Raftery and McDermott medal in Athlone
DONORE Harriers Jack Raftery and Paul McDermott produced fine performances to win gold and silver respectively in the National Junior/Under 23 Indoor Championships at the Athlone Arena on Saturday.
Raftery found himself locked in battle with his Irish relay team mate Ciaran Carthy in the final of the Junior Men’s 400m, edging out the DSD runner over the closing five meters.
Donore’s Jack Raftery and Paul McDermott
In a keenly contested Under 23 Men’s 200m final, Paul McDermott finished runner-up to Raheny’s Mark Smyth who opened up a gap round the top bend.
McDermott, recorded a new indoor PB of 21.84 in the final, three-hundredths of a second quicker than the mark he set in the Irish Universities Championships last February.
Eva McPartlan also achieved a new PB of 9.66 when finishing sixth in the final of the Under 23 Women’s 60m Hurdles.
Meanwhile, in the second and final round of the Athletics Ireland National Indoor League at the Athlone Arena on Sunday both Donore teams turned in solid performances.
Aoife Lynch and Paul McDermott won their respective 200m races while Louis O’Loughlin scorched a 26-seconds final lap to reel-in Matthew Hayes of Ratoath.
The 4x200m Relay team of Alex Clarkin, Zak Higgins, Jack Raftery and Paul McDermott set a new club record of 1.30.25 to finish more than 50m clear of Ratoath AC.
In the men’s division Zak Higgins finished fourth in the 400m, Alex Clarkin sixth in the High Jump and Sean Chan ninth in the Triple Jump as the team emerged sixth.
The women’s team, which finished eighth, saw Jona Kalemi take sixth in the 400m, Lucy Hurley fifth in the High Jump and Roisin Rynn-Cahill eighth in the Triple Jump while the 4x200m team of Lauren O’Flaherty, Aoife Lynch, Lucy Hurley and Sarah Latiff took third.
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