Eugenia Bateson reports: With 409 juvenile teams from across Dublin competing in the Dublin Relay Championships, the first thing to mention is the superb job done by The Dublin County Board led by Seamus, Cecil and a band of volunteers. It ran like clockwork and the meticulous planning resulted in a very enjoyable event.
Onto the Clonliffe business of the day. U14 Boys were our first team up with Conall finding himself looking at blocks for the first time ever. He took to them like a duck to water. Callum ran a fine leg cutting perfectly at the break point. Sam and Cúann also ran superb legs accumulating a time of 2.14.91. Focus now firmly on the league and Dublin Outdoor Championships to see what this quartet can achieve from here.
U18 ladies were led out by Kate Faherty handing to the on-fire Rebecca Walsh, Sorcha O’Connor chased them down into Hazel Kenny who pushed taking the Templeogue athlete on the line. The girls were unlucky to narrowly miss the final.
The afternoon was the turn of the uneven age groups. We had two teams in both the U15 Girls and U15 Boys. Sienna Kelly had a brilliant run opening for Clonliffe leading her team with confidence. Some very good runs followed from Isabelle Hickey who had a very strong run, into Leigh McDermott and Leah O’Reilly. This impressive team finished 4th in their 4x200m heat in a time of 2.00.84. The 2nd girls team ran in the final heat with Zoe Mulligan, Sophie Rattigan, Ruby Kelly and Sophie Kiernan running extremely well finishing 2nd in their heat in a time of 2.08.62.
U15 Boys had two good teams also. Eddie Blaque opened for the B team in an excellent run into Conor Tynan, Conor Phelan and Cormac Tynan with a fantastic last leg. The team finished 5th in their heat in a time of 2.08.70. The 2nd team was lead out by a fine sprint from Bradley King, into Sean Henry, Sean Sinopluoglu and Sam O’Reilly. Finishing 2nd in their heat with a time of 1.52.61 this team made it through to the U15 Dublin Championship Final. A very tight and exciting final saw the lads finish 5th in a time of 1.52.81. A brilliant achievement for this team running for their first time as team.
U17 Girls also had two teams. In heat one, Caoimhe De Bello opened with a good run into Emily Jancha who ran a very fast leg, positioning the team well as she handed to Ellen Morgan, and finally into Ava Usanova. Finishing in 2nd in the heat in a time of 1.53.43 the girls had an anxious wait to see if they would get to run the final. The 2nd team of Sarah McDonald, Rebecca Walsh, Mya O’Reilly and Ciara Sheedy also had an impressive run, particularly when you take into account the strong distance runner element of the team, finished a very good 3rd in a time of 1.54.62 narrowly missing out on the final. It is fantastic to see such talent coming through in the female section of the club with an exciting outdoor season ahead with all 8 ladies performing strongly. Special mention to Mya who broke her finger yesterday playing basketball but determined not to let her team down, had a fantastic run.
The B Team did indeed make the final and ran the last race of the day with a slight reorder. Emily Jancha opened putting the girls in a strong position, Caoimhe also ran well handing into Ellen Morgan, a late call up to the team who put in a fine 200m. Ava Usanova chased down the Lucan Harriers athlete but unfortunately despite a determined run, the girls missed a bronze medal today by .06 of a second. No doubt a medal is within their grasp as we enter the outdoor season.
And so comes to an end the Dublin Juvenile Indoor Championships. Well done to all involved.
6 weeks to the League!!