It's been a great year! Let's make it last a little bit longer. My five favourite races from the 2022 track season!
No 5. Ireland's fastest women
Women’s 100m final, Irish Senior Championships, Morton Stadium, Santry, 26 June
It was touted as a rare opportunity for an Irish audience to see, live and in-person, sprint sensation Rhasidat Adeleke, the woman who’d re-written the Irish record books already in 2022. A demonstration. The Adeleke show.
Molly Scott, who’d knocked chunks off the Irish indoor 60m record before Adeleke got her hands on it, had other ideas. This, afterall, is the one distance at which Adeleke doesn’t top the Irish all-time list.
Scott, injured early season, had a quiet build-up. Adeleke, jet lagged, was coming off the back of a busy NCAA season where she’d raced mostly over the longer distances.
Could this even be someone else’s day?
The Morton crowd waited.
After a start disrupted by in-field commentary, the 7-woman field were recalled to their marks. Sarah Leahy in two. Lane three vacant. Scott in four. Sarah Lavin in five. Lauren Roy in six. Adeleke in seven. Joan Healy in eight. And Lucy-May Sleeman on the outside in lane nine. Ireland’s fastest women.
Silence, this time, for the start.
And away they went.
Scott, powering out of her blocks, kept the head down. Her arms propelling her down the track. Adeleke was quicker to rise, her long, looping stride eating up the ground. But the Carlow woman was ahead. Driving for that line. Striving not to be caught…
…right until the last stride of the race.
Scott leaned. Adeleke leaned further.
This one had gone right down to the wire.
No 4. Olatunde versus the clock
Men’s 100m final, European Senior Championships, Olympic Stadium, Munich, 16 August
He’d already done so much just getting to the final. The fastest overall, a 10.19 PB and an Irish U23 record to make it through the first round. Second place and an Auto Q in the semi-final. We’d seen what that meant to him. We knew what it meant to all of us. The first Irishman to make a 100m final at a major senior championship. But it meant so much more than that too. Ireland had arrived, and not just at this European Championships.
Just hours after the greatest race of his young life, Olatunde was lining up to do it all again. He’d drawn lane seven for the final, right next door to Lamont Marcell Jacobs, the Olympic Champion. European U23 Champion Jeremy Azu was to his outside.
The twenty-year-old Olatunde got out safely. But Jacobs was pulling clear of the field. It’s the point which so much can go wrong. Olatunde looked to be last of the eight, but he wasn’t being left behind. This was going to be no disgrace. He remained composed. And then he found something. He dipped for the line as if he’d done this a thousand times before.
Jacobs was the clear winner. The title was his. 9.95. An equal championship best.
Zarnel Hughes took silver. He too dipping under 10 seconds.
There had been daylight between those two and the rest of the field.
The moments ticked on slowly as, one-by-one, the times appeared on the scoreboard.
Azu in third. 10.13 PB. Time for the Welshman to unleash his joyous celebration.
Ján Volko, Slovak Republic, 10.16 in fourth.
This was going to be tight.
Mouhamadou Fall, France, fifth in 10.17.
Dammit! Had had let this one get away? Surely he was next?
More moments that seemed like minutes.
And then, there it was: 6. Olatunde 10.17.
The NR didn’t appear on the graphics, but we all knew what those numbers meant. Israel Olatunde, who started the year with a 10.41 best had been running PBs since May and had already picked up Irish U23 records in June, July and August. Now he was the fastest Irishman of any age.
What a stage to do it on!
Olatunde, too, had arrived.
No 3: A game of cat and mouse
Men’s 5000m, Irish national Senior Championships, Morton Stadium, Santry, 26 June
The Irish Championships always seems to throw up a humdinger of a battle or two, especially in the men’s distance races; lads demonstrating just how special national titles are, and what they’re willing to do to get their hands on one. But few 5000m races have ever been as exciting as the one witnessed in Santry on 26th June.
Twenty-two of Ireland’s best distance runners. Twelve-and-a-half laps of the track. A startlist that actually resembles the entry list that got us excited during the week.
Darragh McElhinney already has 13.17.17 to his name, and the European Championship qualifying mark. Hiko Tonosa is the national cross country champion, a title he won in a sprint finish over McElhinney in the park next door last November. Efrem Gidey, the 2019 European U20 Cross Country silver medallist is back from injury and reminded us of his potential when he finished 6th in the 10,000m at the European Cup in May. Paul O’Donnell, too, is an athlete in form.
Away they go.
900m in. Gidey takes the lead. The rest follow.
1200m. Gidey increases the pace. McElhinney and Tonosa lead the chase.
1600m. They main contenders are back together. O’Donnell and Jake O’Regan hanging on.
The pace drops again. Pierre Murchan and Keelan Kilrehill reattach themselves.
Halfway. There’s still a group of seven.
3000m gone. Gidey, forever dictating the pace, starts to pile it on.
1600m to go. It is down to just four.
1200m to go. Gidey, McElhinney, Tonosa are bunched together. O’Donnell, again, hangs on.
800m to go. Three remain. Gidey is still out front, pretty much where he’s been from the start. But he’s not the one in charge now. He probably never was. McElhinney moves out onto his shoulder. Tonosa is tucked in behind them on the kerb. He has shown nothing yet.
