by Perri Williams
It seems that each weekend is filled with a bumper selection of athletics activities to follow. From the domestic scene, to nationals and then international. Our elite and not so elite athletes, continue to make progress towards their chosen goals and achieving them too. This certainly is a special era for Athletics, where the ordinary individual is drawn towards the sport in a manner that has not happened since the 1980s.
First there was Mark English’s record breaking performance in Poland last week. Setting a new mark over the 800m seems to have triggered a plethora of spectacular performances across the spectre of Irish athletes performing over the past few days. Take for example the performances of both Sarah Healy and Cathal Doyle at the Diamond League in Rome on Friday night.
Competing in the 1500m, Healy was of course acknowledged as an important figure in this high profile event. However, most would have discounted her as a challenger for victory. Yet that is exactly what Healy did. The early pace set by Susan Ejore (Kenya) saw Healy sit behind content to run the race at her own pace. As the pace slowed, the leading peloton of four runners came back towards the rest of the field. The M11 athlete lay in fourth place at the bell. Just as she had done at the European Indoors and at her third place over 3000m last month in the Diamond League at Rabat, she moved with confidence towards the final stages of the race. When Sarah Billings (Australia) moved to the front, poised for a certain victory, Healy made her move and edged across the line to take her first Diamond League victory. “I did not expect to win, it was a messy race with a fast wind up which usually does not suit me” a delighted Healy stated afterwards. She now joins Ciara Mageean and Rhisadit Adeleke as being one of just three athletes from Ireland that have won a points scoring event at the Diamond League. Healy will now race the next Diamond League in Paris again over 1500m, where she will surely challenge her own personal best of 3:57.46.
Cathal Doyle has come along way since he made that Olympic semi-final last year. A year that saw him scrambling to get into high quality fields that could push him further. A lot has changed in a year and the Clonliffe Harriers athlete, is now racing Gold Tour events and Diamond Leagues. In a clear demonstration of how far the men’s 1500m has advanced, all sixteen of the runners ran under the 3.33 required to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo. Doyle finished 14th in a time of 3.32.15 taking almost a second off his personal best and achieving the automatic qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo.
There were further qualifications over the weekend. At the British Milers meet in Birmingham, two athletes achieved the u23 European Qualifying standard. In the men’s 1500m Lughaidh Mallon (UCD) clocked 3.41.15 to achieve the European u23 B standard for the 1500m. At the same meeting several Irish steeplechase athletes competed, taking advantage of the not-so-often run event. Alix Joyce (Tuam AC) ran 10.14.50 to dip five tenths of a second under the European u23 standard for Steeplechase. Unfortunately Jonas Stafford (UCD) who had also sought qualification, was three seconds outside of the mark for the men’s event.
Staying with competitions abroad, there was some success in Belgium. A surprise qualification came in the form of Andrew Egan (Galway City Harriers) who produced a stunning new personal best of 45.86 over 400m at the FC Putbos Memorial Buyle meet in Oordegem. Egan has thus achieved the A standard for the European u23 400m to be hosted in Bergan this summer. Egan has now run the fastest time this year by an Irishman and moved up to 9th on the All-time Irish list. Overlooking him as a contender for a place on the mixed relay would be pure folly at this stage. Those relay places have just got more competitive.
Moving across to France, at the FAST 5000 meet, Darragh McElhinney took second place with a new personal best 13:16.26. The Bantry AC athlete has shown some renewed form over the past month, taking him back towards the form that saw him win a European u23 silver at Cross Country and an u20 bronze European medal over 5000m on the track. This is a welcome boost for McIlhenny who has now achieved the World Championship B standard for Tokyo.
A team of fourteen Irish u18 athletes travelled to the u18 EYOF gala in Wetzler in Germany. While many of these athletes had already achieved the qualifying standards for the EYOF, some were of course tantalizingly close. This afforded them the opportunity to gain that standard. Molly Daly (Kilkenny City Harriers) produced a PB of 23.67 to win the 200m and achieve the EYOF qualification in the process. It was inevitable that the u18 European Champion Thomas Williams was going to achieve the standard for the hammer. With injury hampering his early season, he was to a certain extent playing catch up with his performances. His 71.67 spun him the gold in Germany and the EYOF standard. Those who have now achieved the EYOF standard are: Conor Penney (Craughwell), Erin Friel (Letterkenny), Matthew Newell (Tuam), Joe Burke (Templemore), Lorcan Forde-Dunne and Molly Daly (KCH). Overall the team produced some impressive performances in Germany with wins for Erin Friel (400m), Thomas Williams (Hammer), Molly Daly (200m), Joe Burke (200m) and Lorcan Forde-Dunne (1500m) – auguring for another summer of u18 medals to look forward to.
Staying with u18s, Conor Penney received a unique invitation to compete in France over the weekend, where he finished 2nd. While the competition itself was very important (Penney jumped 2.04 and narrowly missed 2.08), the real honour was meeting Javier Sotomayor, World High Jump Record Holder who high jump world record of 2.45m set back in 1993, remains intact, 32 years on.
The Leinster Championships throws its doors open to other athletes from across the county to compete. Listed as a World Calander event, this again affords athletes the opportunity to achieve qualification standards. At this years fixture, the calibre in the throwing events was definitely trending upwards. An increasing number of guest athletes across multiple throwing events took part, driving standards high. There were fine wins for Conor Cusack (Lake District AC) in the javelin, Theo Hanlon (Suncroft) in the shot putt and Cian Crampton (Edenderry) in the Discus. Anna Gavigan (LSA AC) took the ladies Discus title.
And what of the week ahead? It seems that there is yet another bumper action packed schedule of athletics all lined up for the week ahead. Monday sees Mark English take part in Henglo. He will be joined by Orla Comerford in the para 100m. There is the Diamond League in Oslo on Wednesday featuring Rhasidat Adeleke. Staying with Scandinavia, Nichola Tuthill, Cillian Greene and Ava O’Connor are set to compete in Finland. Towards the end of the week the NCAA nationals will be held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon where seven Irish athletes will take part.
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