The Clonliffe men and women’s track and field teams travelled to Tullamore today for the preliminary round of the league, there were challenges for both teams in fielding full teams, indeed not all events could be covered on this occasion. The athletes however did exactly what was required which was to gather in the maximum points possible in the circumstances with the sole objective to finish in the top 8 and qualify for the Premier league final on July 27. The outcome for both teams: objective achieved!
The women’s team saw consistent scoring in most of the events covered with telling contributions made by Vivian Okafar in the WFD and shot, Leah Bergin in the 400, Emily Jachna in the 100, also the 4 x 100 relay team scored well and as always Snezana Bechtina scored well in the 100 hurdles and pole vault. At the end of a long day the team finished in 3rd place.
In the men’s competition excellent contributions were made by the field eventers with maximum points courtesy of Eoin Sheridan in both the discus and shot put, Simon Galligan likewise scoring maximum points in the hammer, Hubert Adamcyzk did likewise in the javelin, Niall Allen was 2nd in the WFD. With the club’s throwers having another massive day it eased considerably the burden on the rest of the squad. Second-place finishes were secured by James Lynch in the 110 hurdles, Ben Guiden in the 5000, Greg Hosseny in the race walk. Very good contributions also made by the rest of the team all scoring well Malcom Kiplagat was 3rd in the 1500, in fact all gave everything they had with many covering unfamiliar events.
The men’s team finished up in 2nd position. Both teams comfortably qualified.
Well done all and we now look forward to the final on July 27 in Tullamore.