for the 200 final with a semi-final performance of 26.72 and then a 6th place finish in the final in 26.87. Orna McGinley (DCU) was 7th in the women’s 800m final in a time of 2.24.31.
In the men’s events Patrick O’Connor (TCD) finished 3rd in the 60m semi-final in a time of 7.15 just missing out on qualification. In the 800m Brian Hill (TCD) qualified from semi-final 2 in a time of 1.59.71 and finished 8th in the final 1.59.79. Andrew Jenkinson (DIT) qualified from semi-final 3 in a time of 1.57.39 and then ran faster in the final to place 7th in a time of 1.56.83.
Mark McDonald placed 4th in the 1500m in 3.58.12.