What a day, what a day!
It all began with out first venture out to the new Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown, a fantastic facility that we’re so lucky to have so close to home. Once we all had our bearings it was time for action!
First up was Catherine McManus in the 60m hurdles. Catherine had the added pressure of being in the first ever race on the new track. She put in a very competitive performance to not just be the first winner of the track, but also managed to get a new PB of 8.43!
Next the legendary Brigid Corrigan answered the call when she got it during the week to step up and represent DCH in the Shot Putt. She did so excellently looking like a pro placing a fantastic second with a high 9 metre throw! Still got it!!
Our DCH acrobat Muireann McGinley came a magnificent joint first in the pole vault and Emily Corcoran once again made 1.60m look easy in the high jump and nabbed the first place spot.
Carrying on the winning ways, Claire Brennan caused consternation thorughout our supporters in the stands while running the race of her life to storm through the final lap and obliterate the field in a brilliant first place in the 1500m! A fantastic display of competitiveness and making sure to get every point for the team!
Following this, Catherine pulled the ultimate ‘faux pas’ and got disqualified in the women’s 60m – fortunately she managed to focus and channel all her rage to pull out three almighty jumps and actually WIN the long jump with a leap of over 5 meters (PB!) and put us back on top!
Susie McManus was next to toe the line and placed her race to perfection to finish with an almighty kick to secure a second place finish for the team. Niamh Donnelly made her DCH blocks debut with a 5th place in the 400m – you’d never guess she only learned how to use them on Wednesday! Great running!
Our youngest team member competing was Chloe Corcoran who got out there and ran a fiercely competitive 200m to finish in 5th place. Very impressive considering she’s nearly 10 years younger than most of her teammates! Aoife Ni Bhrion executed some exceptionally graceful triple jumps to secure us some more valuable points before the final track event of the evening.
Tension was mounting as the last event rolled around – the 4x200m. Our in-house statisticians had been doing the calculations all day and had worked out who we had to beat so the pressure was on.
Niamh, Chloe, Catherine and Caoimhe stepped up for the last race of the day. Niamh stormed from the blocks to pass the baton to Chloe – who was still recovering from her 200m 30mins earlier! Chloe worked hard around the bend to power home to Catherine with the team lying in third position. Catherine then took off, still no doubt raging about the DQ earlier, and channelled this anger to run a tremendous leg of the relay and pulled the team right up into first place to give Caoimhe some breathing room to take the final leg. She then had an immensely gutsy finish and the girls secured second place. It was now time to wait for race 2 to be run to see had they done enough. Once race two was complete cheers went up throughout the stands! We did it! Woohoo!!
A huge HUGE thank you to each and every supporter who came out to shout, scream, bang chairs, count points, hold gear, say prayers – the lot! Your cheering no doubt gave all the girls the extra gear needed to bring home the gold for the club! Another big thank you to all the coaches and long suffering parents who put in so much time and effort getting the team ready and being of great support to everyone on the day!
Today was truly a team effort from everyone who helped out with and competed in the League events over the last few weeks – and for that effort WELL DONE EVERYONE!
….now, what times training in the morning?
(Official results to follow)
Thanks to Brian for the pics!
Celtic DCH 