McCambridge & English
Earn Edmonton Qualifiers

special to Irish Runner.com by Brendan Hackett

The highlight of the night at the Heusden Night of Athletics Meeting in Belgium on Saturday night 14th July was the women's 5000 metre event.

Two outstanding performances from Maria McCambridge and Una English mean they have all but booked their places on the Irish Team for Edmonton. With the qualifying standard eluding both of them all season this was the last throw of the dice for both girls.

In near perfect conditions with the drums beating out a strong rhythm, McCambridge edged out English in a dramatic last lap as both athletes were aware that an all out effort was needed to dip under the 15.22.00 standard. They were rewarded with personal bests of 15.18.80 and 15.19.12 respectively.

Una English
Photo by Randy Miyazaki-Freezeit.com

Una English

It was very much a night for the Irish girls as Freda Davoren and Maria Lynch both lowered their personal bests in the 1500 metres. Davoren was third in 4.10.13 and Lynch was 5th in 4.11.84. Davoren was chasing the B standard of 4.09.20 while 22 year-old Lynch was well inside the standard for the World Student Games (4.13.00).

It was not a good night for the men. Peter Coghlan crashed into the fifth hurdle while leading the 110h and failed to finish while his teammate Paul Conroy failed to make the Edmonton standard.

Another athlete coming agonisingly close to the A standard (3.36.20) in the past couple of weeks is James Nolan. He attacked from the start of the 1500m and went through the first lap in 56.5 with the pace. Unfortunately he paid the price in the last lap and his time of 3.37.1 means that he will have to win the National Championships next weekend if he is to make the trip to Edmonton.

Freda Davoren
photo by Erin Keogh

Fread Davoren

 

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