DCU athletes set new records at IUAA Championships

DCU athletes set five new indoor club records at the IUAA championships in Athlone and in doing so retained both team titles.

The Men’s squad have now won 11 overall team titles on the trot while the Ladies squad were winning their 10th successive team title.

The female jumpers of Sarah Mc Carthy (5.87m in the Long Jump) and Saragh Buggy (13.05m in the Triple Jump – new IUAA / DCU record) dominated their events.

Sarah Murray was magnificent in the 60m sprint retaining her title while the evergreen Catherine Mc Manus won the 60mH in a time of 8.52secs.

First year students Amy Ni Hamill in the 800m (2.16.10) and Sophie Becker in the 400m (56.98) both won their first IUAA titles. Across the board, the team accumulated points and won medals to ensure that DCU retained our team title for the 10th consecutive year.

In the 1500m, Rachael Smyth set a new college record of 4.31.40. The Women’s team won a total of 19 medals, two more than last year, with 6 Gold, 9 Silver and 4 Bronze.

In the Men’s competitions, DCU set 3 new club records with Cian Mc Manamon in the 2K Walk (7.41.10), Eoin Sheridan in the Shot (14.99) and James Kelly in the Weight for Distance with 8.09m.

In addition, DCU had outstanding victories from Cillian Kirwan in the 1500m (4.02.60), Keith Marks in the Long Jump (6.98m), Oisin Taylor in the Triple Jump (13.87m) and Shane Aston in the Combined Events (3638 points).

The Men’s team won 17 medals (itself a new club record) with 5 Gold, 6 Silver and 6 Bronze on a magnificent day for DCU athletics.

At the end of a long day of competitions, the Women’s team of DCU (118 points) won from UL (82 points) and AIT (40 points) while in the Men’s overall; DCU with 109 points won from UL (68 points) and QUB (35 points).

This was one of the best team performances over the past 10 years and despite losing a number of top class athletes (due to injuries) in the lead up these championships, DCU athletes more than rose to the occasion.

The athletic performances are a big thank you to the outstanding coaches (sprints, jumps, walks, throws and distance) – many of whom were in the arena to support the DCU athletes. 

Check out www.iuaa.org at the results link for all individual results or re-watch the action on the You Tube Ntrai link to IUAA Indoors 2017.