Master Athletes Shine at GloHealth Indoor Champs
Nearly 400 competitors contested the GloHealth National Master Indoor Championships in AIT, International Arena Athlone on the 15th of March. The competition was of the highest quality with athletes battling it out for the various national titles in the 35+ to 90+ age categories.
M60 800m world record holder Joe Gough (West Waterford AC) was in dominant form as he won the 400m title in a time of 59.60 and the 800m title in a time of 2.17.16. Another athlete doubling up in the middle distance events was former Olympian Pauline Curley (Tullamore Harriers AC) as she won the 800m (2.28.02) and 3,000m (10.23.32) titles.
Close Competition
Denise Toner (Clones AC) and Kelly Neely (City of Lisburn AC) went head to head in the 800m with Toner surging over the last 50m to win the title in a time of 2.16.62 with Neely second in a time of 2.16.98. Toner was out on her own in the 1,500m as she won the national title in a time of 4.49.23. The quickest 3,000m athlete of the day was Stuart Moloney (Mooreabley Milers AC) as he broke nine minutes convincingly to win the title in a time of 8.50.22.
Sprint Events
At the other end of the scale there was some very quick sprint performances produced throughout the day’s competition. Jonathan Carleton (Ballymena and Antrim AC) scorched down the track to win the M35 60m title in a time of 7.16 ahead of Menapians AC athlete Kevin Cogley second in a time of 7.25. Cogley returned later in the programme to win the national 200m title in a time of 23.27.
Other eye catching performances in the sprints included Shane Sheridan (DSD AC) in the M55 60m event as he won the title in a time of 8.05. Patrick Naughton (Nenagh Olympic AC) and Hugh Gallagher (Milford AC) won their respective M80 and M90 national 60m titles.
Dolores Whyte (Mullingar Harriers AC) was in superb form in her 60m event as she won in a time of 8.85. Geraldine Finegan (Dunleer AC) and Ger Cremin (An Riocht AC) won the 60m Hurdles titles in respective times of 10.31 and 9.06 seconds.
Field Events
Mary Barrett (Loughrea AC) was out on her own in the women’s shot putt event as she launched the shot out to a winning distance of 10.44m. Seamus Fitzpatrick (Portlaoise AC) won the men’s equivalent with a throw of 12.35m.
Tomas Griffin (An Riocht AC) was another of those impressing in the field events as he secured the M40 long jump title with a leap of 5.79m. Antoinette O’Brien (Gneeveguilla AC) excelled in the high jump winning the national title with a clearance of 1.40m as did Derek Gillespie (Rossses AC) in the men’s event as he cleared 1.75m to secure the title.