by Perri Williams
Sarah Lavin spearheaded the points tally at last weekends European Team Championships in Maribor, Slovenia. Taking the only Irish victory. Lavin won her signature event the 100m hurdles in a respectable 12.82 seconds. This along with other significant performances for the Irish team, helped Ireland to finish in 5th place overall. While it was not the overall performance the team was looking for, there many positives that can be gleamed from the competition. For one, there were some great individual performances, senior international debuts, personal bests and very importantly our strengths and weaknesses as a team have been highlighted, giving Team Ireland a starting point to improve the standings in two years’ time. A cluster of performances at the 14th position mark can be identified as being an issue for a team that wants to move to the first division. It will take a collective effort to address this cluster for an upward trajectory towards that promotion. Looking at some of the amazing performances of our u20s and older juveniles last weekend, they may in time influence this cluster to make the positive change.
Two fine second place finishes from 5000m and Ireland’s men’s 4x100m relay team delivered 15 points each for second place. For the second weekend in succession, the Irish men’s 4x100m has broken the national record. The team of Michael Farrelly, Sean Aigboboh, Marcus Lawler and Israel Olatunde recorded 38.99 winning heat A and ceding victory to Heat B winners Slovenia. This gives yet another boost to Irish relay squad development. Brian Fay had “mixed emotions” about his second-place finish. On a personal level he stated, “I would have liked to won”, however, from a team perspective the high points on the board matters a lot more than the overall time of the race. Competitions like these place more emphasis on the actual place rather than the time your record.
Elsewhere great performances came from Ava O’Connor (3rd Steeplechase), Ladies 4x100m relay team of Sarah Leahy, Ciara Nevill, Lauren Roy and Sarah Lavin (3rd), Nichola Tuthill (3rd Hammer), Charlene Mawdsley (3rd 400m), Shane Bracken (3rd 1500m) and Cian McPhillips (3rd 800m).
Along the journey there are of course some milestones and personal performances. For Cian McPhillips it was a return to competition after an injury he sustained in the European Indoors. McPhillips clocked 1:46.37 to finish 3rd. “I’m happy. It’s been a bit of a rough season, I’m only getting back from injury after the European Indoors,” he said. There were two senior international debuts – both in the 1500m. Shane Bracken finished 3rd in the men’s race with a time of 3:42.92. Bracken was within striking distance of the eventual winner Ruben Verheyden (Belgium) coming down the home straight “I think I made all the right moves …. I thought I could have had the win”, the Swinford AC athlete said. Bracken has recorded some impressive times this season, clocking a personal best of 3:35.96 in Spain on June 5th and following this up with 3:36.92 over a week ago in France. Laura Nicholson finished fourth on her Irish senior international debut, in the ladies 1500m. Nicholson crossed the line to record 4:20.48. Coming off the back of an intense season in the US, where she has recorded a PB of 4:07.17 with consistent runs over the past few months, the Bandon AC athlete’s race was more tactical as opposed to fast. A situation where places rather than times matter more.
There were personal bests from Team captain Niamh Fogarty (Raheny Shamrock AC) in the shot putt with a throw of 14.29 metres and Conor Callinan (Leevale AC) who cleared 4.90 metres in the Pole Vault.
Hats off to Jack Rafferty. The Donore AC athlete became just the second Irish athlete to run a sub 45 second 400m. Rafferty finished 4th in a time of 44:98. “I felt great coming down the home straight, I looked to see what my splits were… oh my god, I am delighted” an out of breath but clearly thrilled Raferty stated in the moments after his race. Ava O’Connor had another consistent performance in the Steeplechase, as she heads to the European u23 championships this month with an eye on the medals. Her words sum up the entire experience of the European Team Championships That’s what the team is all about - doing something for something bigger than yourself.”
Records and Personal Bests at the Junioren-Gala in Mannheim
The senior athletes were not the only ones to be chipping away at the record books. In Mannheim, the thirty member, u20 squad were making waves of their own. Conor Kelly was once again in the record books. Finishing second in the 400m, he recorded another personal best, national u20 record and another European u20 standard. His time of 46.09 is begging a sub 46 this season. Conor then went on to help the 4x400m of Alex Cullen, Sean Doggett and David Davitt to secure a new national u20 relay record of 3:08.31. The team finished first ahead of powerhouses such as Great Britian and Germany. They are now at the top of the European u20 4x400m rankings. Alex Cullen also achieved the European u20 B standard in the 400m. Joining Conor at the Europeans will be Sean Doggett who dipped under the A standard, recording 46.57, finishing just two places behind Kelly.
There were some good performances from athletes like Ethan Dewhirst who finished 3rd and once again dipped below the European u20 qualifying standard with his 52.50 seconds for the 400m hurdles. Precious Apke-Moses finished second in the 200m, with another time well below the wind limit and just three hundredths of a second off the A standard of 23.70. Donal Martin recorded a European B 200m standard of 21.40. The relay’s too were also dipping under qualification standards. The 4x100m quartet of: Elena O’Sullivan, Molly Daly, Destiny Lawal and Precious Akpe-Moses finished second in 44:52. The men’s team were also within the standard as they recorded 40.55 to also finish second behind Great Britian. The team consisted of: Jesse Osas, Ben Sykes, Joe Burke and Cillian Doherty. Our 4x400m relay teams followed suit. The ladies team of Maria Zakharenko, Emer Brennan, Sarah Kiernan and Erin Friel clocking 3:40.31 and the mens team of course having that sensational win and a Euro standard to boost.
Griggs and Morgan race in France
It was a second-place finish for Nick Griggs (CNDR) last Friday at the Meeting National de Carquefou in France. Racing over 5000m Griggs recorded a time of 13:26.16 just half a second behind the winner Valentin Soca. Callum Morgan finished 10th in 13:45.94.
The All-Ireland Juveniles which was held in Tullamore will be in a separated report.