Few places left on Irish team

Brendan Mooney

Jer O’Donoghue smashed the stadium all-comers record when he retained his 60m title in 6.79 secs for a sensational start to his year. The old record was set back in 1993 when the Belgian sprinter, Sammy Thomas, ran 6.84 secs.

The Killarney athlete who runs for Leevale and trains in Limerick with his new coach, John Stacey, laid down a very important marker on Sunday when he also had a personal best in the heats, and now has his sights on the qualifying standard for the European indoor championships in Madrid in March.

The Cardiff meet will be an important one for him in this regard but he is not dismissing the possibility of an even faster time in Nenagh next Sunday when he will compete in the AAI Indoor Games.

Ailish McSweeney will also be back in Nenagh next weekend as she prepares for the Cardiff assignment. She will run both the 60m and 200m events meeting and hopes to fly to Glasgow the following day for the Scottish Indoor Championships.

The AAI would have preferred to wait until after next weekend’s AAI Games to finalise the team for Cardiff but flights had to be booked this week.

One newcomer to the scene will be the young Leevale sprinter Derek Duff who returned from a two-year lay-off to win the Munster junior indoor 60m title in a smart 7.13 secs on Sunday.

His Coach John Sheehan was not surprised by the performance despite the fact that Duff, a former under-age champion, had just come off a very heavy cold and had little preparation. for the event.

He has been named on the junior team for the international and the selectors are awaiting confirmation from another Leevale teenager, Ciara O Lionaird, who was a very impressive winner of the junior 1,500m at the weekend when he gave the senior winner, Liam Reale, a run for it.

The team was boosted yesterday with the news that Olympic high jumper, Adrian O’Dwyer, is available and so, too, is 400m runner, David McCarthy.

But they are still looking for a 200m runner for the senior men’s team. Gordon Kennedy (Tullamore Harriers), who won the 200m in Nenagh on Sunday is the one definite going to the Championships.

Belgooly Athletic Club collected a number of medals on Sunday but the most impressive was undoubtedly 14 year old Harriett Cross who won the junior 200m in 25.98 secs and will be bidding for a place on the Irish team for the AAA indoor championships over the coming weekend.

Christina Broderick was second in the junior high jump while Dawn Kelly won the senior women’s 400m. The time in this race was irrelevant because, like the senior 200m, the race was started at the wrong start line.

Fiachra Lombard has been named on the senior men’s team for the Celtic International Cross-country races on January 23. The Leevale man, who made his return to international competition at the European championships in Germany, will join Paul McNamara, Gary Murray and Gary O’Hanlon.

Maria McCambridge returns to the senior women’s team where she will rejoin Jolene Byrne who finished fifth in the international in Belfast on Saturday, evergreen Pauline Curley from Tullamore and Cork athlete Mary Margaret Meade, who is currently based in Belfast and has made a big impact on her return to top flight athletics.

The junior men’s team will be comprised of Danny Darcy from last year’s squad, Sean Smith, Kevin Lawlor and Michael Clohessy.