European Indoor Athletics Standards For Kervick & McMullen At Senior Indoor Championships

Kervick Hits Standard and Moves to Eighth in Europe
Dara Kervick (Clonliffe Harriers A.C) took the Men's 400m title in 46.53 seconds at the GloHealth Senior Indoor Championships in Athlone International Arena, significantly improving on his personal best of 46.80 set in yesterday's heats which secured the 47.20 qualification standard for European Indoor Athletics Championships which takes place in Prague 6-8 March. This time moves him to eighth the European rankings and fifth in the Irish All-Time best list. Speaking of the race he said: 'It felt so easy I didn't think I was going that fast. It was great to do it (time) day after day' And he credited his coach John Shields and strength coach John Cleary for bringing him to the next level.

Training partner of Kervick, Paul Murphy (Ferrybank A.C.) and Harry Purcell (Trim AC) both 19 were second and third with 47.62 and 48.33 respectively.

European Indoor Standard for Adam McMullen
Adam McMullen (Crusaders AC) produced a lifetime best for long jump to take the title with 7.80 to hit the standard for the European Indoors and move to second on the all-time list. This improves impressively on his best of 7.48 indoor. He said: 'I knew coming in to the competition I was in good shape and all I needed to do was execute what I have been doing in practice'

While Sam Healy (Leevale AC) finished in second place jumping 7.53 to break the Irish junior record of 7.37 held by Ciaran McDonagh since 1995, adding to his Junior 60m Hurdles record.

Mark Impresses Ahead of European Indoors
Bronze European Medallist Mark English (UCD AC) looked in good form in the Men's 800m winning in 1.51.34: 'I want to practice my acceleration and I felt good on that last lap.' Declan Murray (Clonliffe Harriers AC) finished second in a time of 1.51.53 with Niall Tuohy (Ferrybank AC) third in a time of 1.52.35. English secured the 800m qualification time for the European Indoors at the Sainsbury's Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham yesterday running 1.47.17 for sixth place inside the standard (1.48.50).

Everard Solid Performance Women's 800m
Ciara Everard (UCD AC) secured her European standard at the AAI Games and confirmed her form with a solid performance today at the championships kicking with 200m to go to win in 2.06.63. Everard's teammate Aislinn Crossey was second in 2.09.39 with Fiona Kehoe (KIlmore AC) in third 2.10.97

Proper makes it a Record 19 Titles
Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC) completed a hat trick of national titles winning the 60m, 200m and Long Jump bringing her total indoor titles to a record 19. Proper set a new stadium record of 23.27 in the 200m just off the needed standard of 23.20 for the World Championships in Beijing and brings her to number one in European Ranking list over the distance.

Proper was also agonisingly close to the 60m European Indoor standard of 7.36 when winning in 7.38. The young 16 year old Ciara Neville (Emerald AC) finished second in 7.46 having set a new Irish Youth Record in the heat of 7.45. Catherine McManus took the bronze in 7.50 equalling her personal best. Proper had won the Long Jump yesterday with a leap of 6.22m.

Travers Kicks for Home in Men's 1500m
In the Men's 1500m John Travers (Donore AC,) who has secured the European standard, took the title with an impressive kick with 300m to go winning in 3.49.93. Danny Mooney (Letterkenny AC) who also has the standard took out the pace in the opening laps faded in the closing lap to fourth. Leaving it to Eoin Everard (KCK) to take second in 3.51.90 and Joe Warne (Doohey AC) 3.52.84.
Claire Tarplee (Dundrum South Dublin AC) was leading the women's 1,500m before falling ten metres short of the line. Kerry Harty (Newcastle AC) who had made much of the early running won the title in a time of 4.16.49 with Laura Crowe (An Riocht AC) finishing second and Tarplee third in a time of 4.23.07.

Endurance
Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders) was a comfortable winner of the Men's 3000m in 8.09.81 and will now turn his focus to the European Indoor Championships. The women's 3000m title went to Maria McCambridge (DSD AC) in 9:26.77. McCambridge who has accumulated 17 national titles outdoors including Marathon wins, last won an indoor title in 2004.
Alex Wright (Leevale AC) retained his national title in the Men's 5000m Walk winning in 19:52.36 from Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny AC) with Luke Hickey (Leevale AC) in third. The women's 3000m Walk was won by Veronica Burke (Ballinasloe & District AC) in a time of 14.40.89.

Hurdle Win for O'Donnell
Gerard O'Donnell (Carrick on Shannon AC) lived up to his favourite billing to claim the 60m Hurdles national indoor title. Despite clipping the first couple of hurdles O'Donnell powered to victory in a time of 8.32 seconds. It has been a breakthrough season for O'Donnell having ran 7.73 seconds at the IFAM meeting on the 7th of February, which was inside the European qualification standard of 7.78 seconds.

Barry Pender Just Misses Out European Indoor Standard
There was more drama in the in-field when Barry Pender (St. Abbans AC) attempted to clear 2.22m to hit the European Indoor Standard narrowly hitting the bar in his final attempt having cleared a personal best of 2.20m. While Kourosh Foroughi (Star of the Sea AC) also attempted the height after clearing 2.17m.

Stadium Record in Men's Pole Vault
Yesterday there was a new stadium record for the Clonliffe duo of Ian Rogers and David Donegan who both cleared 4.80m in the Pole Vault and were both awarded first place.

Stadium Record for Breathnach
Sean Breathnach (Galway City Harriers AC) set a new stadium record in the Shot Putt with a throw of 17.42m to take his fifth national title in a row. This added nearly 30 centimetres to his own record which he set on the 1st of February.