Track Round-Up: Proper, Lawler and Relays shine in Geneva

Kelly Proper

A large group of Irish athletes headed for Geneva where victory for Ferrybank’s Kelly Proper in the 200m was the highlight, with her time of 23.26 secs putting her top of the current Irish rankings. Amy Foster clocked a time of 23.62 secs in the preliminary rounds.

In the men’s 200m heats, Marcus Lawler of St Laurence O’Toole ran a personal best time of 20.74 – the fifth fastest Irish time ever. Lawler also ran 10.47 secs for the 100m and tops the rankings for both distances.

Brian Gregan of Clonliffe finished sixth in the 400m in a respectable time of 45.53 secs;  after a frustrating year, he is approaching the times he ran in 2013. Running a personal best 47.10 secs in the heats was Craig Lynch of Shercock. In the 100m hurdles heats, Catherine McManus of DCH clocked a time of 13.92, putting her just behind Ciara Lavin on the current list.

In the 4 x 100m sprint,  the women’s quartet of Amy Foster, Stef Creanor, Catherine McManus and Phil Healy showed a big improvement when they ran 44.74 secs – a big improvement on the 45.38 secs this identical team ran at the World Relay Championships in Nassau last month. The Irish record of 43.84 secs was set last year, with Foster and Healy part of the squad along with Kelly Proper and Sarah Lavin.

In the men’s 4×100, the Irish quartet of Jonathan Browning, Marcus Lawler, Eanna Madden and Stephen Gaffney ran a time of 40.27 secs – a new Irish U23 record and enough to qualify them for the U23 Championships last this summer.

Elsewhere, Eoin Everard of Kilkenny ran a time of 3:41.57 for the 1500m at Regensburg in Germany. That puts him second fastest this year behind Ciaran O Lionaird of Leevale, currently recovering from surgery. In Uppsala, Sweden, Riocht’s Laura Crowe finished third in the 800m in 2:04.93. Crowe’s time of 2:00.43 from 2013 puts her fourth on the all-time Irish list.

At the IMC meet in Tullamore, John Coghlan of MSB broke through the nine-minute barrier with a time of 8:58.96 in the 3000m steeplechase.  In the 3000m flat, Tom Fitzpatrick of Tallaght won with a time of 8:21.88.

Wind affected many of the times at the Northern Ireland Championships in Belfast, where Ben Reynolds won the 110m hurdles in 13.76 secs, helped by a 3.8 wind. It was still not far off the 13.79 seconds he ran in Ordegem a few weeks ago. Christian Robinson of City of Lisburn won the men’s 100m in 10.71 secs (wind 2.5), with Ballymena’s Dean Adams a close second in 10.78. Robinson also won the 200m in 22.09 secs. DSD’s Sinead Denny won the 400m in 55.97 secs, beating Christine McMahon of Ballymena. In the men’s long jump, Adam McMullen of Crusaders had a best effort of 7.59m for victory.