Highlights of the Irish Indoor Championships...Sun 22nd Feb 2015

One of the main events on the Irish Athletics calendar is the National Indoor Championships in February every year. This is supposed to be one of the highlights of Irish Athletics but the turnout in some events was pretty abysmal.

I had a look on Saturday evening at the results and noticed just two women listed in the womens 3000m. Fair enough I though, the results aren't complete yet. However, that was the actual result!

1 MCCAMBRIDGE Maria    Dundrum South Dublin A.C.    9:26.77   
2 MOORE Niamh        U.C.C. A.C.        10:43.53

Just to clarify. A member of any club could have run in this at 10 minute mile pace and got a bronze national medal.

The full results can be found HERE , just click on the event. RTE have 51 minutes of highlights on their RTE Player Service HERE

One of the most interesting and biggest suprises of the championships was the performance of 15 year old Ciara Neville of Emerald AC in Limerick. In the womens 60m hurdles, she finished second in a time which put her 12th on the Irish All Time list. You can see that race in the coverage at 13:40.

1 MCMANUS Catherine    Dublin City Harriers A.C.    8.44   
2 NEVILLE Ciara        Emerald A.C.        8.71   
3 DAWKINS Shannen    St. Joseph's A.C.        9.14   
4 FUSSEY Niamh        St Peters        9.83   

Ciara Neville of Emerald AC...#108, Kelly Proper #44 & Phil Healy #88

In the senior womens 60m race, Ciara Neville finished second again but this time, she finished ahead of the likes of Phil Healy and Catherine McManus who were part of the 4x100m Irish relay team that went to the European Championships last year.

1 PROPER Kelly        Ferrybank A.C.        7.38   
2 NEVILLE Ciara        Emerald A.C.        7.46   
3 MCMANUS Catherine    Dublin City Harriers A.C.    7.50   
4 HEALY Phil        Bandon A.C.        7.51   
5 MANNING Cliodhna    Kilkenny City Harriers A.C.    7.53   
6 BRADY Claire        Celbridge A.C.        7.55   
7 MURRAY Sarah        Fingallians A.C.        7.60   
8 FORKAN Aishling    Swinford A.C.        7.72

Pretty amazing for a 15 year old. What will she be running when she's 20? That time of 7.46s by the way puts her straight in at joint 10th on the Irish All Time list.

Coverage of the womens 60m race starts at about 31:30 in the highlights.