The blue riband of senior indoor athletics, the National Championships, took place in the Indoor Arena in Abbotstown, Dublin last weekend with a host of top Irish athletes taking part, many hoping to secure entry to the World Indoors in Belgrade on 18-20th March.
Amongst the entrants was our own Katie Bergin who competed in the 200mts on Saturday and relished the chance to compete with many of our international stars. Picked to compete in Heat one of four she ran a terrific race to clinch second place in a new personal best time of 25.29sec. What a place to produce your best performance of the season. With the six fastest times qualifying for the final it was an anxious wait for the other three heats to finish before the final qualifiers were announced and what a reward for Katie as she secured the sixth and final spot alongside another great Tipperary athlete Sharlene Mawdsley of Newport. Lining up a couple of hours later she put in a huge effort in the final to finish in sixth place in another great time of 25.52sec. Congratulations to Katie on two brilliant performances. The club also offers its congratulations to Sharlene Mawdsley of Newport who won the 200mts title. To have two Tipperary athletes in the final was a great achievement.
Day 2 of the championships took place on Sunday, and once again the club had some terrific performances from individual athlete Katie Bergin and the club relay team of Leona Maher, Lucy Doyle, Aisling Dwyer, and Katie Bergin. Fine margins and hundreds of a second separate athletes in the sprints and this came to fruition in the Women’s 60mts where Katie was drawn to compete in Heat 2 and following yesterday’s exertions ran a great race to clinch sixth place in a time of 7.94 secs which was also the same time as the fifth-place athlete. The top ten qualified for the final with just thirteen hundred of a second separating Katie from that final and what a race that turned out to be as Molly Scott, SLOT set a new national record of 7.29. To compete in such an event and be as competitive as Katie was shows her quality and her willingness to train hard is surely bearing fruit.
With two U/23’s and two U/19’s making up the club relay team, these four young athletes relished the chance to compete amongst the top sprinters from four other clubs in the final of the senior 4 x 200mts. They defied their youth with plenty of aggressive running. Leona sprang from the blocks, handed over to Katie who passed to Lucy with Aisling on the final leg to cross the line in a combined time of 1.50.84 which is a stunning new club record, knocking a whopping 1.72 secs from the previous record set in 2020. What a brilliant return from the girls.
Congratulations on a marvellous achievement and well done also to their coach Martin Flynn who had the girls in top shape for the Championships. Thanks also to the parental support which the girls I am sure totally appreciate.
