MSB athletes at the National Indoor Championships, Odyssey Arena, Belfast

Metro St. Brigids were very well represented at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast at the weekend for the National Indoor championships, with six athletes going north to take part.  Although billed as the national championships, many guest runners from abroad were allowed to take part, as a result of which the event was graced with athletes from the UK, Europe and the United States.

First into action was Jackie Mulhall in the women’s 60m, fresh from her silver medal at the Leinster championships the previous weekend in Nenagh.  Competing in a heat that contained  Olympic 400m champion, Christine Ohorougu from Great Britain, Jackie ran a superb race to qualify for the semi-finals with a season’s best performance of 8.21.  In the semi, although she repeated her time of 8.21 she failed to advance to the final.

In extremely tight qualifying conditions, the efforts of  Pete Schartzstein in the 60m, Dave Lorigan in the 200m, Neil Cullen in the 400m and Michael O’Sullivan in the 800m were insufficient to advance.  It is worth noting that in each of these events (with up to 12 heats) only the four fastest athletes advanced to the A final with the next 4 qualifying for the B final.

In the 3000m the club’s colours were carried by John Coghlan.  John managed to stay in a medal position for about 8 of the 15 laps before running out of steam somewhat over the latter part of the race.  Nevertheless his finishing position of 6th in a time of 8.31.18 from a field of 23 starters was a highly creditable performance.

Next up on the indoor front are the Irish Universities championships which take place in Nenagh on Saturday and Sunday next, 14th and 15th February.

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