Brian Fay and Niamh Fogarty grabbed national championship gold on a great day for Raheny Shamrock.
Niamh Fogarty landed discus gold with a convincing victory throwing 49.77 metres, more than two metres clear of Anna Gavigan of LSA.
Fogarty’s 2022 was decimated by a back injury. However, Fogarty has come back into great form, throwing over 49 metres twice on Sunday.
Fogarty’s first attempt registered 49.60 metres, her second was the winning 49.77. A very comfortable gold medal.
Niamh Fogarty (Raheny Shamrock A.C.) secures her 5th National Senior Title in the Women’s Discus with a best of 49.77m 👏
🥈Anna Gavigan (WLSA) 47.08
🥉Ciara Sheehy (Emerald A.C.) 42.15@Sportsfile 📸#123Nationals #IrishAthletics @Ask123ie pic.twitter.com/vQDxgM6kKS— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) July 30, 2023
Later in the evening Brian Fay landed his second national senior title, totally dominating the 5000 metres to win in 13:39.40.
Fay was relaxed throughout, first letting Donore’s John Travers take the running, before sitting in the slip stream behind Mullingar’s Cormac Dalton.
Fay only putting his foot on the gas in the final 400 metres to come home for gold. Dalton clocked 13:44.43 for second with Efrem Gidney of Clonliffe taking bronze in 13:55.10.
What a performance from Brian Fay (Raheny Shamrock AC) to win his first ever 5000m National Senior Title in style (13:39.21)🔥
A gutsy run from Cormac Dalton (Mullingar Harriers) to take the silver (13:44.43) and it’s bronze Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe Harriers) 13:45.75… pic.twitter.com/XenCy2OsJL
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) July 30, 2023
Meanwhile, Stephen Fay took ninth place in 14:37.24. In the ridiculous B final, Dylan O’Brien was sixth in 15:44.77 and Robert Kelly 10th in 15.54.44. Vengatramanakarthikeyan Meiazhagan posted 16:48.25 in the C race.
Sophie Becker climbed the podium for 400m silver, posting 53.10 seconds in a season which has been distributed by injuries. Newport’s Sharlene Mawdsley took gold in 51.94. Becker was well clear of Roisin Harrison in bronze medal position posting 53.93.
Meanwhile, Cillian Kirwan was just off the medals in the 800m final taking fourth place in 1:48.60. A very competitive race saw Kirwan, who struggled with injury through the winter finish strong for fourth.
Oisin McCorry was also just off the medals in the 400m hurdles posting 55.43 seconds, taking fourth place. This race was won for the 11th year in-a-row by Tom Barr.
Elsewhere, Colm Boruke finished sixth in the long jump with a best of 7.05 metres.
While, Lucy Barrett finished 12th in the 1500m final in 4:45.68. This was the race of the championship being won out by Sarah Healy.
In the 100 metres, Michael Farrelly fifth place in semi-final two posting 11.09 seconds, unfortunately not enough to make the final. Samuel Ayeni was eighth in the same race in 11.21 seconds.
Ayeni progressed to the semi-finals having finished third in heat one in 11.01 seconds. Farrelly had finished third in heat five in 11.24 seconds.
