National Championships: Medals and Two Club Records

With the first day of the National Championship weekend complete, Clonliffe Harriers athletes collected three silver medals and a bronze.

First on to the podium was Tomas Rauktys with his performance in the Shot Putt. Only 7cms behind the winner Tomas thew 15.78m in the 3rd round to repeat his 2nd place from last year.

Becky Woods’ debut in the Steeplechase yielded her a National Championship bronze medal as well as allowing her to set her first Club Record. With a time of 11.28.09 Becky will go down as the inaugrual record holder for this event in Clonliffe. (This leaves the Women’s Pole Vault as the only vacant Record)

After finishing 5th last year Denise Byrne returned to collect the silver medal in the Javelin . With a new Club Record distance of 41.71m, Denise broke her own record of 40.41m set in 2008.

Gary O’Hanlon went one better than his National Cross Country bronze medal from February, with a 2nd place finish in the 10,000m. His time of 30.33.99 in this debut augurs well for future attempts at the distance. Always in the medal hunt, Gary passed through half way in 15.05 and 8km in 24.22.

Leah Moore repeated her 4th place finish from 2010 in the 200m. With a new personal best (earning third place on the Clonliffe All-time list) Leah’s  24.60 secs time from the heat proved she was on top of her game. A wind reading of +2.5 should in no way diminish her superb performance of 24.27 secs for 4th place in the final. An excellent piece of sprinting.

Other Clonliffe athletes competing today in heats included Andrew Jenkinson (800m), Mark McDonald (1500m ), Stuart Roche (200m), Larry Brady (1500m), Orna McGinley (800m), Snezena Bectina (200m) and  Brian Tobin (800m).

Kris Valters has made it through to tomorrow’s 800m final as a faster loser while Louise Reilly finished 8th in the 5000m in a time of 18.04.98