| National Championships Report |
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| Written by John Eves | |
| Monday, 03 August 2009 | |
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A hat trick of gold medals captured by David Gillick, Linda Byrne and Deirdre Ryan were the highlights of this year's National Championships for DSD.
Competing in blustery conditions on Saturday both David and Linda made light work of the competition to post comfortable victories in the 200m and 5000m respectively. Into a headwind of 3.6 metres per second David's time of 21.43 leaves us all wondering how fast he could have gone with more co-operative weather. That said, Gillo is clearly in the form of his life and now we count down the days to Berlin. Whilst David has probably run out of space to store his national golds, Linda went in search of her first outdoor title on Saturday afternoon. Having gone sub 16 minutes earlier in the season, she was without doubt overwhelming favourite going to the line. From the gun it became clear that Women's Mini Marathon champion Rosemary Ryan and Linda were the class of the field. Biding her time, Linda struck decisively 4 laps from home to take a comfortable six second victory in 16.39. Further addng to the medals tally on Saturday were Ruth Mills and Maire Nic Amhaloibh who took 2nd and 3rd places in the women's 3000m steeplechase. In the early rounds of the mens 800 Mark Conway and Shane Cowzer bowed out in high quality fields, with a similar return for Robert Corbally and Neil Cowzer in the mens 1500 heats. Sunday's events saw some top quality acion on the track and in the field. Pride of place went to Deirdre Ryan in the women's high jump where a win with a jump of 1.83m, whilst short of her season's best, should be more than enough to gain selection for the world championships in Berlin. In contrast to some of the more salubrious surroundings Deirdre has been competing in this summer, the lonely far end of Santry on a grey Sunday must make it difficult to get the heart racing but nonetheless another National title is in the books. Roll on Berlin. Our final medal of the championships came in the women's 400m where Claire Bergin came away from Santry with a much deserved silver to cap what has been a fantastic summer for her. Entering the homestraight it looked like Claire had a serious fight on her hands to grab a medal, however she held her form and showed magnificent strength in the closing 50 metres to power home. Another winter of training and who knows what could be achieved next year! Maybe we should all consider bobsleigh training! Four hundredths of a second separated Nick Hogan from a bronze medal in the mens 400m final. A cruelly small margin but nonetheless a very good performance. Robert Corbally obviously didn't run hard enough in the heats of the 1500 as he showed up for the 5000m final. Making steady progress throughout the whole race he finished 14th in a new personal best of 15.11. Sinead Denny was possibly our youngest competitor at the Nationals and in making the final of the women's 800 she gained some valuable racing experience. With almost as many of our athletes spectating as competing, it shows the quality present in the club at the moment that we can still obtain so many medals. A lot done, more to do. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 03 August 2009 ) |