Mixed moods and testing weather on day of silvers for Donegal athletes

Margins were fine on a day of silver linings for Donegal athletes at the National Senior Championships in Santry.

Kelly McGrory, Roisin Flanagan, Brendan Boyce and Gareth Crawford all left Morton Stadium with silver.

In the case of each, there was satisfaction with national silver. Yet, it was one of those afternoons that left a dollop of what ifs in their minds.

The silver haul returning to the North West takes Donegal’s tally to one gold, seven silver and two bronze medals from the weekend.

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Donegal athletes secured six medals - one gold, three silver and two bronze - on day one of the Senior Championships in Santry, but Mark English won't be adding to his tally as he has withdrawn

McGrory relinquished her 400m hurdles crown - but not before the Tir Chonaill AC woman endured a titanic tussle over the barriers. Clonliffe Harriers’ Jessica Tappin took gold in 57.21 seconds, just .26 seconds ahead of McGrory.

“Happy with the time, considering the conditions,” McGrory said. “That’s actually a decent time,” she quickly added.

Tappin, an Englishwoman who hopes to switch over and wear the green vest, had won her heat in 58.80 seconds on Saturday with McGrory, the defending champion, qualifying in 60.38 seconds.

McGrory, whose partner Thomas Barr won his 11th Irish title over the same 400m hurdles in the next race, would’ve needed to lower her Donegal record of 57.22 to pip Tappin.

The Laghey woman said: “I’m happy with how close it was. I didn’t think it would’ve been that close of a battle. On paper, Jessica has been running quicker, over a second quicker than me. There was a good battle between us there. There was nothing in it and my hurdle ten wasn’t amazing. That sort of cost me.”

Kelly McGrory of Tir Chonaill AC. Photo: Sportsfile

There was silver for Flanagan, in a 5000m that ended in teeming rain. The Finn Valley AC woman squelched home in 15:45.94, edged for gold by Ide Nicdhomhnaill of West Limerick AC, who took gold in 15:44.81.

Flanagan, based these days in Alamosa, Colorado - where she trains under Damon Martin - had been showing good form lately having lowered the Donegal record over this distance to 15:26.32 at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium in May. She was below 15:30 again in recent weeks when going 15:29.69 at the Meeting International d'Athletisme de la Province de Liege.

Flanagan - 14th at the European Championships and 11th at the Commonwealth Games last year - was over 20 seconds down on her 5000m PB.

“Not my best, not my worst,” she mused afterwards, the disappointment palpable as the rain chucked down upon the small tent under which she huddled at the finish.

“It came back to me near the end, but my legs kind of gave in over the last km. It was a hard effort and it’ll help me towards next year.”

Roisin Flanagan in the 5000m. Photo: Sportsfile

For the opening eight laps, Flanagan was neck-and-neck with identical twin Eilish, the pair exchanging the lead almost like clockwork. Four laps from the end, Eilish, inhibited by a hip niggle in recent weeks, stepped off the track.

Nicdhomhnaill and Shona Heaslip narrowed the deficit on Flanagan, who found a gear down the home stretch to take silver.

She said: “This was definitely a learning experience. I probably lost a little focus. I need to learn to dig deep in the last quarter.”

Letterkenny AC’s Nakita Burke was fifth in the 5000m, delivering a performance of real guts to finish just 1.21 seconds off her 16-minute target. Burke, the bronze medalist in 2021, got in ahead of Cheryl Nolan for fifth, just behind two-time Olympian Michelle Finn.

Boyce took silver in the 10,000m walk. The Finn Valley AC man is counting down the days now to the World Championships in Budapest. There, he will go over 35k and silver here will have represented a useful outing.

David Kenny opened the gaps around the midway point and had around 370m to spare as the Farranfore Main Valley man won in 40:20.63 - shaving around 18 seconds off his personal best.

Boyce staved off a stern challenge by Mullingar’s Oisin Lane, as the Milford native - a three-time Olympian - held on for silver in 41:49.10 with Lane following in 41:53.45.

In 2013, Boyce won gold in the 10k walk, but has just returned from a spell at 1800m altitude in Saint Moritz, Switzerland.

“I was hoping to get under 41 minutes, but I’m just four days back from altitude so I’ve felt bit rusty,” Boyce said. “I did a session at altitude on Wednesday and we hadn’t planned to taper for this. All in all, it’s not a bad result.”

Crawford could almost touch the javelin gold. The Lifford-Strabane AC thrower was in the lead after his sixth and last attempt. A 65.69m throw had Crawford in pole position until the final launch of the competition.

Gareth Crawford of Lifford-Strabane AC. Photo: Sportsfile

Lake District’s Oisin Joyce stepped up to plant the spear at 70.56m, snatching the golden nugget from under Crawford’s nose.

“It wasn’t too bad,” Crawford, whose PB is 68.88m, said. “I thought I might have held on, but I can’t be too disappointed. I’m happy enough. I’ve done alright. I’m happy with a silver here.”

There were fourth-place finished for Finn Valley AC throwers Blaine Lynch and Bridget McDyer. In the javelin, Lynch’s best of 52.54m was just 1.01m shy of a medal, while McDyer - just back in action after an elbow injury - threw a best of 6.26m in the weight for distance, just 0.34m away from the podium.

Janine Boyle, the 200m bronze medalist on Saturday, reached the 100m semi-finals on Sunday.  Boyle was fourth in her heat in 12.49 seconds but, while taking 0.06 of a second off that in the semi-final, a place in the final eluded the Finn Valley AC sprinter.

A day earlier, Boyle clocked 25.21 seconds to take her place on the 200m podium for her first National Senior medal. Sophie Parlour of Olympian YAC was just behind Boyle in the heat and went 12.33 seconds in a quick semi, also missing out on advancement.

Jack Murphy from Tir Chonaill AC finished sixth in the pole vault, knocking the bar at 3.60m having cleared 3.40m, Lifford-Strabane AC’s Ellie McCurdy was sixth in the long jump when throwing to 35.91m, while Finn Valley AC’s Oisin Thompson was tenth in the long jump with a best leap of 6.45m.

In a B 5000m, Letterkenny AC’s Donal Farren took third, crossing the line in 15:03.88 with City of Derry’s Sean Melarkey (14:59.09) and Jamie Gahan of Kilkenny City Harriers (14:59.57) in the top two positions.