Double-double delight for Reid
Sprinting sensation delivers
IRELAND’S TOP athletes came together last weekend for the national Senior track and field championships in Santry.
Making the podium at Senior level is always a big ask, yet we had a small number of athletes who not only managed to do that, but took the top prize.
Leon Reid of Menapians won the 200m on Saturday following a tough tussle with Carlow’s Marcus Lawlor.
Reid’s winning time of 20.76 seconds was considerably slower than the Irish record of 20.27 he ran at the start of July when finishing third at the British championships.
On Sunday, Leon followed up with a comfortable victory in the 100m (10.42s). Needless to say the athlete was delighted to get the double-double as he won the national indoors 60m and 200m earlier in the year.
Reid received welcome news last week when the I.A.A.F. stated that, having last year put a freeze on inter-country transfers, it was introducing new rules allowing transfers to take place again.
For the past two years the 23-year-old has been waiting for the athletics ruling body to allow his transfer from Britain to Ireland to go through.
This means that, all going well, Menapians and Wexford will have an athlete competing at the European championships in Berlin.
There were three further golds for Wexford.
Enniscorthy’s Michael Bowler went one place better than he managed last year in winning the pole vault with 4.50m. Bowler has been having a great year with a win at the British University championships, a silver medal in the U.K. decathlon championships, with a P.B. of 7,263 points, and bronze in the British Universities pole vault (P.B. of 4.75m).
He has completed his studies at Birmingham University and is now back in Ireland. While Michael hopes to build on what has been a brilliant year, he says that he aims to put his expertise to good use ‘in developing the next generation of combined events hopefuls’.
Marco Pons of D.M.P. took the discus title with a throw of 53.67m. This was in excess of two metres better than he threw a year previously when placing second.
While the small matter of the Leaving Cert. dominated Ryan Carthy-Walsh’s early season, the young Adamstown athlete was able to give the Senior high jump his full attention.
He took the gold, on countback, notwithstanding the fact that his 2.00m clearance was well down on his 2.11m winning jump of last year. At the end of the day he retained his title and that is what matters.
Emma Owens (St. Paul’s) won a bronze medal in the discus with a best effort of 37.95m. In the hammer she was in sixth place when, putting everything into her final throw, she made contact with the edge of the circle and injured her foot.
The injury was serious enough for her to be taken to hospital where an x-ray showed she had broken a bone.
Joseph Mooney followed up on his recent win in the Under-23 5k walk with a fourth place finish in the Senior 10k walk.
Peter O’Shea (D.M.P.), another Under-23 gold medalist, threw 53.24m to place fifth in the javelin.
Having recently won Under-19 gold and bronze in discus (2kg) and shot putt respectively, as well as picking up bronze medals in both events at the national Juniors, Pádraig Hore of Taghmon made the giant step up to Senior competition.
His best throw in the discus competition was in excess of 43m but, as he hit the sideline line, it was adjudged a sector foul.
He finished up in ninth place with 34.38m. While this was quite a bit down on the 43.56m he threw in the Under-19 event (1.75kg), he can be very happy with his season.
Aaron Tierney-Smith (Menapians) placed seventh in the 110m hurdles. Ciara Wilson (D.M.P.) ran a P.B. of 17.48.26 to place ninth in the 5,000m.
Four Wexford athletes have been selected on the Irish team competing at the International Celtic Games in Grangemouth, Scotland, on Saturday.
Jack Forde (St. Killian’s) competes in the Under-16 high jump; Aisling Kelly (Taghmon) competes in two events, the Under-16 100m and 4 x 100m mixed relay; Lystus Ebosele (D.M.P.) doubles up for the Under-18 shot putt and discus; Róisín O’Reilly (Menapians) ends her first season as a steeplechaser with the Under-18 1,500m steeplechase. Selection was based on each athlete’s performance at the recent national track and field championships.
The Wexford Intermediate road race championships take place in Ballymurn (not Enniscorthy!) on Friday at 7.30 p.m. The event is hosted by Slaney Olympic.
The proposed date for the county throws championships (discus and hammer) is Friday, August 31, at D.M.P’s grounds at Sinnottstown Lane, Wexford.