A packed crowd at last night’s AIT International Grand Prix saw history being made right at the end when former AIT scholarship student John Travers made Irish athletics history by becoming the first Irish man to run a sub 4-minute mile on home soil (3.59.40).
Irish headliner Thomas Barr thrilled the crowd an hour beforehand with a come from behind victory in the final 40m of a brilliant Ericsson 400m men’s race.
Barr was the only athlete to dip under the 47-second barrier which was an amazing time for a 400m hurdles specialist. Barr was fulsome in his praise of the ecstatic sell-out crowd who he credited with helping him overtake Ricardo Dos-Santos of Portugal in the home straight.
The Bank of Ireland men’s pole vault proved to be a real winner for the crowd too with current world champion Sam Kendricks and former world champion Shawn Barber going higher and higher through the night before Kendricks came out on top with a vault of 5.70 metres.
A packed Alkermes 800m men’s field treated the large crowds at the AIT International arena to a brilliant spectacle. Spaniard Kevin Lopez had to dig very deep into his reserves to hold off Irish hero Mark English. Lopez’s winning time of 1.47.43 while English came home in 1.47.48. The fact that Poland’s Mateusz Borkowski and Great Britain’s Andrew Osagie could only manage third and fourth respectively tells us what a fine run English gave.
Jamaican Ryan Shields (6.63) was just 5 hundreds of a second off the stadium record to win the Hodson Bay and Sheraton Athlone Hotels men’s 60m from previous winner D’angleo Cherry USA. Dutch athlete Joris Van Gool rounded off the podium. One Irish man Dean Adams recovered from his DQ at the national champions last weekend to reach the final and run 6.88.
Another Dutch athlete was the winner in the DPDs women’s 60m. Naomi Sedney who was forth favourite before the race won in a time of 7.30 while pushing American Harrigan-Scott and Jamaican Calvert-Powell into the minor places. Joan Healy and Niamh Whelan put in strong performances in an excellent final.
Lindsay Lindley was the winner of a very competitive Athletics Ireland women’s 60m Hurdles in a rapid 8.04 as pre-race favourite Raven Clay only managed third place in 8.22. Dutch girl Eefje Boons was second with a time of 8.01. Irelands Sarah Lavin finished in fourth with a time of 8.35 which was 7 hundreds of a second ahead of compatriot Elizabeth Morland who beat Lavin in the national championships last Sunday.
Sofia Ennaoui put in a blistering final 300m to justify her favourite tag to win the Roscommon County Council women’s 1500m in 4.10.63. German girl Gesa Krause a perennial favourite at the AIT GP just took second place from Australian Zoe Buckman. Irish national champion Emma Mitchell ran a brave race to come fourth.
There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the Arena with Athletics Ireland President and CEO Georgina Drumm and John Foley both in attendance and a massive number of young children fired up by what they were seeing and chasing Sam Kendricks and Thomas Barr in particular around the Arena looking for autographs and just to be close to one of their new sporting heroes.
The organisers were clearly enjoying themselves as well with Meet Director Ciaran O’Catháin and Gordon Brett from AIT high fiving each other in the middle of the track after both Barr’s and Travers’ performances.
All the action was broadcast live to the US on Flotrack and in a ninety minute highlights package last night on TG4.
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Image Credit: Brendan Moran, Sportsfile
