A Trio For Rio
It was a night to remember for Irish women’s athletics with the trio of Kerry O’Flaherty, Michelle Finn and Sara Treacy all securing qualification standards in the 3,000m steeplechase for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games at the Letterkenny International Track & Field Meeting. O’Flaherty from Newcastle AC and Finn from Leevale AC, also secured qualification standards for the World Athletics Championships in Beijing next month with times of 9:42.61 and 9:43.34 respectively. Dunboyne AC’s Sara Treacy came agonisingly close to the World standard with 9:44.14- just 0.14 outside the standard. The race was won by Jamie Cheever of USA in an Irish all- comers record and seasons best time of 9:40.99, with Lennie Waite of Scotland in 5th place also coming close to the Olympic standard with a personal best of 9:45.94. The race also produced the 5 fastest times ever run on Irish soil in the steeplechase, creating an amazing atmosphere helped on by the roaring Letterkenny crowd.
It was non-stop action all evening at the Danny McDaid Athletics Track, with some fine performances across a range of events. American athlete, Jon Peterson won the feature event- the Letterkenny AC Sub 4 Minute Mile Challenge in 4:00.41- agonisingly close to producing his first ever sub 4 minute mile. The popular American has run 4:00 two years in a row in Letterkenny, so he will no doubt return and hope that it will be third time lucky for him next year. Julian Oakley of New Zealand and Clemens Bleistein of Germany were 2nd and 3rd respectively in 4:01.45, and 4:01.65. Letterkenny man Danny Mooney was best of the Irish in 4:08.89. The men’s 800m produced a 1:49.72 winning time bySam Ellison of USA. Junior athlete Garry Campbell of Dunleer AC was 3rd in 1:54.46. In the men’s 3000m, it was another victory for America as Carl Stones moved into the lead at an early stage of the race, and won convincingly in 8:27.28. City of Derry Spartans, JP Williamson ,led the Irish charge in 2nd place with 8:35.16 and Glaslough Harrier Conor Duffy was 3rd in 8:38.82.
Lebakeng Sesele of South Africa took the men’s 100m in a swift 10.53 seconds, ahead of Tatenda Tsumba of Zimbabwe in 10.75 with Philip Redrick of USA third in 10.99. Tsumba took the win in the Mens 200m in 21.28, narrowly pipping Sesele who ran 21.29 with Redrick 3rd in 22.68. Another race which needed a photo finish was the men’s 400m with four athletes within 0.24 seconds of each other. Armand Van Zyl of South Africa took the win in 49.53seconds, ahead of Lagan Valley’s Ben Maze in 49.54, with Evan McGuire of Galway City Harriers and Richard Beardsall of England given the exact same time of 49.77 in 3rd and 4th place respectively. In the women’s 400m, Sinead Denny of Dundrum South Dublin AC took the honours in 55.45 seconds- ahead of Donegal girl Kate McGowan of Tirchonaill AC in 57.79, with 800m specialist Rachel Gibson 3rd in 59.50. The women’s 200m also produced a great battle up the home straight with Kilkenny City Harrier’s Louise Holmes winning in 25.50 seconds, followed by Italy’s Alessandra Feudatari of Corran AC in 25.81, and Mullingar Harrier’s Vicky Harris in 25.56.
One of the performances of the night also came in the men’s Javelin where Joe Dunderdale of England smashed the meeting record with an impressive throw of 67.16m. Sean McBride of Strabane Track Club improved on his personal best with a throw of 62.23m for 2nd place with North Down AC’s Niall McGrattan 3rd in 48.60m. In other field event action, the Womens Long Jump was won by Vivian Fleischer of Celbridge AC in 5.54m with City of Lisburn’s Karyn Dumigan 2nd in 5.03m and Laura Frey of Lagan Valley 3rd in 4.57m.
The crowd gathered around the Danny McDaid Track in Letterkenny on Friday night will remember this one for a long time, as never before have three Irish women qualified for an Olympic Games at the same race meeting. And for this to happen in Ireland made it even more special for O’Flaherty, Finn and Treacy. The race has brought women’s steeplechasing to a whole new level in Irish athletics, and will put the Letterkenny International Athletics Meeting to the fore of the European athletics calendar in only its third year of running.
Full Results available on www.lac.ie