Liam has Europe in his sights after Reale breakthrough

LIMERICK man Liam Reale added his name to the growing list of qualifiers for the European championships when he finished second in the elite men’s 1,500m race at last weekend’s Boston High Performance meeting.

Tue, 30 May, 2006 - 01:00

Brendan Mooney

Reale, a native of Hospital and based in Providence where he is coached by Ray Treacy, returned a smart 3:38.65 for second place behind Ryan McKenzie of the US, who won the race in 3:38.05.

Beating Max Feldo of the University of Colorado (3:45.96) for second place, Reale was well inside his previous best time of 3:42.36 in the most significant breakthrough by an Irish athlete this year, which rockets him up to 18th place on the all time list.

With Gothenburg in his sights and the promise of even better to come, the 23-year-old Limerick athlete returns to Ireland, in the coming weeks, to race in some of the major European meetings.

Another Providence athlete, Mary Cullen, transferred her cross-country form on to the track to win the 5,000m in 15:50.18, maintaining a fine sequence of performances while Thomas Chamney (Notre Dame) won the 800m in 1:48.86 at his regional championships in Knoxville.

Both join Mullingar man, Martin Fagan, at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento in two weeks time.

Fagan, who finished third in the 5,000m at the weekend, has his qualifying standard for Gothenburg safely filed away. Like Liam Reale and Mary Cullen, he is coached by Ray Treacy.

Catherine Crawford, who ran 13.86 for the 100m hurdles recently, ran a wind assisted 13.84 but failed to make the final while Deirdre Byrne was fifth in her 1,500m in 4:26.09.

Mark Kenneally was another to impress at the weekend, finishing second to Slavko Petrovic of Croatia in the 5,000m at the IMC Club energise meet in Irishtown, on Saturday night.

The Croation followed pacemaker Keith Kelly through 3,000m in 8:19, tracked by Kenneally in 8:23, before kicking clear of the Celbridge man over the closing laps to win in 13:53.94.

Kenneally finished second in 14:16.16 with the UK cross-country champion, Dominic Bannister, third in 14:20.87.

James Nolan had been hoping to build on his third place at the Nijmegen Global meet earlier in the week, when he travelled to Hengelo, but he had to be content with ninth place in a modest 3:43.06.

He will have an opportunity to improve, when he lines up at the Golden League meet in Oslo on Friday night.

Fionnuala Britton finished second in the 3,000m Steeplechase in Riga in 10:08.85, while Darragh Graham won the 100m in 11.08 secs and was fourth in the 200m, in 22.29 secs, at an EAP Meeting, in Portugal.

Liam Reale brings to 16 the number of men who have now qualified for the European Championships, while 18 women have qualified:

MEN: 100m: Jer O’Donoghue, 10.45; Gary Ryan, 10.46; Paul Hession, 10.46.

200m: Paul Hession; Paul Brizzel, 21.08.

400m: David Gillick, 45.93; Robert Daly, 46.07; Tomas Coman, 46.48; Paul McKee 46.63; David McCarthy, 46.68.

1,500m: James Nolan, 3:37.78; Liam Reale, 3:38.65.

5,000m: Martin Fagan 13:39.62.

10,000m: Mark Carroll, 28:40.40; Keith Kelly, 28:44.33.

110m Hurdles: Peter Coghlan 13.68.

Long Jump: Ciaran McDonagh, 8.07m.

WOMEN: 100m: Anna Boyle, 11.53; Derval O’Rourke, 11.54; Emily Maher, 11.56; Ailish McSweeney, 11.59.

200m: Ciara Sheehy, 23.20; Emily Maher, 23.39.

400m: Karen Shinkins 51.59; Joanne Cuddihy 52.76.