Graded Meet 1 – Santry April 20th

Report by Conor Keating

The first graded meeting of the year was held in Morton Stadium in Santry, last Wednesday, and it was a lovely evening for running. After a few rainy days recently, temperatures are raising and it’s shaping up to hopefully be a fine summer.

Morton Stadium is a little far out but the No.16 bus goes right to the Stadium.  Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long to get a 16 (unlike the No. 17 which can be pretty unreliable) after work so I was able to get there in plenty of time despite the heavy traffic.

There was a great Sportsworld turnout for the meeting;  including Myself, Will, Karl, Wesley and Justin running in the same 800 metres C race. This was my second 800 metres, and race on the track, having previously ran an 800 metre D race in normal running shoes which were about 1 and a half times bigger than what everyone else was racing in.  This time I managed to get proper track studs for my spikes, as well as getting them cleaned up after the cross-country season! I was hoping that Emily’s previous assertion to me, that running cross country would be a big benefit to me when it came to the track, would come to fruition and that I wasn’t just a complete sucker for punishment!

Race reporter Conor with Sonia!

First Sportsworld athlete competing was Justin in the B/C 3,000 race. Justin had a good ding-dong battle with a Crusaders and  Annalee Ac (I looked it up – it’s in Cavan in case you’re wondering)    athlete for much of the race and ending up finish in the middle of the 3 in a highly respectable 10mins 21 secs.

Karol was next up in the first of the A 3,000 metre races. There was a runaway winner from early on in this race (8min 30secs winning time) but Karol was involved in an exciting 5 way battle for 2^nd place coming into the home straight and he finished 5^th in an impressive 9min 4 secs.

It was then onto the shorter stuff. We had 3 sportsworld athletes making their debuts in the 800 metres; Anthony in the D race and then Wesley and Karl in the C race. Anthony ran a consistent pace for the two laps and eventually finished in a highly respectful 4^th place in 2 mins 24 secs – only a couple of seconds behind 2^nd and 3^rd.

It was then onto the grade C race where the 5 aforementioned Sportsworld athletes, including myself, made up more than half the total participants in the race (9). I was drawn in lane 1 and my plan was to be around the middle of the group when everyone broke from their lane, try and hold position until 550-600 metres and then try to push on to the finish line. In the race, I managed to get into 5^th position when everyone had turned the first corner, and broke into the inside lane, while Will went out strongly and was in 2^nd place. The positions stayed the same for the next 400 or so metres before I managed to pass out a Raheny athlete coming up to the final bend. On the final straight Will was still going strong in 2^nd and maintained a good pace till the finish but I managed to get the kick in the final 50 metres and just about pipped Will and another athlete to 2^nd place with my finish (nowhere near as good as Phil Healy’s for UCC though). I finished in just over 2 mins 13.5 secs with Will in 3^rd in just over 2mins 14. Karl and Wesley, off the back of their good relays runs on Sunday, ran well in 2mins 18 secs and 2mins 22 secs. Justin, having already completed 7.5 laps of the track in the 3000 around an hour before, ran 2mins 27 secs.

Gareth ran in the B 800 metre race. Still getting back to full fitness after recent injury, Gareth ran a solid 2mins 10secs and finished 6^th in a good group just over 2secs behind the winner.

Margaret, who had earlier given her all when finding herself in a very competitive 800 metre race, rounded off the evening for Sportsworld in the 100 metre C race. Margaret ran a great 100 metres, keeping tabs with the 4 other girls the whole way, to finish in 15.74 secs.

Well done to all that ran, it was great to see so many Sportsworld athletes taking part. Despite the nice weather, there was a bit of a breeze which made things a bit tougher but everyone ran very well and recorded very credible times. I was just hoping to finish in the middle of the pack so it was a shock to finish 2^nd and I’m obviously very happy about that.

There are 7 more graded events and also the Trinity track races (better not leave that out) to go this summer and the grade A-D ensures there is a race that suits everyone. I myself have signed up to all 8 of the graded meetings at the lower overall cost (€50 for seniors and €35 for students; entering individual races costs €8 and €5 respectively) and plan to try to continue to improve in the 800 metres as well as try the 1500 metres. The full results of Wednesday’s meeting are below and the next meeting is in the similar surroundings of the Tallaght track on the 11^th of May.

Next meeting: Tallaght May 11th