Both the Clonliffe men and women’s teams got the national indoor league campaign off to a very healthy start at the NIA, Abbottstown for round 1 this morning. The men’s team topped the standings whilst the women’s team sit comfortably in 4th position.
The men secured maximum points in 3 of today’s 8 events: Marcus Lawler opened his 2026 season with a fine 21.66 in the 200, Ben Guiden took chunks of his 3000 pb with an impressive win in 8.22.78 and the ever dependable Niall Allen in the WFD with a best of 6.37m.
After that there were telling contributions made by Sean Carrigg who finished 2nd in the 800 with another battling performance which yielded a 1.54.48 PB. Huge credit also to Frantisek Kadlec who was 2nd in his 60 hurdles (8.61), 3rd overall and then answered Clonliffe’s call by immediately going to the triple jump to take 5th place with a best of 11.51m. Both Frantisek and Sean in the last event of the day were on the 4 x 400 relay team, with Jarlath Jordan and Evan Storey, who ran an excellent 3rd leg, that finished 4th in their heat in a time of 3.36.72, 10th overall.
In the pole vault Andrej Dmitrenko also made a valuable contribution finishing in 3rd place with a best vault of 3.40m.
The men’s team finished the day on 104 points with Ratoath 2nd on 92 and DSD 3rd on 84.
Consistent pointscoring for the women’s team left the team placing 4th on 75 points with Ratoath heading the standings on 99, DSD 96 and St Lawrence O’Toole 79.
Snezana Bechtina was once again invaluable to the women’s team, finishing 5th in the pole vault (1.95), 8th in the triple jump (9.96) and 4th in her 60 H heat (12.09). Valuable third-place points were contributed by Niamh Kelly in the 800 in an SB of 2.13.91, Helena Butterly running her first ever track race, the 3000, where she clocked 10.14.12 and Vivian Okafar WFD 5.46m.
Emily Jachna was also opening her season running a time of 26.20 in the 200 placing 4th in her heat. The 4 x 400 relay team of Sarah McDonnell, Edel Maguire, Saffron Rijnders and, of course, Snezana for the good fight coming home 4.31.09, 4th in the final heat.
Round 2 of the league is in Athlone on February 8: 60, 400, 1500, 4 x 200, race walk, high jump, long jump, shot.
In the afternoon today there were guest races where the big news was the magnificent performance of Craig Duffy in the 60. In series 1 Craig ran a new PB of 6.79 as he finished in 2nd position. That time moved Craig up the Clonliffe all-time list to joint 3rd with Jeremy Phillips. In series 2 Craig went even faster with 6.76, also for 2nd position, moving him into a clear 3rd position ahead of Phillips on the all-time Clonliffe rankings. Anthony Dillon in his 60 recorded a time of 7.25 finishing 7th in series 1 and then really got things together for series 2 as he ran a new PB of 6.99 to take 1st position, putting him into 11th on the club all-time list. Adam Festus in series 1 ran 7.31 and series 2 7.50. Michael Omakobia recorded 8.12 in series 1 and then 8.19. Cian O’Loughlin 7.89 in series 1.