from Dr. Garrett Coughlan 1 Euro Junior Qualifying Time, 40 PB’s,
26 SB’s – DSD Women Impress The latest IMC meeting was blessed with evening sun and little wind as proceedings got underway in Irishtown last night. A large crowd of athletes and supporters turned up for seven great races which heralded a European Junior qualifying time for Charlotte French O’Carroll as well as 40 new personal bests and 26 new seasons bests. The IMC Committee who like to thank all of the volunteers who assisted on the night, as well as the athletes, coaches and supporters for attending the event. The next IMC event will be at the Cork City Sports next Saturday (men’s A + B 800m, women’s 800m) and entries close on Monday next to garrett.coughlan@ucd.ie in the usual format. Athletes can now vote with their hands/feet (!) as to which races they want held on July 25th at Irishtown by viewing and voting on the poll on our website www.irishmilersclub.com.
800m A
Simon Taggart took on pacing duties in the top 800m race of the night with athletes strung out behind as the field passed the bell at 54 seconds. Anthony Lieghio looked like he was firm favourite to win with 100m remaining only to be passed by Irish Schools Champion Mark Patterson from North Down who just missed his PB to win in 1.51.46. Darren Mc Brearty from Letterkenny got up to finish second in a new PB of 1.51.77 ahead of Lieghio (1.51.83).
800m B
This race was always going to be a close affair as you could have thrown a blanket over the athletes PB’s before the race. The race itself was no different with Joe Warne conducting an excellent job pacing the athletes through at 56 seconds. Former European Junior 1500m Champion, Colin Costello made a welcome return to racing on Irish soil and burst away from the pack with 200m remaining. However, he was tracked by Niall Robinson of North Down AC who was a very impressive finisher in a new PB of 1.53.55, followed by new PB’s for Danny Mooney of Letterkenny (1.54.32) and Para Olympic Champion, Michael Mc Killop (1.54.40).
800m C
Liam Markham was recently selected for the 1500m in the World Youth Championships in Italy in July and continued his rich vein of form with a new 800m PB winning in 1.55.65 with second and third place athletes Dermot Mc Dermott (1.55.84) and Paul Breslin (1.56.92) taking two seconds off their previous best times in an exciting race.
800m D
The last race of the night was also one of the most exciting as home track hero Rob Cross left his traditional late kick very late, edging ahead of MSB’s Alan Gray in the final metres in a time of 2.00.34 to 2.00.90 with both athletes setting PB’s. Every athlete in this race ran either a PB or SB. Richard Owen of Sli Cualann finished third in 2.00.91.
3000m A + B
Martin Conroy did an excellent pacing job passing the 2k mark in 5.33 with young athletes Michael Mulhare and James O’Hare in hot pursuit. In the closing stages it was the North Laois athlete Mulhare who finished the stronger taking almost 20 seconds off his previous best time to finish in 8.22.12 to O’Hare’s new PB of 8.25.10. Julian Kuppler continued his excellent season with a third place finish. Meanwhile in the B race a strong race with 10 athletes setting new PB’s with many breaking 9 minutes for the first time. Ryan Faulkner of St. Malachys was the winner in 8.42.85 with Michael Dyer (who had ran 1.51 in the UK the night before) finishing second in 8.46.86 and another Northern Ireland athlete Sameul Millar in third, 8.47.56 – all setting PB’s. Linda Byrne jumped in this race as well and was rewarded with a new best time of 9.17.56.
800m Women
Joe Warne took on his third pacing job of the night to bring Hazel Murphy around to a new season’s best of 2.07.20 with Christin Long in second, 2.13.18 and Ciara Durkan third in 2.14.70 with new PB’s for Becky Woods and Lauren Scott.
Dr. Garrett Coughlan,
Post Doctoral Research Fellow,
Stim XDP Research Group,
Institute of Sport and Health,
Newstead Building
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4,
Ireland.
garrett.coughlan@ucd.ie