ATHLETICS | Emily’s rich vein of form continues as she bags gold in Belgium
High-jumper sets PB of 1.78m to win gold
St Peter’s AC high jumper Emily Rogers continued her run of impressive form by picking up a gold medal at the Flanders Outdoor Athletic Meeting in Belgium last week.
The standard of competition was very high at this event but that didn’t phase Emily as she leaped to a new PB of 1.78m to win a gold medal.
This was a fantastic achievement considering the Italian athlete Desiree Rosset, who finished in second place, is currently ranked seventh in the world and was a finalist in both the Olympic Games and European Games last year.
Emily’s younger brother, Mark, was in action on home soil at the same time that his sister was in action in Belgium.
Mark was in Morton Stadium in Santry competing in the 400m hurdles in a competition between the Irish and Scottish Universities and the DCU student had an excellent run to finish third.
Blackrock Beach Races
The club’s younger athletes had a much shorter journey to make as they travelled to the annual Blackrock AC Beach Races which were held in glorious sunshine on Friday night.
St Peter’s AC was well represented with some athletes making their competitive debut for the club.
Cain Murtagh was one of those and he had a very strong run to finish fourth in the boys U8 race.
The club had three competitors in the girls U10 race with Emily and Hannah O’Reilly, who were both out of age, and Mia Finnegan all running well.
Conor Litchfield had his best run yet to finish third in the U12 boys, closely followed by Padraic Tinnelly in fourth while Harry O’Reilly, who has recently returned from injury, also ran strongly.
In the girls U12, Dearbhla Allen ran bravely after a bad start to finish just outside the medals and Kelly Anne Dullaghan tried hard in her first outing.
In the girls U14, Dearbhla Tinnelly took the lead from the gun only to get caught in the final lap but did well to hold on to second place.
Lucy Smyth had her best run in the St Peter’s colours with a fantastic second lap to almost catch her clubmate on the line but considering she was out of age, Lucy enjoyed her first podium finish.
The final race concerning the club was the boys U14 event where two athletes finished in the medals despite running out of age.
Mark Litchfield led from start to finish with a very impressive performance and Dean Murtagh also put in a very bravely showing to finish in fifth place.
