SCHOOL EDITION 24 APRIL 2024 - Flipbook - Page 27
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WEDNESDAY APRIL 24 2024
Athletics
No marathon spot for
Ireland at Olympics
as hopefuls fall short
Scullion 昀椀rst Irish 昀椀nisher in London – but is eight minutes shy of mark
MALCOLM MCCAUSLAND
I
RELAND will not have a representative in the men’s marathon
at the Paris Olympics later this
year following Sunday’s London Marathon. All three hopefuls fell
well short of the qualifying standard
with the deadline under two weeks
away.
It looked for a long time that Hiko
Tonosa would be on the start line at
the Hotel de Ville on August 10, but
the Dundrum South Dublin athlete
was on target for the 2:08:10 mark for
a long way but ran out of steam after
30 kilometres and failed to nish.
Belfast man Stephen Scullion did
nish, but was almost eight minutes
outside the required time with a
2:16:04 timing. It was always a long
shot that miler turned marathoner
Sean Tobin would meet the mark and
so it proved as the Clonmel AC also
threw in the towel around the same
place as Tonosa. Ireland’s other man
in the elite eld Martin Hoare had a
steady run for 2:22:59, but surprise
of the day, from an Irish perspective, was Willie Maunsell, a clubmate
of Tobin, who ran a personal best
2:16:34 in the mass race.
Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso Munyao held off 41-year-old running legend Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia to
win the men’s race in 2:04:01. The
British duo of Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed nished third and
fourth to secure places in this year’s
Olympic Games.
Alexander Mutiso Munyao and Peres Jepchirchir with their trophies and medals on
the podium after winning the men’s and women’s elite races during the TCS London
Marathon yesterday
PICTURE: PA
Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir proved the strongest of the
four women at the head of the eld
with just 800m to run. Jepchirchir set
a new women-only world record of
2:16:16, bettering by 45 seconds the
previous mark set by fellow Kenyan
Mary Keitany in 2017.
At home southern athletes dominated the elite men’s race at the
North Belfast Harriers Afternoon
of 5000m Races at the Mary Peters
Track on Saturday. Jack Fenton, from
the St Abban’s club in Laois, recorded the fastest time of the day with a
14:01.90 hand timing.
Tallaght AC’s Cormac Dixon was
next quickest with a 14:04.8 mark
and he was followed at some distance by Annadale Striders’ Brhane
Gebrebrhan in 14:12.0.
England-based Emily Haggard
Kearney was the runaway winner
of the elite women’s race in a new
North Belfast Harriers’ club record
of 16:09.81. Next fastest was Dun-
drum South Dublin’s Emma McEvoy
in 16:33.60 followed by Annadale
Strider Hannah Gilliland in 16:48.36.
Mallusk Harrier Adam McCann
(17:01) and the host club’s Claire
McAtamney (19:34) recorded the
respective fastest male and female
times at Friday night’s Tafelta Friendly 5000m Series in Magherafelt.
Meanwhile, on the international stage, Donegal man Mark English
was 12th in the 800m at the opening
Diamond League xture in Xiamen,
China recording a time of 1.47.02 in a
race won by world champion Marco
Aron of Canada in 1.43.61.
Raheny Shamrock Brian Fay
was 12th in the 5000m with a time
of 13.14.97 behind Ethiopian Lamecha Girma who stopped the clock
at 12.58.96. Highlight of the meeting
was a new world pole vault record of
6.24m by Sweden’s Armand Duplantis. The 24-year-old has now cleared
a full eight centimetres higher than
anyone else ever.
England see o昀昀 Ireland
to stay on track for title
England’s Abby Dow (left) is challenged
by Ireland’s Beibhinn Parsons during
Saturday’s Guinness Women’s Six
Nations clash at Twickenham. A crowd
of 48,778 watched the Red Roses plunder
14 tries in an 88-10 victory that keeps
them on course to win a sixth successive
Guinness Women’s Six Nations title
when they face France in a likely Grand
Slam decider next weekend.
Unstoppable wing Dow and player of
the match Ellie Kildunne completed
hat-tricks as England delivered on their
promise to put on a show.
Ireland head coach Scott Bemand
admitted his side were left “shellshocked” by the game’s dominant force.
“Tough day at the o昀케ce. We came up
against the market leaders but we’ll dust
ourselves down and come back next
week,” he said.
“吀栀is was a big game for a youthful
group. Could we have predicted a margin
like that? Probably not.”
PICTURE: PA
Viaply Elite League play-off final Belfast Giants 1 She昀케eld Steelers 3
Giants’ quest for silverware blunted by Steelers
B
ELFAST Giants have fallen
at the nal hurdle just as it
looked like they may nish
the season with a trophy,
losing the Playoff nal 3-1 against the
Shefeld Steelers in Nottingham on
Sunday night.
After going two goals down in the
rst period, the Giants battled their
way back into the game with a goal
from Blake Speers at the end of the
second period, but it was not enough
in the end as Kevin Tansey capped
off the Steelers’ win with a late
empty-netter.
Shefeld have completed a treble
of trophies with the win, replicating
PETER LOCKHART
the Giants’ Grand Slam success in
2022/23 by collecting the league title, the Challenge Cup and now the
Play-off trophy.
Adam Keefe’s side nished the
season strongly, gaining the most
points of any team in the league
in their nal 20 games before
progressing to the play-off nals for
a last shot at retaining a piece of last
season’s silverware.
However, it has been a disappointing campaign overall by the
high standards set by the Giants who
have never nished a full season
without a trophy while Adam Keefe
has been head coach.
Indeed, after a blistering start to
the season which included a 13-game
winning streak, the Giants struggled
with form and injury resulting in
them crashing out of the Challenge
Cup against Coventry and falling
behind in the league race.
After recapturing some of their
early season form as players returned from injury and new recruits
were brought in, the men in teal carried momentum into the play-offs
where they demonstrated their ability to grind out results.
After gaining revenge on Coventry with a 3-2 win in the quarter -nal,
the Giants booked their place in the
Elite League play-off nal with a 2-1
overtime win over Cardiff Devils.
With the Giants seeking to spoil
the party for the Steelers in their
quest to emulate the Giants’ Grand
Slam success, it was never going to
be an easy feat to stop Aaron Fox’s
side in their tracks given their dominance this season.
Indeed, the Steelers laid down a
marker in the rst period with powerplay goals in quick succession
from Daniel Ciampini and Mikko Juusola leaving the Giants on the ropes.
A hard-fought second period ended with a goal from the Giant’s Blake
Speers, setting up a dramatic nale.
Despite their best efforts, the Giants could not nd a way past goalie
Matthew Greeneld and, after Adam
Keefe opted to take off goalie Jackson Whistle for an extra skater, Kevin
Tansey sealed the game for the Steelers with a nish into an empty net to
nish the game at 3-1.
A disappointing nish to an upand-down season for Adam Keefe’s
men, but full credit to Aaron Fox’s
side who left deserved Grand
Slam winners after a remarkable
campaign.
