Duleek youngsters make bit of history for fledgling club
HISTORY was made last weekend for juvenile athletics within Duleek & District AC as the club brought its first competitors to and its first medal from the Leinster Indoor Championships.
The competition took place on the indoor campus in AIT, Athlone, and attracted the best young athletes from the province to do battle across a variety of track and field disciplines.
Duleek & District were represented by Aoife Rohan and Tadhg Dixon at Under-12 and Under-13 level respectively, and first up in a hectic schedule of events was the 600m which involved three fast and furious laps of the boards.
The heats were particularly hard-fought and Aoife ran an excellent heat, achieving a new personal best of 2:02 over the distance. Unfortunately, this was just outside the qualification time required for the final.
Tadhg was next up and equally left it all out on the track as he also hit a new personal best of 2:00 in the Boys Under-13 heats, again just missing out on the final. However, both athletes can be very proud of their PBs in their first competition indoors.
Next up for Aoife was the Girls Under-12 60m sprint and once again she agonisingly missed out on the final after finishing third in a very competitive heat.
However, the following day she was not to be denied in the high jump. Despite being relatively new to the discipline she went in to the competition in excellent form and successfully cleared the bar at 1.20m and in doing so she made history by capturing the club’s first-ever Leinster indoor medal.
Attention shifted from the boards of AIT to the deciduous plantation that is Donadea Forest Park for the annual National 50k Championships.
Duleek & District were represented by Ray Cassin - competing in this event for the second year running - and Eric Devine who was new to the distance. What lay in front of the competitors were 10 gruelling laps of the 5k circuit, with the added handicap of some uneven surfaces and the five-hour cut-off time.
But tough winter training schedule left both Ray and Eric well prepared and they overcame both handicaps to put in sparkling runs. Ray bettered last year’s performance and made light of the freezing conditions to finish in 4hr 56min and Eric made an impressive debut over the distance, clocking 4hr 50.
Debuts were the theme in Termonfeckin as four of the club’s athletes took on the annual Erin’s Run 5k in aid of Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
The ever-popular event continues to attract a large field and the freezing temperatures did not deter the large field of 400.
There was a club debut for Robert Kierans as he completed his first race in the green of Duleek, clocking an impressive time of 20:44. There were season debuts from Orla Hillman, Tara Dillon and Daire McDevitt who all opened their account for 2017 in fine style. Tara put in a great performance and set the bar high with a time of 28:17. Daire ran strongly to finish in 31:25, with Orla clocking 27:56.
Following on from the success at the Leinster Indoor Championships, a number of the club’s Juvenile athletes were put through their paces as the Meath Track and Field League for 2017 kicked off in Cushinstown.
The league, which attracts athletes from all over the country, is a club event in which adult and children compete together with the aim of securing league points for the club.
Weather-wise, the opening night was miserable, but Cushinstown’s indoor arena helped to keep the conditions at bay.
Duleek had a large representation and Alice Moroney and Soracha Bell and Rachel Woods all did well in the long jump and carried this good form into the 60m sprint. Jules Tankersley, Molly O’Connell, Harry Meehan, Jack Maxwell and Evan Hoey also put in some great performances in both disciplines.
In the Under-12 category Aoife Rohan and Fionn Brereton fought their way through heats to qualify for the final where they both placed in the 60m event.