Smyth misses out on Olympics

Smyth’s 10.38 seconds Santry clocking left him only one hundreth of a second behind the new 100m champion and came at the end of a busy two days which saw him also race twice in Loughborough on Saturday in a vain last ditch attempt to book his Olympic place.

After returning home from the European championships in Helsinki the previous weekend, the Spartan trained on Templemore Sports Complex track last week before flying over to Loughborough for Saturday’s track meet, where he posted disappointing 10.47 seconds and 10.50 seconds.

Back to Dublin for Sunday’s championships and it was an improved performance but the damp conditions and perhaps the pressure, saw his 10.40 seconds semi-final win and then the 10.38 seconds, which was a silver medal run in the final.

Double disappointment then for the Eglinton Flyer but he must now focus on the Paralympian Games, also in London immediately after the Olympics, and get ready to defend his 100m/200m titles with perhaps an eye on improving his own Paralympian world records.

Jason’s national silver medal was one of eight championship medals brought home by North west athletes from Dublin.

Finn Valley’s Tori Pena successfully defended her women’s Pole Vault title and Letterkenny’s Maria McCambridge was an impressive 5,000m winner.

Tirconaill AC’s Mary McLoone retained her Triple Jump crown and also claimed Long Jump silver but another defending champion Aaron Crawford of Strabane Track Club, could only return with Javelin silver.

The in-form Ciaran Doherty of Letterkenny also took 3K Steeplechase silver and there were bronze medals from the Spartans’ Greg Roberts in the 10,000m and in the 1,500m for Darren McBrearty of Letterkenny.

Greg Roberts made a welcome return to track racing and ran 31 minutes and 26 seconds for championship bronze behind Brian Maher and Gary O’Hanlan, with fellow Spartan Declan Reed not far behind in fourth with 31 minutes and 44 seconds. Good strong runs from the Derry lads who have the Berlin Marathon in late September in their sights.

Letterkenny’s Darren McBrearty grabbed bronze in a hotly contested 1,500m final, posting 3 minutes and 54.93 seconds as the top six finished with less than a second between first and sixth.

Indeed the Spartans’ Connor Bradley ran 3 minutes and 55.41 seconds for sixth place and was so close to the medals. The provincial 1,500m champion will be disappointed but will dust himself down and move on to the next assignment, possibly the Brian Downing Memorial meeting in Antrim next Wednesday.

Other local performances from Santry included Padjo Hamilton’s 1 minutes and 55.45 seconds ninth place finish in the 800m final; Mary Devlin’s fifth place Long Jump finish and in the 5,000m, a 15 minutes and 06 seconds person best for JP Williamson for eighth and Emmet McGinty’s 15 minutes and 22 seconds.

On the weekend road race scene, Noel Logan won Saturday’s Strabane 10K with a 33 minutes and 49 seconds clocking and on Friday night in Cranford, fellow Spartan Catherine Lilburn ran a swift 27 minutes and 03 seconds for the women’s race honours at the 4.2 miler.

Logan stepped away from the track to take in the popular Strabane race and was rewarded with a morale boosting victory ahead of Paul Barbour on 33 minutes and 57 seconds with Pius McIntyre third on 34 minutes and 01 seconds.

Bill Duncan ran 38 minutes and 11 seconds for the M45 win, Christy McMonagle took the M65 category with 42 minutes and 05 seconds and it was good to see Gavin Stevenson back in race action and just missing a top 10 finish, eleventh with 37 minutes and 42 seconds.

Monaghan Phoenix athlete Donna Evans ran 39 minutes and 14 seconds to lift the women’s prize.

In Cranford, Catherine Lilburn was a runaway women’s race winner with her 27 minutes and 03 seconds as her good performances continue and Letterkenny’s Ivan Toner was the men’s race winner in 22 minutes and 49 seconds.