The All-Ireland Master’s Indoor Championships, postponed from the 4th of March, took place this Saturday in the Athlone Institute of Technology Indoor Arena. The club had a record number of competitors competing for the club in these championships with eight women and one male sporting the green and gold singlet. ‘Storm Emma’ was not going to affect our athletes’ determination and this was demonstrated with a total of eleven All-Ireland Medals brought home to the club. This is a terrific achievement for the club and all athletes involved should be very proud of their achievements.
Naomi Treacy was only field competitor of the day and she certainly set the standard for those on the track, with a bronze medal winning performance in the women’s O35’s Shot Putt. Naomi had a splendid throw of 6.92cm which is a season’s best for Naomi.
On the track, we had two competitors in the women’s O35 60 metres, Kate Harrison and Ber Spillane. Both ladies were very competitive and little separated the two. On the line, Kate took the bronze medal with a time of 9:30 and Ber was fourth in a time of 9:42.
The pair lined up again in the women’s O35 200m later on in the afternoon and both ladies were, once again, competitive in this event. Just less than one second separated the pair on the line as Kate finished third in a time of 30.76 and Ber fourth in a time of 31.52. Kate’s double All-Ireland Master’s bronze medals will give her great confidence for next week’s trip to Madrid where the European Master’s Indoor competition is taking place. Kate intends to compete in the 200m and the 4x200m relay. Kate is the club’s first master athlete to represent Ireland on the European stage. We wish her the very best with this endeavour.
Also running 60m, was Liz Power who ran 11.38 to finish in 5th position in the O50 category. Her husband, Ray Power, ran the 60m in the men’s O55 60m in a time of 9:87 and also finished in 5th position. Ray also ran in the men’s O55 200m in a time of 31.71 to finish in 7th position.
Going up in the distances we saw Edel Delaney compete in the 400m in the O35 category. A strong run from Edel saw her take the bronze medal in this category in a time of 75 seconds.
The ladies O45 800m competition saw Bridget Gleeson claim the bronze medal. In this competitive race Bridget fought hard to be within 5 seconds from the winner. She was rewarded for this brave performance with a PB performance of 2:49. Following on from this, Angela Fogarty competed in the O35 3000m. This race was hotly contended with the silver medallist at the All-Ireland Senior championships, Kelly Neely, taking the title. Angela ran a strong race to come home in 5th position in a season’s best performance of 11:42.
The highly successful day was topped off with a great performance by our ladies in the 4x200m. The team of Ber Spillane, Edel Delaney, Angela Fogarty, Kate Harrison, Bridget Gleeson and Sinead Tynan claimed the bronze medal at a battle to the line against Dunboyne AC in a time of 2:09.
Irish University Cross-Country Championships
On Saturday, we had Orla Healy compete in the Irish University Cross-country championships which took place in Santry. Orla
