Gerry Brady

01 August, 2009

The first day of the National Track and Field championships in Santry saw many exciting performances, and not least among them was Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham) who placed 4th in the 10,000 metres final in a time of 31:01 in very windy conditions which was worth possibly a minute on the day.

Minnock, Brian MacMahon (Clonliffe), Kevin Keane (Rathfarnham) and Gary Crossan (Letterkenny) all set off with the leading bunch (see picture by David Bradshaw). With around two-thirds of the race ran, Minnock went clear in the silver medal position but a bunch of around four runners gradually pegged him back. He was still in contention for an individual medal well into the last kilometre, and will have learned a lot from the race. Any more improvement and he will be a contender for the Irish team for the European cross-country championships in Dublin in December.

Minnock and Kevin Keane were on the silver medals winning Rathfarnham team while MacMahon had the consolation of being on the winning Clonliffe team while Keane can take considerable encouragement from his first ever track race.

Barry reappeared on Sunday to finish a very close 7th in the 5000m.