Reigning champions kick off title defence
Reigning champions Clonliffe Harriers and Dundrum South Dublin will kick off the defence of their GloHealth National League titles this Sunday in Morton Stadium.
DSD won the women’s league last year and went on to impress with a third place finish at the European Clubs Track and Field B Championships in Leiria, Portugal on Saturday May 28th. The Clonliffe men also performed admirably at the championships.
This weekend’s league draw is in Athlone IT and Morton Stadium. Tipperary women, who won the women’s first division last summer, will compete in the premier section in Athlone while Kilkenny City Harriers who won the men’s 1st division will compete in the highest league in Morton Stadium.
For a list of the league draw for the weekend click HERE
Read the reports from DSD and Clonliffe Harriers from their European adventures below
Dundrum South Dublin 3rd at European Clubs
Dundrum South Dublin finished a hard fought third place at the European Clubs Track and Field B Championships in Leiria, Portugal on Saturday 28th May.
The Dublin Club led the Israeli team by a point going into the 4*400 relay, the final event of the day, however the quartet of Katie Magee, Mollie O’Reilly, Rachel Dunne and the ever dependable Sinead Denny brought the team home in second place, in a time of 3min 50, to secure their 1st ever podium finish at the championships.
Grace O’Rourke had made the perfect start to the day when she won the high jump with a leap of 1.70m. Other winners for DSD were Fiona Clinton in the 5000m with a time of 17:12, Maria McCambridge in the 1500M in 4.31, Laura Shaughnessy in the steeplechase with a time of 11 mins 13.02 secs, and Anita White with a comfortable victory in the javelin where she threw 49.79m in the opening round.
Sinead Denny finished second in the 400m with a personal best time of 53.63 secs. Meghan Ryan produced a strong run in a tactical 3000m to finish second in 10:07.66.
The younger members of the club played their part too with a number of PB’s: Sophie Murphy 3rd in the 800M in 2.16, Mollie O’Reilly 3rd in the 200m in 24.98 secs, Tara Jenkins 4th in the long jump with 5.42m, Katie Berney 4th 100m 12.4, Rachel Dunne 5th in the 400H and Kate Doherty 5th in the 100m hurdles.
The Final Result:
1st Thames Valley Harriers GBR: 89.50
2nd AD Mass Ljubljana SLO: 82.50
3rd Dundrum South Dublin IRL: 70.00
4th Isreal Maccabi Rishon: ISR: 66.00
5th Turun Urhwilulitto FIN: 63.00
6th SIG Kreis Limburg GER: 40.00
Clonliffe report
Clonliffe athletes performed admirably in the Portuguese city of Leira at group B of the European Clubs Track and Field Championships. David Flynn had a fine win in the 3000m steeplechase in 8:55.13 to rack up maximum points for the black and amber.
There were record-setting performances in the field events. Rory Gunning wiped his own club javelin record from the books as he bettered the existing record twice in the competition finally recording a best and new club record of 62.36m as he placed 4th. Then there was the performance of young Keith Marks, who is still in secondary school, as the oldest standing record on the books was finally bettered. Hugo Duggan`s 1969 long jump record of 7.20m was bettered with a 7.40m and then a 7.48m jump as Keith took an excellent 2nd place.
Other outstanding contributions came from another youngster Adam O`Brien, after a late call up to action, placing 5th in the 3000m in 8:51.89 and Aaron Hanlon 4th in the 5000m with a 14:38.43 run and Antonio Garcia 3rd in his 110h race (15.02).
Clonliffe results
100 Keith Pike 3rd 10.97
200 Chris Sibanda 4th 21.55
400 Mark McDonald 4th 51.91
800 Mark McDonald 8th 1.57.48
1500 Eoin Pierce 6th 3.58.31
3000 Adam O`Brien 5th 8.51.89
5000 Aaron Hanlon 4th 14.38.43
110H Antoinio Garcia 3rd 15.02
400H Timmy Crowe 4th 53.61
3000SC Dave Flynn 1st 8.55.13
Javelin Rory Gunning 4th 62.36m (New Clonliffe Record)
Hammer Simon Galligan 4th 55.59m
Discus Marcin Klinskow 9th 35.66m
Shot Luke Mangan 8th 13.59m
Long Jump Keith Marks 2nd 7.48m (New Clonliffe Record)
Triple Jump Niall Counihan 6th 13.79
High Jump Andrew Heney 6th 1.94m
Pole Vault Ian Rogers 7th 4.20m
4 x 100 4th 42.64
4 x 400 6th 3.34.66