Donore Harriers

19.05.08

National Track and Field Leagues Round 1 and Leinster Schools

The young men of Donore flew the black and white banner proudly with a great effort in the National T & F league in Antrim Forum this weekend. A team of 9 athletes covered nearly an entire Track and field programme with no one saying no to any event they were asked to compete in, putting themselves on the start line or into the throwing ring again and again amassing a creditable 81 points. Our athletes were also competing in the Leinster schools in Santry the day before and won medals and had some strong individual performances.

Round 1 of the Leagues in Antrim with probably the toughest draw was always going to be a big ask. As ever it was a challenge to put the team together and as ever athletes were asked not only to run their own events but also really partake as a team and cover throws and jumps. Darren Kelly set the tone by saying perhaps naively “captain I’ll do whatever” and found himself straight up in the long jump. Meanwhile Lee Van Haeften was making a debut as a hammer thrower. Next up was the walks and it was captain’s prerogative to try and lead by example. Despite being asked worryingly by fellow team mates as to my general state of health I managed to complete the 7 and a half laps in a way that was described as “painfully slowly”.  Darren was back on again in the 400hurdles and got a good tactical 3rd and we were on our way.

Other great senior debuts included:
Philip Cavanagh, discus and shot putt (4th and 5th).
John Travers Javelin and Triple jump (5th and 4th)
Tadhg Prendiville high jump 4th
Lee Van Haeften 100m 6th, complete with intimidating pre start routine.

In their main events, Philip Cavanagh was 4 12 in 3rd in the 1500. Simon Taggart in the most competitive race of the day was just edged into 3rd in 50 seconds. John Travers was 5th 800m in 2.05.  Lee Van Haeften was 6th 1500 in 4 20. Tadhg Prendiville was 5th in the 3000m steeplechase in 11.20. Mark Dooley was 3rd in the premier 5000 and 4th in the combined race with the A Division in a huge pb time of 15 45, knocking 30 seconds off his previous best, made all the more impressive that he had to do a lot of the pacing for the second group in the race on his own. The 4 x 100m team finished 5th of John Travers and Simon Taggart, Darren Kelly and Sean O’Broin. Sean O’Broin was 6th in the 200m.

The day’s proceedings were ended by the usual 4 x 400m and once again our lads rose to the challenge to get a really impressive 2nd place. Their splits times, according to the master of the 400m relay timing over the years Willie Dunne, were as follows:

Darren Kelly 50.6
Philip Cavanagh 53.0
John Travers 58.0
Simon Taggart 51.0

The club finished with 81 points a very respectable total for the lack of specialists for so many of the events and a real team performance which give the club a genuine possibility of making the final. A big thanks to Maurice for being our chief official and as ever the man behind the teams again and to Willie Dunne who provided a kind of power tutorial in throwing just about anything to the lads on the day. P.s. I am sure Darren will thank Willie for that legendary 4x 400 split!!

We need more athletes for the second round to make good on this performance so keep the 15th of June free!!!

The day before saw some notable Donore performances in the Leinster Schools: Eric Keogh after doing the double in the West Leinsters and winning the 800 and 1500 was face with trying to do the same within an hour of each other in the Leinsters. He also had picked up an injury and had needed the work of Paul Hevey the day before. Eric’s 800 was a bit below his form this season with no doubt the therapy he’d received taking his edge but he still finished 4th in 2.06 in what was a messy tactical mix up and down of  pace race. He then came back and was rewarded for his bravery going for the second event by finishing a strong second in the 1500m and gaining his selection for Leinster and a good silver medal. Max Van Haeften found himself in a real quality 3000m but ran very solid to run 10.04 in 6th place. Max has still a mile race to go on Wednesday and another year at that age group so much to come from him I think. Eamonn Fahy from King’s Hospital and another Donore man was 3rd in the 200m after a photo finish and there is more to come from him no doubt.

A great weekend of athletics and a great show of the young talent coming through the club

Iain Morrison
HoweHH

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