25 July 2009

Who needs Usain Bolt? - Final IMC 2009 Races Save Best Till Last

Footage courtesy of David Bradshaw

With the sounds of U2 in Croke Park blaring across the Liffey to Irishtown it was a case of a 'Beautiful Day' at the final IMC of 2009. Fast times and personal best performances were the order of the day as 76 athletes towed the line (Results and photos to follow later).

The men's 3000m kicked off proceedings and was a straight shoot out between Barry Minnock of Rathfarham WSAF and Raheny Shamrocks colleagues Kevin Moriarty and Cillian O'Leary. Minnock bravely went with the pace following pacemaker Stephen Scullion through 2k in 5.36 with Moriarty 40 meters behind. At the end Minnock held on for a new personal best win in 8.31.97, slicing 10 seconds off his previous best time to continue his 2009 improvement. Moriarty held on for a personal best in 8.43.72 and O'Leary in 8.49.11.

Next up was the men's 800m A race and it was a cracker!! Joe Warne was in charge of the pacing and did a fantastic job to 600m when Dunleer's Darragh Greene took over with returning to form David Mc Carthy right on his shoulder. With 100m to go it looked like the winner would come from either of these two athletes. However, Julian Kuppler of Rathfarnham burst past the two in the final 50m to give Rathfarnham WSAF their second victory of the night in a new personal best of 1.52.10 to just pip Mc Carthy in 1.52.12. This brought back memories of a great tussle between Mc Carthy and James Nolan at the IMC last year where Mc Carthy narrowly took the win. 16 year old Mark English ran a huge personal best to get up past Greene - 1.52.26 to 1.52.45. Brian Markham and Danny Mooney also ran personal bests.

The women's 800m saw the largest women's race in the history of the IMC as 13 athletes took to the startline - a sure sign that the popularity of IMC races is growing in the female fraternity. Garrett Coughlan took the pace through halfway in 60 seconds with Martina Mc Carthy making her IMC debut right behind him. Fiona Kehoe and Christine Long were in pursuit ahead of Michelle Harvey and Ciara Durkan. Going through 600m in 1.30, Mc Carthy looked like she was on for a special time, however she faded slightly over the final 100m to finish in 2.07.60. Fiona Kehoe had a fast finish to get second place in 2.10.45 with Michelle Harvey just getting ahead of Christine Long for third in 2.12.47. 11 athletes broke 2.20 in this race.

The 800m men's B race was paced again by Stephen Scullion with a fast halfway split of 55 seconds. When Scullion stepped off the track Gavin O'Sullivan, who is returning from a long injury lay off, burst away from the field to win comfortably in 1.55.65, just off his personal best time. Liam Markham had the fastest last 100m of all the athletes, running out of track in the race to the line to finish second in 1.56.08 and Michael Quinn third. The men's 1500m B race was paced by Shane Cowzer leading through to 800m in 2.08. His brother Neil was in the hunt for the minor placings and took up the reins in the final 50m to smash his personal best by three seconds for a 4.04.16 win, just ahead of Tommy Casey from North Sligo (4.04.91 PB) and Joe Breen (4.04.96).

The best race of the night came last with the men's 1500m A race. Joe Warne again excelled at the pacemaking taking the field through 800m just under 2 minutes with in form Sean Connolly right behind him. With the fast pace it was single file all the way as 13 athletes would go on to set personal bests in this race, again rolling back the memories from an IMC meeting two years ago where 17 athletes went sub 4 minutes in one race. Connolly was more than likely responsible for this as he held a strong pace through the 3rd lap. With 300m remaining, Mark Hanrahan went flying past him although Connolly stuck to his task to set up an exciting finale. The Cork man held on though to set him up nicely for next weeks National Championships, winning in 3.46.33 to Connolly's 3.47.30. With such an exciting battle at the front the crowd missed out on a classic fight for third as fast finishing Pat Mc Carton (3.48.89) got ahead of up and coming stars Darren Mc Brearty (3.49.02) and Michael Mulhare (3.49.91). 8 athletes ran sub 3.52.5 with 12 going sub 4 minutes.

Overall this was a fantastic ending to what has been a great 2009 Irish Milers Club Series. The IMC Committee would like to thank the coaches, athletes and their supporters for competing and attending the races this year. We would also like to thank the Dublin Board for kindly providing us with permits for our Dublin events, as well as the Irish Schools and the Cork City Sports for hosting us again in 2009. We now have a record membership of over 250 athletes, an ever increasing female membership and are looking to expand our race series next year around the country. This would not be possible without the committee members of Paul Cummins, Des Lynch, Michael Mc Govern and Susan Walsh and the many volunteers who assist on the nights of the events. We wish all of our members a successful National Championships next week and for the remainder of 2009. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2010!!

Click here to see photo gallery of the night
Download results here (PDF)
Download start list here (PDF)