National senior relay title for Tallaght boys
Tallaght athletes combined to win the 4x100m relay title at the National Senior Athletics Championships in Morton Stadium, Santry last weekend.
Competing against the top relay teams in the Country the well-drilled Tallaght team were quietly confident of reaching the podium when stepping onto the track for their final on Saturday last.
The Tallaght AC team
Timmy Bada exited the blocks swiftly to carry the baton over the first 100m before making a smooth transfer to Eoin Doherty who, as always, ran a very strong second leg before passing the baton to Simon Essuman who ran a blinder over the third quarter before making the final exchange with Joseph Ojewumi who repelled all challengers to take the title ahead of Clonliffe Harriers and Emerald AC with a new club record time of 41.83, beating the old club record time of 42.28 which was set in 2015.
The same four athletes competed at some point as a member of a Tallaght relay team that won National U20 titles between 2013 and 2017, but Saturday last was an historic achievement as it is the first-ever National Senior Sprint Gold medal for the club.
The following day Joseph Ojewumi qualified through the heats of the 100m and just missed out on the podium when finishing 4th with a time of 10.84 while Michael Ogunsiakan finished 9th in the “B” Final in 11.69 and Ronan Carroll bowed out in the heats when 8th in 12.25. Unfortunately, Eoin Doherty pulled up at the half way point in his 100m heat with cramp.
Tomas Fitzpatrick was another in good form in the 10,000m where he was well in contention for a medal until the final few laps of the arduous 25 lap journey before finishing a good 5th in 30.21.26 with Luke Coleman finishing behind him in 35.43.82 while a less than fully fit Joseph Lyons bowed out in 9th in his 800m on Saturday.
