Niall Allen reports: On Saturday, July 11th, a team of nine athletes competed in the annual DSD Masters Team
Event representing Clonliffe Harriers. The ten event format with eight events to count
is age graded so the winner of the event may not have the best overall performance.
First up for Clonliffe was Snezana Bechtina winning her heat in the 100m with a time
of 13.29s into a headwind and placing 2nd overall. In the field events ongoing at the
same time Edel Maguire jumped 1.32m (5th highest) and finished 1st overall on age
graded score whilst Niall Allen won the shot put with a throw of 11.95m.
The action continued on the track with Stephen Harkness running 2m08.89s
in the 800m for 2nd in his heat and finishing 5th overall. Edel completed in her second
event the 200m and came away with the overall age graded win with a time of
30.14s. Back in the field Niall placed 3rd overall in the discus whilst throwing the
furthest with 35.75m. Michael Omakobia competed in the long jump for the first time
jumping 4.14m placing 5th overall. In the final event before the relays Niall Sherlock
won his 1500m heat in sweltering conditions in a time of 4m29s placing 5th overall.
At this stage Clonliffe were leading but with both relays to be competed. The
4×100 team of Edel, Katherine Markey, Snezana and Michael ran a great race to
place 2nd in their heat with a time of 54.86 and 2nd overall. In the 4x400m fresh
reinforcements were called upon with the team of Niall, Aisling Andrews, Diarmuid
Doyle and Stephen winning with a time of 4m19s. When the scores were counted up
and the two weakest events dropped Clonliffe Harriers secured the win with 68
points from DSD AC 55 and Meath County with 53 points.
There were also guest events on the day with Cian O Loughlin running 12.66s
in the 100m; Edel and Katherine running 14.59s and 14.83s respectively in the
100m.Katherine also ran 31.63 for the 200m. Aisling and Diarmuid ran 2.32.95 and
2.49.65 in the 800m warming up for the relay. Andrej Dmitrenko threw 31.61m in the
mens discus.
On Sunday two athletes travelled to Lusk ACs Heavy Throws event. The
event comprised of the shot put and two traditional Irish events the weight for
distance and height. Vivan Okefor (W40) threw 7.64m in the shot, 6.49m in the
weight for distance and 3.0m in the weight for height which was the first time that
Vivan has tried this event. In the mens events Niall Allen threw 12.11m in the shot,
8.77m in the weight for distance and 5.10m in the weight for height which was an
unofficial M50 Irish Record.
