Galligan and McMahon impress on Bank Holiday weekend of racing
Galligan and McMahon impress
Rose-Anne Galligan and Christine McMahon were in impressive form over the weekend hitting European standards over 800m and 400m hurdles respectively.
Galligan (Newbridge) posted 2:02.35 for third in section two of the women’s 800m at the Payton Jordan Invitational in California for a European B standard and .85 seconds outside the Olympic qualifying time (2:01.5). The European Athletics Championships take place in Amsterdam in July. There was a host of Irish athletes in action in where North Sligo's Mary Cullen had to unfortunately drop out mid race in the 10,000m.
Christine McMahon (Ballymena & Antrim), running for Queen's Belfast, broke the previous championship record for the 400m hurdles to finish second at the British University Championships in 57.78 seconds. Loughborough's Jessica Turner won in 57.50.
Elsewhere, former Olympian David Gillick returned to action in Pavia, Italy, running 48.05 to finish fifth in the 400m. The 32-year-old may yet run himself into contention for the Irish Olympic 4x400m team.
In Clermont, Florida on Saturday night, Adam McMullen (Crusaders) opened his season with a 7.75m long jump, while Amy Foster (City of Lisburn) took victory over 100m in 11.54. Paralympic star Jason Smyth (Derry City Track Club) impressed over 100m with 10.45 seconds with a legal +1.3 wind in Florida.
At the Irish Milers Club meeting in Greystones yesterday, Clonmel brothers William and Kevin Maunsell impressed over 5000m, with William leading the field home in 14:17.35 ahead of Kevin (14:20.49) and Kilkenny’s Brian Maher (14:20.85).
Carla Sweeney (WSAF) 2:09.14 ran a world junior B qualifying time (2:09.20), Rose Finnegan (Bohermeen) 2:09.54. Results of the meet are HERE
Laura Graham (Mourne Runners) showed deep energy reserves to finish second at the 35th Deep River Rock Belfast City having run a personal best at the London Marathon eight days ago as Kenyans continued their dominance at the head of the men’s field.
The Kilkeel woman, and mother of four, ran 2:48:03 in the London marathon and impressed once more in second with 2:48:55 – her time in London chopped 8 minutes off her old best. The race was won by Ethiopia’s defending champion Berhan Gebremichael who took victory in 2:48:26. Czech athlete Radka Churanova took third in 2:51.37.
Kenyan Joel Kipsang Kositany won his third Belfast Marathon victory finishing in 2:17:39 to complete a Kenyan clean sweep. He broke clear towards the end ahead of his compatriots Eric Koech in second in 2:18:43 and Dan Tanui in third in 2:18:46.
This was the 14th straight African men’s win in Belfast on a day when thousands of runners took part in the marathon, a team relay race, a marathon walk, a wheelchair marathon and a fun-run. North Belfast Harriers won the team marathon relay in 2:24:24.