ON A day when Mark English retained his national 800m crown, Tir Chonaill AC’s Mary McLoone won her second gold medal of the weekend at the GloHealth National Senior Track and Field Championships at Santry.
McLoone, a day after winning her tenth Irish triple jump title, won gold in the long jump.
The Lettermacaward woman had a superb leap on Saturday and followed it up with today’s 6.01 metres in the long jump, an attempt that saw her take the win from runner-up Saragh Buggy (St Abban’s), who reached 5.77 metres.
English (picture above courtesy of Kieran Carlin) won the men’s 800m in comfortable fashion. The UCD AC athlete, who last month secured qualification for the 2016 Olympic Games when he ran 1:45.49 at the Anniversary Games, retained his crown when he finished in 1:50.94.
The Letterkenny man, who has recovered from recent injury trouble, was ahead of Clonliffe’s Declan Murray (1:51.04) and Niall Tuohy of Ferrybank (1:51.50).
Finn Valley pole vaulter Tori Pena also booked her ticket to Rio last month when she cleared the magical mark of 4.50 metres in Germany.
This afternoon, the Californian (below) won her fifth national title when 4.20 metres was enough for success in Santry.
Brendan Boyce will also be in Brazil. The Milford racewalker will be in the 50k walk in Rio after securing qualification back in March. The Letterkenny AC man won a silver medal in the National Championships today, when his 41:16.25 saw him come home second in the 10k walk, an event won by Leevale’s Alex Wright.
There was silver success, too, for Finn Valley’s Ciaran Dolan, who was second in the men’s long jump with 7.28 metres while Letterkenny AC’s Ciaran Doherty was sixth in the men’s 3,000m and Danny Mooney came fifth in the 1,500m.