700m to go. McElhinney looks impatient.
600m to go. But still he waits.
Still Tonosa shows nothing.
500m to go. McElhinney comes wide ready to strike. He glances to his inside, checking where Tonosa is. Waiting for his move. Again and again he checks. He waits. If Tonosa wants this now, he’ll have to come the long way round. He’ll have to make the first move. Gidey still has the lead.
300m to go.
Tonosa doesn’t flinch.
280m to go.
It’s time.
McElhinney makes the first move. A fast, decisive one. Out past Gidey. The others respond. Tonosa, too, goes past the young Clonliffe man, in hot pursuit. McElhinney is away. Tonosa follows.
150m to go.
The gap is 3 metres. Tonosa is fighting, gritting his teeth.
The crowd hold their collective breath.
Memories of national cross.
Is there still time for another twist?
100m to go.
McElhinney glides. Tonosa chases.
50m to go.
It’s all over. McElhinney was ready this time. He is not to be caught.
Another title for the collection.
No 2: Sub-2 by two
Women’s 800m, Belfast Irish Milers Club meet, Mary Peter’s Track, Saturday 15th May
World class female 800m runners is not something Ireland has traditionally been renowned for. But the new generation are cut a bit differently. 1500m runners stepping down. 400m runners stepping up. Two lap specialists finally fulfilling potential. All with a belief they belong here.
It was the first major domestic race of the season and Eamon Christie had gathered some of the best around, arranged a pacemaker, and given them the stage.
Ciara Mageean, the Irish record holder, had just returned for altitude training in St Moritz. She was going to test where her speed was at prior to a summer of championships. But just what kind of shape was she in?
Louise Shanahan had Olympic experience now at this distance and had gone into last winter knowing that she had to step it up a level if she’s going to be competitive internationally. She’d finish 2nd over 1500m at the British University Championships at the beginning of May, and ran 55.88 for 400m at the Oxford v Cambridge varsity the weekend before. Could she combine that speed and strength over two laps?
We were about to find out.
They set out at a brisk but sensible pace, the field gently strung out. Mageean, keen to keep things moving, pulled up alongside the pacemaker 380m in. Shanahan followed. They hit the bell bang on the minute mark. Four athletes were away around the bottom bend: Mageean, Shanahan, Danish athlete Marissa Damink and Jenna Bromell each a stride or two apart. Mageean pushed on. Shanahan, shadow-like, followed. With 200m to go, she’d entered Mageean’s airspace. 100m to go, she pulled level. Mageean fought back. But Shanahan had another gear. She pulled away.
1:59.42 for Shanahan. Negative splits. A new Irish record.
Mageean hung on for 1:59.86.
We’d waited a lifetime for a sub-2 800m runner. Now we had two in one race.
No 1: Morton Mile Classic
Morton Mile, Morton Games, Morton Stadium, Santry, Saturday 2nd July
The gun went. Australian Callum Davies sat in behind the pacemakers. Andrew Coscoran followed. The rest were strung out behind. There was even a fall. A typical paced circuit affair.
Until it wasn’t.
With 650m to go they all started getting involved. Darragh McElhinney was the first to close up and slot in behind Coscoran. Then went Nick Griggs. Cathal Doyle and Shane Bracken followed. With 400m to go Irish athletes filled 2nd to 6th place. With 250m they were all queueing up; getting into the ideal position from which to strike.
Coscoran, the Olympic semi-finalist, and the fastest on paper. Doyle, who stunned everyone in the 1500m at the National seniors the previous week. McElhinney, a 5km specialist, with a lethal kick. Griggs who ran Coscoran close over the same distance indoors. Bracken, the national 1500m silver medallist; he too with a serious turn of pace.
We knew at this point we were definitely in for a treat, and not of the plain jelly and ice-cream variety. This was an assiette à dessert of Michelin quality.
With 200m to go, they were four abreast behind the Australian, each trying to measure their effort to perfection. None of them ready to show their cards just yet. Corscoran eventually pulled alongside Davies with 150m to go. Doyle made his move around the outside. McElhinney was wedged between them at this point, his normally sublime stride looking strained against the shorter-distance men. But he wasn’t giving this one up without a fight.
They were still four-wide into the home straight.
Then Doyle and Coscoran pulled clear. North Dub versus North Dub. Shoulder to shoulder. Stride for stride. Coscoran, first, looked to have the edge. Then Doyle levelled and inched ahead. The finish line was coming, but not quick enough. Doyle leaned. Coscoran dived. Nobody wanted to call this one.
There was a visible buzz around the track. They lads had put on a great show. The perfect finale to the 2022 Morton Games. Irish athletes would fill the podium. Five had run under 4 minutes. But who’d won? Doyle’s supporters were celebrating. Rushing onto the track to congratulate him. He didn’t look sure. Coscoran too was waiting.
And eventually the result appeared. Coscoran had edged this one; 3:57.09 to Doyle’s 3:57.11.
Coscoran looked full of energy. Buoyed by the win, chatting, reliving the dive.
Doyle looked utterly sickened. The sweet smell of victory now the sour aftertaste of defeat.
Andrew Coscoran, here’s your big fancy trophy. Cathal Doyle, thanks for taking part.
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