Driven by grief, Tir Chonaill AC's Fintan Dewhirst storms into Irish Indoor 400m final

Fuelled by pure raw emotion, Fintan Dewhirst powered his way into the Irish Indoor 400m final.

In his semi-final at the National Indoor Arena in Dublin, the Tir Chonaill AC ace burst through in 47.23 seconds.

Just hours after the death of Tir Chonaill AC stalwart Eamon Harvey, the 20-year-old Glenties man shook off Sean Doggett to move menacingly into Sunday’s final.

“There was emotion behind the race,” Dewhirst said after a significant improvement on his previous 48.06 personal best.

“I knew that second would probably have done it, but I wanted to win. That was what fuelled the aggressive mood.”

On Harvey, Dewhirst said:  “He was just a wise man. He was full of information and advice. He passed away this morning. He was one of the reasons that I am doing athletics. I wanted to do it for him.”

Dewhirst won from Sean Doggett, the Athenry AC athlete who finished in 47.51 and who had been the pre-meet favourite for the 400m gold.

Dewhirst, who began out of lane 8, scorched through in a superb time and will now go head-to-head with Doggett in Sunday afternoon’s final.

Doggett: “It was a good race. It was a bit physical, but that’s racing.”

Dewhirst’s time is the second fastest ever by a Donegal athlete in the event. The county record for an indoor 400m is held by Mark English, the 800m specialist having clocked a 47.20 in 2022.

His brother, Ethan Dewhirst, was third in his semi-final, going around in 49.12 seconds, but missing out on advancement. 

Read next: The late Eamon Harvey fondly remembered as a man of education and sport

Finn Valley AC’s Arlene Crossan will contest Sunday’s women’s 400m semi-final after a fine outing in her semi-final.

Crossan wasn’t too far off her 54.18-second PB in tracking Sharlene Mawdsley in the semi.

Mawdsley won the semi-final in 52.59 seconds with Crossan, who was on her tail for the most part, clocking 54.28.

Crossan, who will aim to be in medal territory tomorrow, won her heat in 56.80 with Tir Chonaill AC’s Emily Kelly third in the same heat in 58.63 and missing out on qualification.

Sommer Lecky was inched out of the high jump gold medal place by Aoife O’Sullivan, the Liscarroll AC athlete winning on a countback.

Finn Valley AC athlete Lecky and O’Sullivan both knocked the bar at 1.80m three times. With both having cleared 1.75m, it came down to O’Sullivan going over at the first attempt of 1.75m, leaving Lecky taking silver.

Sommer Lecky was the high jump silver medal winner. Photo: Sportsfile

Finn Valley AC’s Joseph Gillespie was the triple jump bronze medal winner.

Gillespie didn’t have the best of openings to his day, but managed to touch the sand at 13.75m on his final visit.

That earned him bronze behind Ennis Track’s David Onwudiew *13.96m) and Darragh Fahy of Loughrea (13.94m).

Bridget McDyer of Finn Valley AC won bronze in the women’s weight for distance.

McDyer threw out to a best of 6.29m on her fifth attempt in an event won by Kotryna Pacerinskaite from Fanahan McSweeney AC in a new national record of 8.70m.