Kelly and Akinola among winners at Irish Indoors
Derry Track Club's Conor Kelly's 400m triumph and Bori Akinola's dethroning of four-in-a-row seeking Israel Olatunde in the 60m were among the highlights at the Irish Indoor Athletics Championship at Abbotstown on Sunday.Kelly, who won bronze at last summer's European Under-18 Championships outdoors, bettered the national under-20 record of 46.63 he set in Saturday's heats when he took victory in 46. 54 seconds. The 17-year-old finished exactly a second ahead of UCD's David Bosch as Athenry talent Sean Doggett had to settle for third place in 47.69 with Jack Raftery pulling up because of injury on the back straight.After improving his own Irish 100m record outdoors to 10.12 seconds last summer, Olatunde went into the 60m final as a strong favourite but UCD's Akinola triumphed in 6.61 seconds.Riverstick/Kinsale AC athlete Max O'Reilly took second in 6.69 with Olatunde having to settle for third in 6.72 - 0.15 seconds outside the personal best he set in 2023.The women's 60m was won by Killarney's Sarah Leahy who clocked 7.39 seconds as she held off former champion Ciara Neville.
Sharlene Mawdsley clinched her expected women's 400m title as her winning time of 51.91 left her well clear of Phil Healy (53.25) and North Down's Rachel McCann (53.37).Northern Ireland winners over the weekend included Tyrone duo Roisin Flanagan and Sommer Lecky.Flanagan took a dominant women's 3000m win in 9:14.02 with high jumper Lecky clinching gold in 1.81m as her first-time clearance over the winning height earned victory on countback over Dundalk athlete Tara O'Connor.In-form Sarah Healy set a championship record of 4:08.76 when dominating the women's 1500m.The men's metric mile title was successfully defended by Olympic semi-finalist Cathal Doyle who won a slow tactical race in 3:58.10 as the previously Lagan Valley affiliated, UCD's Lughaidh Mallon (4:00.61) and Annadale Striders' Brhane Gebrebrhan (4:00.85) took silver and bronze.Louise Shanahan won the women's 800m title in 2:07.82 with the men's title in the absence of Mark English going to Bohermeen's Kevin McGrath who clocked 1:51.11.Other Sunday winners included Clonmel's Sean Tobin in the men's 3000m as he triumphed in 8:09.18 by edging out James Gormley from the Tyrone-based Carmen Runners by 0.01 seconds with Candour's Callum Morgan (8:11.27) completing the podium positions. Saturday's victors included Sarah Lavin (8.11) in the women's 60m hurdles and impressive men's 200m winner Marcus Lawler who set a championship record of 20.74 seconds.
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