The Clonliffe junior men put in top notch performances finishing in a credible joint sixth place at the European Clubs Junior Track and Field Championships in Leira, Portugal on September 15th. History was made as competitors Aaron Hanlon and Ian Guiden became the first Clonliffe athletes to win European clubs races.
First to compete was Simon Galligan in the hammer circle, who finished a solid fourth (50.23m). Team captain Andrew Heney also put in a good early morning shift in the high jump coming in at 1.89m and with a best of 1.93 to finish 3rd.
First on the track was Eoin Power in the 400mH, a good performance saw him finish fourth in 56.89 seconds followed by Liam Ashton in the 800m who finished a solid fifth in 2.05.82. Keith Pike was next in the 100m finishing third in 11.23 seconds with team mate Fintan Doherty taking on the 400m finishing sixth in 54.35. Despite a heavy fall, Eoin McCullough narrowly missed out on second place in the 3000m steeple chase to take a brave third in 10.28.4.
Field event competitors on the day included Daniel Doran who placed sixth in the long jump (5.83m) and seventh in the triple jump (11.28m), Safari Aketch was eighth in both the shot putt (9.36m) and discus (27.54m), while Ryan Whelan was 7th in the javelin (48.43m).
In the afternoon, Aaron Hanlon was first off in the 1500m and powered home in a time of 4.10.43, enjoying the last 100m to become Clonliffe`s first European Clubs Track and Field winner. Shortly after, Josh Essuman placed sixth in the 110m hurdles (16.16 seconds) with Stuart Roche in the 200m finishing 5th in 23.46.
The final Clonliffe athlete in action was Ian Guiden in the 3000m who won impressively by 100m ahead of the rest of the field in a time of 9.04.82 to secure another European clubs winner for Clonliffe AC .
The relay teams had no such luck finishing seventh in both the 4 x 100m and 4×400m. At the end of the competition Clonliffe AC placed joint sixth with Swiss team, St. Bern, on 71 points only 2 points off fifth place.
Well done to all involved.
