The golden girl of Irish athletics Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght AC) returns to Irish soil this weekend as she competed in the Irish Life Health National Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium. The Tallaght AC athlete will be competing in the 100m final at 7.00pm on Sunday, with the event live on RTÉ.
Irish Olympians who competed at the Tokyo Olympics such as Thomas Barr (400mH), Sarah Lavin (100mH), Louise Shanahan (800m), Sarah Healy (UCD AC), Michelle Finn (3000mSC), Marcus Lawler (200m & 400m), Mark English (800m), David Kenny (10,000mWalk), Phil Healy (400m), Sophie Becker (400m), Christopher O’Donnell (400m) and Fionnuala McCormack (5000m) will all compete this weekend.
From team mates to rivals
The women’s 400m will see Ireland’s fastest women take to the start line. Phil Healy (Bandon AC), Sophie Becker (Raheny Shamrock AC), Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport AC), and Róisín Harrison (Emerald AC) move from Irish 4x400m teammates to rivals through the heats on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s final at 7:45pm. Healy and Becker will be neck and neck after Healy clocked a season best of 51.82 seconds just 0.01 seconds faster than Becker’s recent PB.
2022 World Indoor Championship Finalist and Olympian Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) is set to produce another incredible performance in the 100m Hurdles this afternoon at 3pm, after setting a new PB of 12.93 seconds while competing in Spain this past week.
Olympian Marcus Lawler (Clonliffe Harriers) is set to lead the men’s 200m competition but will have a battle on his hands with Robert McDonnell (Galway City Harriers) and Mark Smyth (Raheny Shamrock AC) also taking to the start line at 4.10pm on Saturday.
In the middle-distance finals, Nick Griggs (Mid Ulster AC) and Luke McCann (UCD AC) will compete in the 1500m.
Competitive Men’s 5,000 title
Darragh McElhinney (UCD AC), Paul Robinson (St Coca’s AC), Hiko Haso Tonosa (DSD AC), Paul O’Donnell (DSD AC), Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe Harriers), Keelan Kilrehill (Moy Valley AC), Scott Fagan (Metro St Brigid’s AC) and Emmet Jennings (DSD AC) will all be in contention for the Men’s 5,000m final championship title.
Olympian Sarah Healy (UCD AC) in the 1500m will be an event not to miss. Having secured her first 1500m senior title last year, she has since broken Sonia O’Sullivan’s 1991 Irish U23 record this season in 4:02.86 (4th all time).
There will be a team aspect in the field events for the 150th edition of the championships, with the best performance of the top 2 club athletes being added together. The overall team winners will be presented with a special medal.
Action live on Youtube and RTÉ
Saturday’s action begins at 1.30pm, while competition starts on Sunday at 1pm.
Both days of competition will be streamed on the Athletics Ireland YouTube Channel.
RTÉ will be covering the Championships on Radio 1 throughout both days and RTÉ 1 Live television coverage from 6.05pm-8.30pm on Sunday.
