On a pretty grim day in Santry the national track and field championships day 1 took place. The highlights were a pair of silver medals won by Efrem Gidey and Grace Casey.
Efrem’s silver was very hard won, it was a brilliant race, last year’s top 3 were again involved in a titanic battle. Efrem took it on roughly 1/3 into the race injecting a couple of fast laps which broke the field down to the Clonliffe man, defending champion Brian Fay (Raheny) and silver medallist from last year Cormac Dalton (Mullingar). Try as hard as he could Efrem simply could not shake off the Raheny man and with 600 to go Fay gathered himself for the final assault kicking for home just before the bell and blasting the last lap to take gold in 13.43.61 with Efrem taking silver (13.52.30) and Dalton 3rd (13.55.01).
Grace Casey grab silver with her final throw. Heading into the final round she was back in 4th place and was only with the last throw that she unleashed a superb 43.99, her best for some years, and also a Clonliffe Harriers club record to propel herself into silver.
Davey Davitt will take his place in the men’s 400 hurdles final tomorrow having finished 2nd in his heat in 52.58. Aaron Tierney Smith placed 3rd in his 400 heat in 50.40 but will not progress.
In the 1500 heats Cathal Doyle controlled his race finishing comfortably in 3rd place 4.00.34 to book a place in tomorrow’s final. In heat 1 Sean Cronin in 6th place (4.00.04) didn’t progress, Jack Maughan was 12th in that race (4.09.00), likewise in heat 3 Fintan Kerins finished 7th (3.58.81) and in heat for Sean Carrigg 12th.
Niamh Kelly was in a stacked 800 heat and was well in the mix hitting the top bend but faded down the home straight to 7th place (2.13.68). Richie Owens in his 800 was 6th (1.57.51), neither progresses to tomorrow’s final.