Tallaght athletes competing very strongly at all levels

By Stephen Leonard

TALLAGHT athletes have been performing very well in track, road and cross country events at local regional and national degree in recent weeks.

At the AAI Indoor Games in Abbotstown, Eoin Doherty clocked 6.99 on his way to second place in the Senior 60m Final.

Joseph Lyons also enjoy-ed a good outing in his first race of the season when finishing fourth overall in the 800m with a time of 1.56.80.

A week earlier at the National Indoor Junior and Under 23 Championships at the AIT International Arena in Athlone, Doherty secured a silver medal in the Under 23 60m final in which he clocked 6.94 seconds.

Fionn Carroll recorded an excellent time of 49.84 to take bronze in the Junior 400m with club colleague Simon Essuman finishing fourth in 50.14.

Carroll, the previous day, finished third in an Open Invitational contest on the same track in which he had won the Open Race a few weeks earlier.

In between, Saoirse Reihill notched up a score of 2,131 points to earn bronze in the National Junior Combined Events Championships in Athlone, while Dean Conway, in his first indoor outing of the season, took seventh place in the 800m.

Conway qualified for the Leinster Schools Cross Country Championships after coming home sixth in the West Leinster Senior Race in the Phoenix Park.

In the Girls Intermediate 2400m event Jennifer McAdams won bronze and also qualified for the Leinster Championships – this performance coming in the wake of her fourth place finish in the DCU Cross Country Invitational Meet 3000m.

Elsewhere, Tallaght fielded a large number of runners in the annual Raheny 5 Mile Road Race in which Laura Mc Donnell was the 10th fastest of the 1,557 women who finished.

Peter Fitzsimons led the men home when he crossed the line in 47th (27.20) with Luke Coleman next in 27.36 followed by David O’Callaghan 28.57.

Garry Clarke’s time of 36.49 was enough to secure him third in the Over 65 category while Eddie Coyle was second in the Over 70 category.

Next up for Tallaght athletes is the Dublin Juvenile Indoor Champion-ships which take place in Abbotstown on Friday/ Saturday and Sunday.