Aug 9, 2009 [] Congratulations to the winning team at yesterday’s National League Final where we managed to retain our 2008 title. Despite arriving into the final with the best Round 1 and Round 2 results the entire team knew it wouldn’t be a simple matter of showing up to collect the Cup.
With Joe Cooper’s careful selection of the team having taken place after last week’s National Championships we travelled to Tullamore knowing solid performances all round, with no mishaps, would prove hard to beat.
Joe had created a team with a nice mix of youth and experience. With Junior athletes Patrick O’Connor and Jayme Rossiter balanced off with mature team members such as Tommy Griffin and Denis Delaney, there was a wonderful sense of Club spirit throughout the day.
With the best 15 results from 21 events counting, we finished 12 events where 1st or 2nd positions counted and our remaining 3 counting events we used 3rd place finishes – an excellent team performance across all disciplines.
The team managed to secure 6 wins on the day: John Laffey – 400m; Mark Kenneally – 5000m; Jeremy Lyons – 400m H; David Donegan – Pole Vault; Tomas Rauktys – 56lbs; John Fagan, John Laffey, Conor Healy, Jeremy Lyons – 4x400m Relay
There were also 6 second place finishes: Conor Healy – 800m; Aidan Bailey – 1500m; Jayme Rossiter – 3000m St; Denis Delaney – Javelin; Luke Mangan – Shot; 4x100m Relay
Jeremy Lyons (110m H), Danny Kavanagh (100m), Patrick O’Connor (200m), Martin Hunt (Hammer), Tomas Rauktys (Discus), Stephen Comiskey (Long Jump), Marco Mattiuzzo (Triple Jump), Marcin Nowak (High Jump) and Tommy Griffin Jr (Walk) were the remaining scoring members.
Our team total of 123 points proved to be over 20 points ahead of Crusaders and Raheny.
Clonliffe Harriers AC 123 Crusaders AC 102 Raheny AC 99 Leevale AC 92 Meath Athletics 86 St.Abbans 79 Tullamore Harriers 71 North Down 70
With an entertaining, yet questionable choreographied walk to the rostrum, the team collected the Perpetual trophy and Joe Cooper was spared a dip in the Water Jump as it had somehow been drained prior to the results being announced!
Some nice pictures from the event are available on the Sportfile website: http://www.sportsfile.com/more-images/PR0908014/
Many thanks to all those that showed up in Tullamore to provide support and encouragement. Well done to Pamela and her young team on an excellent performance of their own.