Irish team finish 2nd in relay race at US Armory in New York

A very strong Irish team finished an impressive second last night in the Men's Distance Medley Relay  race at the Armory Track in New York. The Irish team for the 4 legs in order were.....1200m Declan Murray.....400m Brian Gregan......800m Mark English....1600m Ciarán Ó Lionáird.

Some excellent performances with a second place finish which was inside the old world record.

The race video is excellent. You can see it HERE

Armory Track Invitaitonal 2015
Place    Team    Time                       
1 United States of America
M Centrowitz (2:49.47), M Berry (46.40), E Sowinski (1:47.60), P Casey (3:56.48)    9:19.93
2    Ireland
D Murray (2:53.17), B Gregan (47.40), M English (1:46.59), C O'Lionaird (3:58.23)    9:25.37
3    NJ-NY TC
M Rutt (2:52.62), S Lumax (47.75), B Scheetz (1:48.61), K Merber (3:58.20)    9:27.16
4    Kenya
J Mutai (2:54.33), C Nkanata (48.87), A Kipketer (1:51.69), L Lalang (3:52.33)    9:27.21
5    Columbia
B Fish (2:53.43), C Hammond (48.92), C Claflin (1:50.29), S Haik (4:02.39)    9:35.02
6    Duke
N McClafferty (2:52.05), C Hawkins (48.88), J Burton (1:51.91), B Schoepfer (4:03.63)    9:36.47
7    Mississippi
C Engels (2:55.60), D Morgan (47.72), H Sherrer (1:51.66), R Domanic (4:05.54)    9:40.51
8    Princeton
L Brahm (2:54.99), R Mennin (48.93), N Kauppila (1:53.00), B Paternostro (4:04.67)    9:41.58

Post race interview when Cathal Dennehy of the Jumping the Gun crew caught up with the Irish team...

       

Irish mens team set new national record in 4 x 400m relay

It was a very good day for the Irish relay teams today with both the men and women setting national records. The mens team in the 4 x 400m relay finished in 3rd place in the second heat in a time of 3m 03.57s. That was a new national record and broke the old record of 3:03.73 which was set in the European Championships in Munich in 1992.

The order they ran in and their splits were...
 BrianGregan 45.86...Brian Murphy 46.75...Ricard Morrissey 45.56...Thomas Barr 45.21

This is the race video....

Irish athletes in action in Padova, Italy...Sun 1st Sept 2013

At the Citta di Padova meet in Italy on Sunday, three Irish athletes were in action. Laura Crowe of An Ríocht AC set a new personal best time of 4m 12.06s in the womens 1500m when she finished in 4th place. Her previous best was 4:12.25 which she set back in June in Manchester.

In the mens 400m, Brian Gregan was 5th in 46.48 and Paul Robinson was 7th in 1:48.05 in the 800m

Padova (Italy), 1.9.2013 -27th Meeting Città di Padova-
1500m
1 Elena Korobkina (rus) 4:11.42;
2 Emily Infeld (usa) 4:11.51;
3 Margherita Magnani 4:11.56;
4 Laura Crowe (irl) 4:12.06;
5 Violah Lagat (ken) 4:12.94;
6 Lea Wallace (usa) 4:13.33;
7 Dureti Edao (eth) (96) 4:15.91;
8 Sonja Roman (slo) 4:17.45;
9 Beverly Ramos (pur) 4:19.82;

400m
1 LaShawn Merritt (usa) 45.18;
2 Rusheen McDonald (jam) 45.56;
3 Matteo Galvan 45.57;
4 Manteo Mitchell (usa) 45.96;
5 Brian Gregan (irl) 46.48; (PB 45.53)
6 Isalbet Juarez 46.90;
7 Michele Tricca 47.50;

800m
1 Giordano Benedetti (ita) 1:46.93;
2 Antoine Gakeme (bdi) 1:47.06;
3 Erik Sowinski (usa) 1:47.31;
4 Andrew Wheating (usa) 1:47.33;
5 Tamás Kazi (hun) 1:47.38;
6 Sammy Kirongo (ken) (94) 1:47.40;
7 Paul Robinson (irl) 1:48.05;  (PB 1:45.86)
8 David Torrance (usa) 1:48.20;

Ciarán Ó Lionáird wins bronze at the Euro Indoor Championships...

In the final of the mens 3,000m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenborg , Sweden, Ciarán Ó Lionáird finished in a personal best time of 7:50.40 to finish third for the bronze medal.

Ciarán pictured with Ciarán Ó Catháin, president of Athletics Ireland. Photo by Kieran Carlin of Finn Valley AC

For most of the race, Ciarán stayed near the back of the pack out of trouble and picked up the pace with about 400m to go when he followed the eventual winner Ibrahimov. At the bell and 200m to go, it seemed as if it was a two horse race but the Spaniard Juan Higuero surged in the last few metres to take the silver.

Considering all the injury problems that he had in 2012, Ciarán is really beginning to show what a fantastic talent he is.

Post race interview with Will Downing here...


For the other Irish athletes today, it was a mixed bag. Fionnuala Britton in the 3000m went through to the final and Amy Foster went through to the 60m semi-finals.

