Winter League – Round 4 (8th Mar)
The fourth and final night of our Winter League on Wednesday evening 8th March on the track turned out to be a very enjoyable and competitive race. Thirty nine athletes took to the start line for the 3,000m. The first six men finishers were Vinny Connolly (9:26), James Keegan (9:35), Kedagh Geoghegan (9:52), Andy Boyhan (10:00), Eoin Clarke (10:12) and Enda O’Carolan (10:39). The women’s race saw Sinead Whitelaw lead home (11:18), followed by Áine O’Reilly (11:18). In a great battle, a mere two seconds separated the next 3 athletes, Jenny Algar (11:32), Michelle Bohan (11:33) and Jacintha Reilly (11:34). Aisling Corcoran was sixth woman finisher, in 11:51.
The competition for team placings was only starting and after all athletes completed the race it took careful calculations to separate the mixed teams for the team placings. Team 1 and Team 8 emerged joint winners with 41.5 points each. Indeed Team 1 had moved from fifth position after the penultimate night to share victory, showing the importance of team racing in these events. Second place went to Team 9 (44 points), Team 4 was third (44.5 points), Team 6 finished fourth (46 points) and Team 3 got the nod for fifth (50 points). We had a tie for sixth between Team 7 and Team 10 (51 points each). Team 2 finished on 53.5 points and Team 5 on 55 points.
Overall the league was a very welcome addition to our winter training and valuable experience of track running has been gained as well as a focus on pace and timing over the different distances covered.