Cuddihy’s Olympic boost
Paul Hession (Athenry AC) also underscored his well-being heading for London in a spectacular finish to the men’s 100m, in which he edged out Jason Smyth (City of Derry) by 100th of a second, 10.37 secs to 10.38, with Steven Colvert (Crusaders) third in 10.59.
Cuddihy, who will doubly engaged at the London Olympics as an individual in the women’s 400m and as a member of the 4x400m squad, swept to victory in the 200m on Saturday with a time of 23.15 secs, which would have been a personal best but for the tailwind and she was back yesterday to defend her 400m title in 51.89 secs.
She was particularly pleased with her 200 time and promised to repeat it legally in better conditions.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” she said. “My reaction at the line was I didn’t expect that today.
“I had a tough week for other reasons. There were different things going on and I got a bit distracted and I wasn’t too sure what was going to happen this weekend — and to come out and know that you are in that kind of shape is really, really good.”
It was a big day for the 4x400m hurdles squad, with Marian Heffernan (Togher) claiming the silver medal in 53.32 secs ahead of Michelle Carey (Dublin Striders) 53.50 and Claire Bergin (DSD), 54.19. Catriona Cuddihy was fifth in 55.27.
There was bitter disappointment for 200m hopeful Steven Colvert (Crusaders) in his bid for Olympic qualification when he won his 200m semi-final in 20.40 secs which would have been well inside the “A” standard (20.55 secs) only to discover that the tailwind had gusted up to three metres per second.
Just minutes earlier the women’s semi-finals had been run in a wind of +1.4 and +1.2, respectively, which was under the legal limit of +2.
When he returned to the track less than two hours later the vagaries of the wind were even more devastating — gusting into his face on the bend and swirling around behind him in the finishing straight and this, combined with his earlier effort, saw him cross the line in 20.78 secs (Wind +2.8) well outside the standard.
He had arrived at the championships just two hundredths of a second outside the Olympic “A” standard from his Irish U23 record set in Velenje at 20.57 secs and after his hopes of achieving it were dashed when he was disqualified at the European championships in Helsinki.
The Barr siblings, Jessie and Thomas, were also on a desperate last minute mission to achieve the Olympic standards in the 400m hurdles but, on a damp day, fell short. Jessie retained her title in 57.33 secs while Joe retained his in 50.87 secs.
Dean Cronin (Blarney/Inniscarra), just turned 18, should be racing alongside Mark English in Barcelona this week in the world junior championships but, for some reason, he was not selected.
However, he gained some compensation yesterday when he became one of the youngest ever winners of the senior men’s 800m title in a fast finishing time of 1:52.48, turning in a strong final lap that was too much for the pre-race favourite, Brian Kelly (St. Abban’s), 1:52.78, and William Ryan (Ferrybank AC), 1:52.86.
“I was really disappointed I was not selected for the world junior championships but this makes up for it,” said Cronin, who is coached by John Meagher.
Denis Finnegan (Leevale AC) moved closer to the triple jump record which another Leevale athlete, Colm Cronin, set at 15.89m back in 1977 with a breakthrough 15.15.m for victory — in fact he bettered 15 metres with five of his six jumps.
Mark Hanrahan added another gold medal to the Leevale treasure chest when he held off pre-race favourite, Dan Mulhare (Portlaoise AC), to win the men’s 5,000m in 14:13.80.
Having won national titles at juvenile, junior and U23 levels as well as silver and bronze medals in the 1,500m at senior level this was Hanrahan’s first senior title.
“It was a long time coming but worth waiting for,” he said.
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