With early afternoon temperatures of the mid 20’s replaced by a cooling breeze blowing up from Dublin Bay conditions were very favourable at graded meeting number four in Irishtown last night. Around 200 athletes took part in a range of events from the pole vault to the 100M dash. Owing to injuries and other races Sportsworld only had 3 runners taking part but they were very well supported for the entire night.

I was first up in the 800M at 20:20. A last minute change of plan saw me enter grade C race rather than the grade B race. Some good advice from Ciallian O’Leary before the race left me with a sloid race plan. Cillian advising that you don’t want to be in the lead or run as the pace maker in an 800M (It’s awful hard to lead an entire race in a field where the competitors are fairly evenly matched).

I was on the line thinking it is wiser to run the first 400m (particularly the first 200m) a little faster than the 2nd 400m but that there should not be more than a 5 second differential from the 1st 400m to the 2nd 400m. I had set off hoping to run 2:05 but after going over in 62 seconds for the first 400M that was going to be difficult. The first lap seemed reasonable even slower than expected but as Aoife Brady had said to me last Saturday the toughest part of the race is between 500-600M. I was able to sit on the shoulder of the race leader and then make a dash for home in the last 200M. The tiredness in my legs in the last 100M had me thinking I would be picking myself up off the floor rather than crossing the line but I held on to win in a time slightly over budget at 2:07. Next time I’ll move up a grade, probably come last but hopefully get that time down below the 2:05 mark.

The final race of the evening saw a very strong field assembled for the mens 3K. Both Paul Duffy and Phil were thrown in the deep end after their race was combined with the development race. Each of the lads ran a very strong race with 3 minute kilometre pace.

Joe Sweeney continued his winning ways as he won the 3000 in 8.10.62. His steady 65 second tempo left him well clear of the field from early on and he was quite pleased as he said after the race “ I really did not ease down for this”. The Sportsworld men came home in 9:03 and 9:06 with Phil after looking tired earlier in the race passing Paul in the final few laps. A new PB for Paul and he’s now one step closer to that 9 minute mark which himself and Phil will no doubt reach later in the summer.

Full results are online with a few photos to follow.

The Annual General Meeting will take place on Tuesday 15th June 2010 in the club house after training.

This Wednesday will be the 4th graded meeting of the year. The schedule is below.

Time Event Grade
Track
19.00 100m Women B
19.05 100m Women A
19.10 100m Men C
19.20 100m Men B
19.30 100m Men A
19.35 800m Women A Development Race
19.45 800m Women B
19.50 800m Men A Development Race
20.05 800m Men D
20.20 800m Men C
20.30 800m Men B
20.35 3000m Women A+B
20.45 3000m Men D
20.55 3000m Men C
21.05 3000m Men A+B

Field
19.30 Discus Women
Discus Women
19.45 Shot Women
Shot Vault Men
19.45 Long Jump Women
Long Jump Men

All events will commence with Grade B (women) or Grade D (men). Times shown for events are approximate, these are subject to change on the evening of competition depending on the number of athletes entered.

Location : Irishtown Stadium

Donore Harriers held the first running of their 5km road race in the phoenix park last saturday.  On a fairly miserable morning with overcast weather and a light drizzle the field of 321 runners set off. Joe Byrne was the first Sportsworld man home in a flashy new pair of races ( and i even managed to see and include him in the report this week). Lucy wasn’t far behind with Tara Murphy closing off our account on the day.

24th  17:48 Joe Byrne

36th  18:12 Lucy Darcy

6 of the 245 runners who took part in the Bob Heffernan Memorial 5K this past Tuesday evening were representing Sportsworld. The race is part of the fantastic Meath summer race series. The course a fast, flat 5K  loop close to the the outskirts of Enfield Co. Meath. The weather was great and the fresh air made it one of the most enjoyable races of the year so far.

The mens race on the night was won by Andrew Ledwith in 15:12. One runner commented after the race saying ” he looked really comfortable, at one stage I was expecting him to take out a cigar and have a victory puff or two”. Pauline Curley took the womens race in 17.11.

Both Sportsworld teams took home 1st team prize with some great individual performances. Everyone went home with more money in their pocket than they left home with and enjoyed a great race.

