After months of lockdown and limited competition suddenly the track and field athletics has gathered real momentum.
Unheralded and without much fanfare the national championships are confronting us, this weekend it’s the turn of our Juniors and Under 23’s to go grab the spotlight.
18 of the Club’s most promising Athletes take centre stage in Santry during Saturday and Sunday’s two event days. No spectators allowed yet; but the fortunes of Raheny’s athletes can be followed on live streaming.
Last year’s junior hammer Champion, Sean Maher is back to defend the title he won so convincingly in 2020 with a throw of 55.39 metres. In seeking his second title Sean is looking to place his name in the history books alongside former dual winners, Willie Doyle (1987 and 1988) and Paddy McGrath (1989 and 1990).
Two athletes from the Club’s sprinting stable take their chances. Michael Farrelly and Aedan L’Estrange both go over 200m on Saturday, seeking to emulate the achievement of club men’s track & field captain Michael Hynes who memorably won the title in 2007.
Farrelly goes again the following day in the 100m and is joined by Sean L’Estrange. Amazingly this year marks the 60th anniversary of our President PJ Noonan’s historic achievement of 1961 when he became the first ever Raheny athlete to win a National Junior track title.
Paddy’s famous win of that day (100 yards back then) took 45 years to be emulated; Michael Hynes struck gold in 2006.
At junior middle distance three of the club’s emerging talents take their chances over 800m. Luke Murphy, Shane Spring and Chris Hamill seek to take their learning curve to a new level by pitting their talents against the Nation’s best.
History tells them that the club have been waiting a long time to add to the Titles won by Mick Heery (1965) and Brian Peppard (1986).
Murphy and Spring go again on the following day in the 1,500m and will be joined here by Adam Condon and Conall Rogers.
Raheny has a proud tradition in this event, having provided five different winners over the years Tom Phillips (1962) and Mick Heery (1966) both won when it was competed for over The mile distance and this millennium saw a return to winning ways over 1500m via Richard Corcoran (2003), Daire Bermingham (2006) and Darragh Flynn (2009).
Our sole entrant over 5,000m is the ever improving Dara MacRiocaird, seeking to follow in the footsteps of Richard Yeates (2005), Darragh Flynn (2007) and Kevin Dooney (2012).
Sadly two of our Gold medallists from last year Tara Meier (100m Hurdles) and James Hyland (3,000m steeplechase), though both are still eligible to compete, both are unable due to injury.
At Under-23 level particular attention will be paid to Niamh Fogarty’s efforts to win an unprecedented three in a row titles at this age group.
Last week’s PB equalling throw of 53.08 metres in Geneva suggests that Niamh is about to cut new ground and from a Raheny perspective she looks very much the weekends banker.
Triple jumper Kim O’Hare; a consistent performer in championship events will be hell bent on ending the club’s drought in this particular discipline and has to be viewed as having a real chance.
Conall O’Toole does not have to look far for inspiration over 200m; his training partner Mark Smyth (now overage) is the reigning Champion. Prior to Mark’s victory last year John Doran had annexed the 200m title back in 1987.
The much improved Susie O’Flynn, who ran 2:13.89 recently in Belfast takes her chances over 800m.
Although Iseult O’Donnell has a skinful of 800m titles in her treasure chest through all the age categories, amazingly an Under23 one is not among them and the yawning gap since the club last had an athlete in the winners enclosure goes back to Ann Brady’s memorable 1986 victory.
At 400m Hurdles, Oisin McCorry, a man showing good early season form will no doubt be aware that the club has history in this event too. The great Ciaran McDunphy, long time national record holder over the 400m Hurdles won this event back in 1984 and Sean Gill picked up the 2015 version of the title.
Ailish Murtagh when she toes the line in the 5,000m need look no further than her own parish and former school of Holy Faith Clontarf if she requires inspiration.
There she will find the lurking shadow of Maria O’Sullivan, winner in both 2013 and 2014. In fairness too, it should be noted that for a long time this event was competed for over 3,000m rather than 5,000m and in 1986 and 1987 Pauline Durran was a dual winner, prior to her heading off on athletic scholarship to Arkansas University.
Shane Ryan and Daniel Stone in the Men’s U23 5,000m event are the Clubs final entrants. Stone looked sharp when clocking 8:27 over 3,000m in last weekend’s AAI Games and looks primed to be in the shake-up.
The Club has a particularly good record of winners here. Mark Kenneally (2003), Mick Clohisey (2006 and 2008), Simon Ryan (2009 and 2010) and Eoin Strutt as recently as 2017 have all known success here.
18 Raheny Shamrocks going to war. We wish them well.
