Marathon runner Linda Byrne, whose place on the Irish team for London 2012 was confirmed earlier this week, will run the 5000m for her club Dundrum South Dublin at this weekend’s European Track and Field Championships in St Antonio, Portugal.
Also competing is Deirdre Ryan, another London 2012 qualifier who improved her own Irish high jump record to 1.95m last summer.
DSD, winner of the Irish clubs title last year, will take on strong teams from Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey as well as the host nation.
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| Deirdre Ryan warms up |
Each team has their strengths, with the Enke Spor Kabaul club from Turkey particularly strong in the sprints for instance. Ivet Laloa has run 10.77 for 100m and 22.52 for 200m and will add beef to the relay squads. Kabaul can also call on Pinar Sake who has a 51.43 time for the 400m.
Favourite for the 400m is Kseniya Ydonina who has a best time of 50.65 and competes with a formidable squad from Luch Moscow. Also confirmed for Luch Moscow is Ekaterina Poistogova, a two-minute 800m runner. Representing DSD is this event is Loughborough-based Claire Tarplee who ran a person best 2:05.61 recently.
In all the events, the Dublin team is determined to come out fighting – both Aoife McNeill and Claire Bergin are part of the Irish squad training for the relays at the London Olympics and are in the best shape of their lives.
Bergin, also a bobsledder who competed in the last Winter Olympics, ran a personal best 53.66 for 400m at Loughborough last weekend. Recent times of 11.99 for 100m and 24.75 for 200m show that MacNeill’s hard training over the past year has paid off.
In the high jump, Deirdre Ryan should pick up valuable points, but faces Rafalle Laera of Italian team CS Esercito, who like Ryan has jumped 1.95m. Ryan – the current star of an Electric Ireland advertising campaign on a bus stop near you – opened her season last week with a jump of 1.80m.
Also competing for DSD are Aoife Culhane 800m, Hazel Murphy 3000m, Fiona Clinton steeplechase, all-rounder Grainne Moggan high hurdles and long jump, Emma Peters 400m hurdles, Claire McGlynn shot and discus, Anita Fitzgibbon javelin, Sinead Denny and Jade Leahy relays and team manager Lucy Moore in the hammer.
* Clonliffe Harriers fields a young team in their Group B match in Dubnica, Slovakia. Sprinter Keith Pike doubles in the 100m and 200m, while Leinster senior schools champion Andrew Heaney goes in the high jump.
Tomas Rauktys competes is his specialst shot putt with a recent PB of 17m to his credit and also goes in the discus. John Fagan doubles up in the 400m flat and hurdles and goes in the 4x400m relay. Over the longer distances, Gary O’Hanlon runs the 1500m, Dave Fitzmaurice the 3000m and Brian McMahon the 5000m.
Tomas Rauktys competes is his specialst shot putt with a recent PB of 17m to his credit and also goes in the discus. John Fagan doubles up in the 400m flat and hurdles and goes in the 4x400m relay. Over the longer distances, Gary O’Hanlon runs the 1500m, Dave Fitzmaurice the 3000m and Brian McMahon the 5000m.
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So the marathon team for London 2012 has been picked. The selectors had a tough decision but no-one is too surprised at their decision. It was always clear that the three women’s places must go to the three fastest women.
It leaves Maria McCambridge, who made the Irish team for Atlanta 1996 out in the cold – and perhaps not even qualified for the 10,000m at the European Championships next month. McCambridge ran the official qualifying time of 33 mins 22 secs at last week’s Dublin Graded Meet in Irishtown, but that may not be enough since Athletics Ireland is rumoured to have set a higher standard.
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While Annadale’s Paddy Hamilton won an absorbing 10,000m race at the Dublin Graded Meet in Irishtown, the star of the show was Kevin Dooney of Raheny. Dooney has set his sights on Frank Greally’s 42-year Irish junior record of 30 mins 17 secs and fell only six seconds shy of the mark, when he finished in 30:23.63. Other impressive winners on the night included John Travers of Donore in the 1500m, DSD’s Emmett Jennings in the steeplechase and multi-eventer Sarah McCarthy in the shot.
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Paul Tierney, holder of the record for the Wicklow Way, has completed the Bob Graham Round in England’s Lake District. Tierney took 17 hours 59 minutes to complete this classic 74-mile round of 42 peaks and 28,500ft of climb. He started from Moot Hall in Keswick at 2am and finished around 8pm. “Hardest event I’ve ever taken part in, but glad to have seen the real Lake District from a height!”, he said afterwards.
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Robin Bryson, an over 40 world champion ten years ago, finished sixth in the over 50 class at the World Master’s Mountain Running Championships in Buhlertal, near Stuttgart in Germany. A record 1,013 men and women from 31 countries took part in the championships, held on a gruelling 9.4km uphill course.
Matthias Hecktor of Germany led home the race in 42 minutes 9 seconds; over four minutes behind and best of the Irish was Neil Carty of North Belfast Harriers. Not far behind was Bryson.
Fastest of the Irish women was Karen O’Hanlon of Dunboyne, who was eighth W40 and, with Rathfarnham pair Vanessa Sallier and Zoe Melling and Deirdre Fitzsimons of Dunboyne, took team bronze. Helen White of Sportsworld finished sixth W45 and with Anne Sandford of Newcastle 20th and Bilboa’s Patricia Blackburn 35th took team silver.
Former champion Mags Greenan of Clonliffe finished sixth W50.
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In a bracing show of support for club-based running, almost everyone who lined out for the Tom Byrne 5km organised by Lucan Harriers was representing a club. Joe Warne of Doheny AC came home first in 14 mins 48 secs, with Clonliffe’s Brian McMahon second. DSD’s Niamh Devlin was a clear winner of the women’s race followed by her clubmate Sarah Mulligan.
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Gerry Kelly presenter of LMFM Late Lunch has launched this year’s will Launch the Team Carrie 2012 challenge – a squad of runners aiming to complete the Dublin Marathon next October. Among those signing up is Seamus Brett who vowed in 2010 that he would never, ever do a marathon again after crossing the Dublin finish line. This year’s charity is the Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre in Drogheda.
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