Galway T&F & the fastest Women's 1500 in a long time...
The 2nd night of the Galway Track & Field championships were run off with their usual efficiency last night in Dangan. In anticipation of the official results and times from chief organiser Paul McNamara, GCH were well represented with some good performances in the Javelin, 1500m and 200m events. Joe O'Donnell, Brendan Glynn and Paul Fallon were very impressive for GCH on the night, but the performance of the evening must go to Loughrea A.C.'s Caroline Clancy who posted a brilliant 4.48 for the 1500m. This is a time that would not look out of place at the Nationals (which was won last year by Olympian Roisin McGetiggan in 4.17.2 and the year before by European indoors medalist Mary Cullen in 4.17.2 who both ran away from the rest of the field with those times), and maybe someone else can comment on when as fast a Senior Women's middle-distance time was run in Dangan? The innovative and relaxed format of the Galway T&F has thrown up a few special performances at the elite end of affairs in the 3 years since its inception, that otherwise wouldn't happen in these parts, as well as catering for track newbies and all-comers of all ages. So, worth a look next Thursday for the final night if you're around Dangan...
- Login to post comments
- 706 reads
Great Job !
Congrats to Caroline on a great run in the 1500m on Thursday, it really is wonderful to see these sort of times been run in Dangan. It is a shame though that with the huge popularity with road running in recent times that some of this is not transferred to the track.
Of course the track events normally attract the more competitive athlete, but at the same time, they are a good way to gauge how fast you realy are over the sprints or middle distance. The track really is a different animal than the road, and with no hills or such to worry about, you can commonly see big improvements on your times for events like the 5K. That is as long as you don't go out too fast because you will find that while you will feel like you are going slow at the start, if you check your times, you are probably clipping along at a good 15-20 secs faster per mile.
A lot of times with track you see an upsurge in interest when there are events like the olympics on tv, but in saying that, it is normally the younger generation that like to try and emulate the Hession's, Sonia's etc. I still remember watching Eamonn Coughlin finish in 4th place in the 1500m in the '76 Olympics and how excited I was (and disappointed)and he was instantly put right up there on my hero mantle along with Cruyff, Borg and other sporting greats from the 70's.