Becker Takes 400m National Gold

Sophie Becker produced a scintillating performance to grab the 400 metre crown at the Irish Life Health Championships.

Becker came out very strongly down the back straight and onto the bend, holding off Grainne Moynihan in the final metres to win out in 54:06 seconds to Moynihan’s 54:22.

Becker becomes the first female Raheny athlete to take the national one lap crown.

Becker’s gold medal was a weekend of a good medal haul by the Raheny team, resulting in one gold, one silver and two bronze.

Iseult O’Donnell continued her big championship performance when she claimed silver in the 1500 metres clocking 4:23.18 just behind gold medallist Amy O’Donoghue who clocked 4:21.51.

O’Donnell successfully pipping Ellie Hartnett to the silver medal posting 4:23.20 for bronze. This was O’Donnell’s second national medal of the year having taken silver at 800 metres indoors last February.

While there were medals, there was heart break for Mark Smyth who took had to settle for fourth place in the 100 metres posting 10.81 seconds.

The manual timers clocked Dean Adams and Smyth with Adams taking bronze having clocked .802 seconds to Smyth’s .806. For the record the race was won by Stephen Gaffney in 10.63 with Marcus Lawler second in 10.79.
Sean O’Driscoll took seventh place in 10.99 seconds having qualifier as fastest qualifier from heat six in 10.99 seconds. The heat was won by Mark Smyth in 10.86 seconds.

Also competing in the 100 metre heats Michael Farrelly was second in heat five in 11.22 seconds with Sean L’Estrange third in 11.40 seconds.

Meanwhile, Oisin McCorry took sixth place in the 400m Hurdles posting 56.28 seconds, having qualified for the final posting 58.60 seconds to take second place in heat five.

Elsewhere championship veteran Kevin Moriarty took seventh place in 15:01.34 with David Rooney eighth in 15:08.89. Both had qualified for the final with Moriarty fourth in heat one in 15:15.30 and David Rooney fourth in heat three in 15:29.30.

Dylan O’Brien finished ninth in heat four of the 1500m posting 4:19.35.

Meanwhile, Kim O’Hare took third in the U23 long jump with a best 5.23 metres won by Lydia Mills of Ballymena & Antrim with a best of 5.61 metres.

James Hyland claimed bronze in the junior 5,000 metres in 15:59.61, the race was won by Michael Morgan 15:56.22 with Aaron Smith of Cilies second in 15:58.05.

Also in the junior 5,000 metres Shane Ryan posted 16:07.31 and Adam Condon 16:19.27.

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