Ciara Everard runs a qualifying time for The World Juniors. Ciara Everard ran faster than ever clocking 2.08.15 to win the 800 Meters Development Race at the Dublin Graded Meeting on Wednesday night at Irishtown. On a cool evening with a moderately strong cool breeze coming in from Dublin Bay Deirdre Byrne moved into the lead as the athletes moved out of lanes down the back straight. Covering the first 200 meters in a brisk 31 seconds Deirdre had only Ciara for company and the bell was reached in 62 seconds. Anxious to make stamina pay dividends the Sli Cualann woman continued to push it along down the back straight but she really never managed to dispose of her challenger the youthful Kilkenny City Harriers runner. There was a fine battle down the home straight where Everard just about prevailed to win by 17 hundredths of a second 2.08.15 to Byrne s 2.09.32. with Joanne English third in 2.16.33. In the first of the two Mens Development Races Colm Rooney had the best sprint as he outran Noel Collins to win in 1.54.83. The second race provided the fastest time as Dunleer s Darragh Greene was quite an impressive winner clocking 1.54.18 the fastest time run by an Irish athlete on Irish soil this year. Simon Kenny took the field through the first lap in 55 seconds and Greene took it on from there and was never seriously challenged with Paul Breslin taking second in a new p.b. followed by a number of p.b s. The second race was in stark contrast to the first where some of the field seemed to be playing a waiting game only to find that big sprint they thought they had deserted them on the night. Sligo s Emmet Dunleavy clocked 9.17.72 for the 3000 Meters Steeplechase with Mark Ryan clocking 9.27.38. Emmet looked like an athlete with some potential at the event which is currently is not overpopulated in the country. The next race in the Development Race series organized by national Endurance Coach Jim Davis is on Wednesday May 28th in Santry when both Womens and Mens 1500 will be on the programme. Full results are on www Dublin athletics.com
