National Championships

A wet weekend in Santry still produced a number of Crusaders Medallists. Saturday saw Steve Fleming in the long jump defend his title with a 7m23 leap. This was some way off his best 7m51 but enough to win retain gold. In the womens triple jump Aoife Hoey took home silver with a jump of 11m22. Phillippa Conway was 5th in the ladies hammer. Eugene O'Neill finished 3rd in the mens steeplchase. O'Neill who had won the last 5 championships was bitterly disappointed with this result but says he will rise again.

New french man Maxime performed well over 200m, sharpening his speed for his preferred distance of 400m and later took part in the Long Jump to finish a creditable 8th just behind team mate and new signing Thomas Burke. Thomas' brother Kevin competed in the Shot Putt to take 4th place just outside the medals. In the mens 800 there were a number of Crusaders competing. Brendan Carrigan ran a life time best of 2.03. Brendan has been taking seconds off his best time in every race this season and hopes to get under the 2 minute mark next. Simon Kenny also had a great run getting a seasons best time of 2.01. He plans to attack his personal best of 1.58 in the coming weeks. In the 1500 Garrett Coughlan ran a seasons best 3.59. Garrett was delighted to dip under 4 minutes.

Sundays action for Crusaders began with Ruairi O'Briain returning from his trip around the world last year. A former winnner of this event Ru was up against very tough competition. Despite a good clearance at his opening height of 4m50 this was only good enough for 4th. The winner set a new Junior Irish record of 4m90, ANthony McCreevy of Clonliffe Harriers. The 800m final was the event to feature Crusaders. Thamas Chamney and Eoin Cummins had qualified for the final along with training group member Ivan Kinahan. Thomas was defending his title from last year but unfortunately fell short this year to finish 2nd. Eoin was a creditable 8th having produced a big seasons best 1.54.05 in his heat.

Another Lady competing was the well seasoned Mary Coghlan. Mary is known of course for her speed and endurance over 400m but this year through some setbacks decided to take on the challenge of the Pole Vault. Mary cleared a height of 2m to finish in 3rd place taking home a bronze medal.

Later in the day the medal tally was to increase with a gold from Ian McDonald in the 110m hurdles in a time of 14.61. Antoine Burke returned to the track after a trip around South America. He pushed the in form Jonathan Miller right the way to the line but had to settle for silver.

Thew last medals went to two of our up and coming juniors in the 35lbs for height. Phil Conway has tutored many a powerhouse over the years and these two were no different. Jack Culllinane and Francis Keeling finished 1st and 3rd respectively. Two to watch for the future.

Click here to see some of Lindies photos from Saturdays action.