Race entry was 12 euro on the night (10 for pre-entries) and included chip timing. The first 100 to register got t-shirts also. There was plenty of tea/coffee, biscuits and sandwiches afterwards as well. Not only was the race cheap to enter I reckon all entry fees taken in were distributed back out in prizes. I would encourage everyone to look at the remaining races in the series.

There is some good pictures on RacePix

Five of our club members took part in the BHAA Intel 10km in Leixlip, Co Kildare last Saturday on possibly the warmest day of the year so far. As the field lined up at 11.00 for the three lap race around the Intel campus the temperatures were already high. Mick Traynor from AnPost/Raheny set a scorching pace at the front winning in a time of 32.47. Having completed the race the general consensus was that Lanzarote would be a cooler place to run. Team Lloyd deserve special mention since both picked up individual age category prizes.

107     Stephen Willoughby    2868    00:46:27
127     Colin Mahon    2867    00:48:02
145     Trevor Lloyd    2990    00:49:07
153     Tara Murphy    2848    00:49:33
154     Judith Llyod    2716    00:49:46

Full results and photos at http://bhaa.ie/event/intel2010. The next BHAA race is the 5 Mile Government Services race in Dundoyne on Tuesday June 1st 2010 at 8pm.

Picture from RacePix

Tuesday night was the Paul O’Connell memorial 8K road race in the Dublin Docklands. It’s a nice easy course with a good crowd for support and one of the few opportunities to run through the city. This year after a very sunny day the rain started falling about 6.30PM. It made for good breathing but slippy running conditions. This wasn’t helped by being asked to run on the paths in certain spots with racers on.

Paul ran a strong race and continued to stretch out a lead.  Paul came home first with Paul Duffy taking second place. Trevor Sweeney was with the leading group. Myself and Michael were fighting it out for 4th for most of the race.

In the end it was a clean sweep for Sportsworld winning both the mens and womens races and continuing their dominance of the event. Results below.

Pos Bib Name Sex Age Time
1 1746 Paul O’ Connell Mal 32 00:26:48
2 1038 Paul Duffy Mal 29 00:26:49
3 1435 Trevor Sweeney Mal 37 00:26:57
4 3 Gareth Murran Mal 28 00:27:49
8 1845 Michael Cunningham Mal 32 00:28:22
12 372 Edward Mc Entee Mal 42 00:29:00
14 5 Caitriona Jennings Fem 29 00:29:06
80 342 Stephanie Bergin Fem 29 00:33:20

The Sportsworld ladies were well represented on Sandymount strand for the BHAA ESB 5km beach race on Tuesday evening. Stephanie Bergin won the  ladies race, with Mary Finn following closely in third place. It was good to see Rachel Morgan back racing after the arrival of her second daughter. Stephen Willoughby ran a s0lid race also. I resumed my usual battle with Dave Byrne ( ex-sportsworld), but was piped in the last 400meters.

http://bhaa.ie/event/esb2010

Last Sunday amazing as it sounds the 119th running of the Clonliffe 2 took place earlier today in perfect conditions. Close to 100 athletes toed the line for the 2 mile event which once again started at the bottom of the hill pub in Finglas. The course went down hill for the first mile with a tough climb for 400m at Glasnevin cemetery and on to the finish at Kavanagh’s Pub (The Gravediggers).

Sportsworld have done well at the event in the past few years. Right from the off the race was on down the hill. A Donore Harriers athlete took up the early pace but then fell back as Paul Duffy took the lead for the majority of the first mile. After a tough session on Saturday Paul slowed a bit on the hill and was passed out by 3 runners. At the top of the hill Paul Fleming Rathfarnham and
Gary O’Hanlon of Clonliffe Harriers proved too strong and they went on to create a 30 second gap between themselves and the rest of the field.

It was a good day of results for Sportsworld but due to the club name not being one of the form the mens team were denied the team prize. The race organizers knew that Sportsworld had come third but wouldn’t allow it because the team had not been declared at registration but the Sportsworld team were under the impression they had registered the team.

We felt the prizes had already been handed over but the results could have been adjusted. Full results below

3 Gareth Murran Unattached M35 9.58
4 Paul Duffy Sportsworld Ac SM 10.03
6 Trevor Sweeney Sportsworld Ac M35 10.05
11 Michael Cunningham Sportsworld Ac SM 10.20
28 Lucy Darcy Sportsworld Ac F40 11.12
35 Crona Brady Sportsworld Ac FS 11.29