Tonight`s Dublin Graded Meet, which included Dublin Championships, was like a magnite pulling in some top class athletes for a really good meet. The men`s 1500m Championship, although not featuring any Clonliffe athletes was an excellent affair won by MSB`s John Coghlan ahead of a field that would have done the National 1500m final proud. From a Clonliffe perspective highlights included a fine 1500m Dublin silver for Becky Woods in 4.41.88 making her return to competitive action and an excellent PB of 3.57.97. by Aaran Hanlon in finishing 2nd in the B race and an impressive win in the 1500B by Roisin Leahy in 5.04.17, Roisin resisting the urge to hit the front and pick up the pace until 250 to go.
Other Clonliffe middle distance athletes tonight included a 1500m PB for Liam Ashton of 4.14.09 , another race under the belt for Larry Brady 4th in race C in 4.11.60, Ian Guiden ran 4.06.14 in placing 6th in the B race, Tom Sherlock ran 4.31.72, Philip O`Doherty 4.40.11. Good runs also by Laura Brennan(5.22.2) and Niall Norman.
Earlier in the meet Shauna Reilly impressed in the 200m B race taking a very good win in 26.79 with Denise Byrne 2nd (27.25), later Denise picked up the javelin winning with a throw of of 34.96m (not a triple jump World record as previously reported!),. Leah Bergin was 6th in the first 200m A race in 27.17, while Snezana Bechtina finish in the same position in the second A race (26.79). Ciaran Donohue was a fine winner of the men`s B race (22.82) with Stuart Roche 3rd (23.05), Daniel Doran suffered a nasty fall just meters from the line, and hopefully hasn`t sustained any serious damage apart from a few cuts.
In the 3,000m A Dave Fitzmaurice finished in 8.50.57. In the B race Johnny Bradley Ward (9.56.43) had a good run, good outings also for Dave Dunwoody (10.09.49) and Tom Monks (11.19.19). Louise Reilly in the women`s 3,000 started very brightly indeed but hit a bad patch just after half way running 10.39.24 and winning, Rachel Murray battled away in a tough race running 13.15.36.
Ian Rogers won the pole vault with a best of 4.40m. Simon Galligan threw the 5k hammer 52.28. Finally Caoimh Morris made an instant impact in her Clonliffe debut setting a new club record in the hammer of 38.74 replacing the legendary Frances Mansfield in the record books.
Also recently Kris Valters was back home in Latvia where he came down in distance from his recent 800s to run 23.24 for 200m and 50.10 for 400m.