Cork City Sports 2009 |
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 Claire Mooney and Eoin Mulhall at Cork City Sports |
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| The 2009 edition of the Cork City
Sports took place in a windy Mardyke by the Lee on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 and
saw five Kildare athletes display their talents. It is indicative of the
changes of emphasis that has taken place in Irish athletics over the past few
years that four of these are participants in sprint events, with Newbridge's
Roseanne Galligan the sole Middle Distance performer; this shift is also
emphasised by there being only one male - Naas' Eoin Mulhall - to four female.
And it was one of the latter who opened the day for Kildare: Claire Mooney has had a wonderful season so far, the young Naas AC girl is now firmly established as the leading Women's Junior 400m athlete, and emphasised her superiority again in finishing ahead of the field of the country's best Juniors in her event, in the process setting a new PB of 56.48. Indeed immediately afterwards she expressed disappointment at her performance as she felt she had lost concentration into the strong headwind in the back straight - I can only say keep doing PBs Claire! Eoin Mulhall approached his 400m event with his focus clearly on how to handle that wind, running conservatively in the first half, then accelerating into the third 100. Entering the straight he was still only fifth, but then exploded through the field of tiring athletes to finish second - his time a slowish 49.70, but a very mature performance. Both Eoin and Claire were part of Irish Junior 4 x 400m teams in the final events of the day, in Eoin's case a rehearsal of his event in the European Junior Championships in Serbia later this month - both teams finished second. |
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| By Brian Dowling |
