Lots of rain on a non-summer day couldn’t stop the Raheny Shamrock onslaught as three gold, one silver and one bronze medal was captured on day one of the National senior track and field championships.
Mark Smyth, Brian Fay and Eric Favors all captured gold while Daphni Doulaptsi Teeuwen took silver and Arnika Nelson took bronze in Santry.
Mark Smyth landed the men’s 200m title, breaking the 21-second mark on twice in one day!
Smyth posted 20.70 seconds in the final as he broke the tape well clear of Robert McDonnell (Galway City Harriers) second in 21.17 and Darragh Murphy (U.C.D) in 21.29.
While the final track final of the day, the 5,000 metres was the race the race of the day.
Brian Fay, Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe Harriers) and Cormac Dalton (Mullingar Harriers) broke away from the field with 1,000m remaining.
It came down to the final lap, where Fay’s kick blasted him home to the national title in 13:43.61 with Gidey second in 13:52.30.
Fay was awarded with the Tom O’Riordan Memorial Cup, in honour of the late Donore Harriers and Ireland star and Irish independent athletics correspondent.
In the field, Eric Favors retained his shot put title with a best throw of 18.85m. Favors had some two metres to spare on second placed James Kelly (Finn Valley) who took silver with a best of 16.67 metres.
Daphni Doulaptsi Teeuwen took an excellent silver medal in the triple jump with a best of 12.60 metres. Saragh Buggy of St. Abbans took gold with a best of 12.72 metres.
The day started on the track with a first for Raheny Shamrock as Arnika Nelson landed bronze in the 5,000m walk. West Waterford international Kate Veale took gold in 21:57.42.
While Mullingar Harriers Aisling Lane pipped Nelson to silver posting 24:30.51 with Nelson taking bronze 24:39.82. A first national senior race walk medal for a Raheny athlete.
There was heart breaking fourth place finishes for Tara Meier in the 100m hurdles. Meir posted 14.04 seconds just .4 seconds off bronze.
While Niamh Fogarty took four in the shot put. Fogarty’s best of 13.68 metres was just 67cm off bronze. Fogarty will be back in her preferred shot put event on Sunday.
Back on the track, there was good news in the day’s heats.
Iseult O’Donnell took third place in her 800m heat in 2:10.16 to progress to Sunday’s final. Whereas, Cillian Kirwan booked a place in the men’s 800m final winning his heat in 1:52.76.
However, Conall Rogers just missed out on a place in the final posting 1:53.60 for third place in the same heat. While, Andrew Hyland posted 1:56.29 in heat three.
Sophie Becker won her 400m heat in 53.56 seconds to progress to Sunday’s final.
Brandon Arrey booked a place in the men’s 400m final in 47.66 seconds taking second place in his heat. Tinaye Craig Mukanya posted 50.93 in the same heat.
In the 5,000m C race Kevin Byrne posted 15:40.96 for seventh place.