Ciara Everard in the 800m finished 3rd in the womens 800m and also went through to the final. It was however a photo finish for that last qualifying spot...

As you can see, Ciara is #6. I'm not sure how they separated them but Ciara got the nod.

In the other 800m semi-final, Rose-Anne Galligan went out after finishing 5th but ran a personal best time in the process.

In the mens 400m, there was some drama as Brian Gregan got spiked as the field converged after 150 metres. Just before the 200m mark, the Ukrainian athlete Burakov stood on Gregan's shoe and spiked him in the process....

...an injury that required several stitches. Hopefully, it won't be any more serious than that.

In a post race interview, Brian Gregan said......“My raceplan was to get to the bend, and to get to the break third. My plan was going perfect, with perfect pace, around 21.6-21.7 to the bell. Unfortunately I got spiked. A guy just completely took me out of it, and there was no coming back from it. He actually stood on my ankle and ripped me down my leg. I’ve had nine stitches. It was poor form.”

Full results for today in an earlier post.

Brian Gregan wins 400m race in Ghent, Belgium

On Sunday (10th Feb 2013), Brian Gregan of Clonliffe Harriers won a 400m race at the International Flanders Indoor Meeting in a time of 46.73 seconds. In the same race last year, Brian clocked 46.66 seconds. In mid-January, he set a new personal best time of 46.07 at the new indoor track in Athlone.

400 Metres - Men
1 Gregan , Brian IRL 46.73
2 Borlée , Jonathan BEL 46.83
3 Santos , Luguelín DOM 47.11
4 Ujakpor , Mark ESP 47.43
5 Schneider , Thomas GER 47.69
6 Bouckaert , Jente BEL 49.03

Video of the race HERE ........great finish!!

AAI Games at the new indoor track in Athlone last weekend...

After a long wait, Ireland's newest indoor track in Athlone finally opened for business last weekend.

One of the best performances was from Brian Gregan of Clonliffe Harriers who ran the 400 metres in a time of 46:07, breaking his previous best time of 46.66 which he set in Ghent, Belgium in February of 2012. This now makes his the third fastest Irish man over the distance, moving up two places from fifth. The current Irish indoor 400m record was set by David Gillick in a time of 45.52. Considering that Brian is still only 23 years old, you'd have to wonder if it's only a matter of time before he breaks it?

Race video...


As if to verify just how fast this new mondo indoor track is, Thomas Barr of Ferrybank AC in second place also set a new personal time of 47.46 seconds.

In the women's 800m, there was plenty of drama with two contestants crashing to the ground within metres of the line in what was a very closely contested finish...

Race video...


Mens 3000m walk.....Rob Heffernan of Togher AC and Luke Hickey of Leevale AC in action


Men's 3km Walk...1, R Heffernan Togher A.C. 11.13.92 // 2, A Wright England 11.23.99 // 3, L Hickey Leevale A.C. 12.34.16

Results for the weekend can be seen HERE

Kieran Carlin of Finn Valley AC has plenty of photos HERE

Irish athletes to the fore in Copenhagen...

Irish athletes were to the fore at the Copenhagen Athletic Games on Tuesday evening, the 21st of August 2012. In the womens 100m, Ailis McSweeney from Cork won in a time of 11.89 seconds. Ailis runs with Leevale AC and is the current national record holder over the distance (11.40 seconds). As you may well have seen, she is also a commentator on athletics for RTE television and has been out of action for the last while due to an Achilles injury.

WOMEN - 100 M w: +1.6m/s
1 11.89 MCSWEENEY Ailis IRL - Ireland
2 12.00 JARDER Erica -1986 SWE - Sweden
3 12.01 HANLON Margaret -1987 CAN - Canada

In the mens 400m, Brian Gregan of Clonliffe Harriers won the race in 46:00. Brian Murphy of Crusaders AC finished 3rd in 47:05 having run 46.71 in Stockholm last Friday.


MEN - 400 M
A-FINAL
1 46.00 GREGAN Brian IRL - Ireland
2 46.88 WARNER Michael GBR - United Kingdom
3 47.05 MURPHY Brian IRL - Ireland

Sixth and final episode of London Calling now on the RTE Player

In the fifth episode of 'London Calling' on RTE television, they follow Brian Gregan from Dublin and Rob and Marian Heffernan as they aim to qualify for the London Olympics.

Description..."Bouncing back from his medical setback in Paris, Brian Gregan (400m Sprinter) wins silver at the U23 Championships. But before he can focus on getting to London he has to finish his degree. His thesis takes up so much time that he enters the season with very little training and low expectations. But as he journeys across Europe his stellar performances mean he is getting closer and closer to the qualifying time. With his parents following every move from home he enters the European Championships with a real shot at the time and a medal.

Having recovered from her injury in Belfast, Marian Heffernan and the 4 x 400m team re- double their efforts to secure qualification. To make sure of their place they travel to Poland, but not everything goes according to plan. This sets up their make or break event, the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki. But disaster strikes and they are disqualified. Will their work over the previous two years be enough to get them to the Olympics?"

Brian is on from the start until 8:40
Rob and Marian are on from 14:55 to 21:18

The programme can be seen HERE  (Available until the 14th of August)