CIARA MAGEEAN RECORDS CWG 800M STANDARD AT MORTON GAMES

European 1500m bronze medallist Ciara Mageean (UCD AC / Jerry Kiernan) recorded a Commonwealth Games consideration standard over 800m as local athletes performed well at the Morton Games in Santry, Dublin (Wednesday 12th July 2017).

Ciara ran 2:02.20 for 3rd place in the 800m ‘A’ race won by Great Britain’s Adelle Tracey in 2:01.53 (1st place).  This now means that the Portaferry lady has reached the Gold Coast standard for both the 800m and 1500m – last month, Ciara ran 4:04.79 for 1500m at the Diamond League event in Rome.

The highlight of what was an excellent night of athletics was the twelve sub 4 minute miles recorded in the main event, the Morton Mile, which closed proceedings.  The race was won by American Robert Domanic in 3:55.71 (1st place) – interestingly, Robert also went under the famous 4 minute barrier last weekend in Letterkenny.  Northern Ireland’s Danny Mooney (Letterkenny AC / Teresa McDaid) went agonisingly close to going sub 4 when he crossed the line in 4:00.12 (13th place).

North Down AC’s Craig McMeechan (Francis Marsh) also impressed at the prestigious event, recording 4:22.90 for 3rd place in the Junior Mile race.

Northern Ireland 100m and 200m record holder Amy Foster (City of Lisburn AC / David Reid) was in action over 200m, where she claimed 3rd place in 23.96 (-2.1). In the 400m ‘B’ race, Ben Maze (Crusaders AC / Paul McKee) covered the distance in 47.71 for 2nd place.  Mark Hoy was the fastest of the NI & Ulster contingent competing over 800m – the Finn Valley AC man crossed the line in 1:52.90 for 7th place in the ‘A’ race.  Jason Harvey (Crusaders AC / Nick Dakin) ran 51.48 for 5th place in the 400m hurdles, while Springwell Running Club’s Neil Johnston (Mark Kirk) was in good form over 1500m, clocking a season’s best of 3:50.44 for 4th place. 

A host of other familiar faces were also competing at the event – full results are available here:  http://live.athleticsireland.ie/

Northern Ireland’s Kerry O’Flaherty impresses in Sweden

Newcastle AC’s Olympic Steeplechase athlete Kerry O’Flaherty (Richard Rodgers) recorded a season’s best and went agonisingly close to the Commonwealth Games 2018 consideration standard for the 3,000m Steeplechase in Gothenburg, Sweden, this evening (Tuesday 11th July 2017).

Competing at the Folksam Grand Prix, Kerry clocked 9:54.40, a season’s best by over 3 seconds and a mere 0.4 secs outside the Commonwealth Standard of 9:54.00.

The Northern Ireland and Ireland international will now look towards the Memorial Rasschaert Meeting in Belgium this coming Saturday (15th July 2017) as she strives to reach the Gold Coast standard.

In-form Leon Reid (Birchfield Harriers / James Hillier) was also in action, but in Switzerland. Competing over 200m at the Spitzen Leichtathletik Track & Field Meeting, the NI 200m record holder ran 20.57 (0.0) for 5th place.