Last nights Dublin Graded Meet was held in perfect conditions in the Morton Stadium Santry on what was a beautiful summer’s evening, nice and warm and, although a slight breeze on the home straight (as usual) almost perfect. It was, however, a perfect day for young Clonliffe Harrier John Buckley taking his first ever race win after running a superb race in the Grade C 3000m. From the gun young Buckley was positive taking on the pace and quickly opening a gap of five plus metres, despite hitting a bad patch three laps from home when he was relegated back to 2nd place Buckley gathered himself and began closing the gap on the race leader, he was soon on his shoulder and passed and hit the front again with 600 to go to record a very popular win in a PB of 9.45.81.
PBs were also recorded by both Aaron Hanlon and Ian Guiden in the Grade A 3000. Both Clonliffe athletes ran exceptionally well: Guiden going with the fast pace set by the Lagan Valley AC Monaghan twins while Hanlon set off at a more conservative pace. The opening laps were exceptionally fast being reeled off in circa 65/66 seconds, with five quick laps reeled off Guiden paid the price and was cut adrift from the race leader and with Hanlon having broken from the pack and closing rapidly with 600 to go the positions were reversed Aaron Hanlon driving on to such a degree that he was only a little over a second behind Andrew Monaghan at the finish line in 2nd place. Aaron taking a massive 13 seconds of his PB to record a time of 8:35.93, Ian Guiden was 3rd clocked up his second PB of the week taking two seconds off his time in running 8:41.00. Johnny Bradley-Ward recorded a time of 10:03.58. In the Grade C race Niall Norman ran a time of 11:03.57.
Earlier in the Meet new Clonliffe Harrier Ciaran Donoghue ran an exceptionally well judged 400 metre race to come through the field nicely over the final 100 to finish 3rd in a time of 51.30, a nice warm up in advance of Ciaran making his European debut for Clonliffe in this weekend’s European Clubs in Slovakia.
Other Clonliffe on the night included Joseph Cooper running a time of 4:40.48 for 5th place in the combined A/B Mile, Liam Ashton ran a time of 4:51.67, Liam clearly still suffering the after effects of his earlier season illness. Anthony Malone ran a battling 4:47.81 to finish 7th in the C Mile whilst both Tom Monks and George Maybury ran well in the D Mile, Monks recording a time of 5:37.27 in 7th place with Maybury 9th in 58:43.35.
In the men’s pole vault Ian Rogers was second with a best of 4.10m whilst in the hammer competition Simon Galligan placed 4th with a best throw of 48.16.
There were also some of the Clonliffe ladies team in action. In the 400m Leah Bergin ran well in the B race to finish 2nd in a time of 61.45. A good run also from Denise Byrne just behind Leah 3rd in 61.73. Denise then capped a good evening for her by winning the javelin with a best of 34.86. It was also good to see in the javelin Ruth Farrelly back in action finishing 4th with a best of 29.59.
In the women’s hammer Caoimhe Morris who has transferred to Clonliffe but cannot compete in the Clonliffe colours until June 14th finished 3rd with a best throw of 35.97. Full results of Graded Meet Number 3 : www.dublinathletics.com.
BHAA update from Tuesday night, the ESB beach 5K took place in Sandymount where Conor Keane was 16th in 17:31 and Decalan Ryan 21st in 17:51.