The atmosphere was electric in Morton Stadium as the Morton Games tagline ‘Santry Night Fever’ most definitely lived up to its name on Saturday night. Records fell and there was a plethora of memorable races that will be talked about by those in attendance for many years to come.
Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC) became the first Irish winner of the iconic Morton Mile race in eighteen years edging out Cathal Doyle (Clonliffe Harriers AC) in spectacular fashion to claim victory. In a race which saw six men run under four minutes, five of whom were Irish, Coscoran timed his dive to perfection to win in a time of 3.57.09, just two hundredths of a second ahead of the athlete from the home club. Darragh McElhinney (UCD AC), Shane Bracken (Swinford AC), Callum Davies (Australia) and Nick Griggs (Mid Ulster AC) also broke four minutes, leaving the crowd enthralled by what they witnessed.
British steeplechase athlete Lizzie Bird was the winner of the Women’s Mile. Bird who has ran a time of 9.19.46 in the 3000m Steeplechase this year showed her strength to pass home favourite Sarah Healy (UCD AC) in the last 150m. Bird’s winning time was 4.30.67. National 1500m champion Carla Sweeney (Rathfarnham WSAF AC) was eighth.
Speaking to Irish Runner after the race Sarah Healy said she was “happy overall” with her performance.
“It was really fun to race at home, it would’ve been even better to win, but the crowd were great. I could feel them cheering me on and I needed that today because I was out there at the front on my own.”
Healy had raced in Stockholm on Thursday before travelling back to Dublin but felt “physically fine” before racing.
“Physically I felt OK, yesterday (Friday) I did not, we had an early flight home, so I missed a night of sleep. I was a bit tired, and I get a bit emotional when I’m tired, but I slept for about fourteen hours last night, so I was OK today.”
Healy is now focusing on the upcoming World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and the European Championships in Munich.
“I was really disappointed with my Olympics last summer, so I just want to run the way I’m capable of running. My performances this season have been a bit inconsistent, I’ve had some really good days and some not so good ones, so I want to make sure Eugene is a good one. Obviously, I’d love to make a semi-final there that would be amazing, but I just want to perform to the best of my ability. I’m really excited for Europeans, the only senior championships I’ve been to are the World Indoors and Olympics which are both so big so being young it will be a nice experience to go to Europeans, slightly less intimidating,” Healy said.
Earlier in the evening in the pre-programme races Ava O’Connor (Tullamore Harriers AC) and Cathal O’Reilly (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) were the winners of the Junior Mile races. O’Connor who is now based at Adams State University ran a time of 4.58.01, while O’Reilly ran 4.20.67.
