The group of master athletes that made the trip to Nenagh for the AAI Masters Indoor Championships on Saturday 16th February did themselves and the Club proud with many excellent performances, netting a total of 8 medals between the 5 of them.

Sean McMullin reinforced his reputation as a race-walker of distinction by winning the 3,000m race walk in a very fast time, which will give him great confidence ahead of the World Masters Indoors in March. Later in the day, Sean ran the 1,500m where he finished 2nd and then after only a short break followed this up with a fine 3rd place finish in the 3,000m run, thus bagging a complete set of gold silver and bronze medals for his days efforts.

Also competing over 1,500m and 3,000m, Ben Vaitkavichius was out-kicked in a closely fought 1,500m and had to settle for silver. He followed this up with another silver medal in the 3,000m despite some brave front running but the gap between the two races was so short that Ben was robbed of some of his edge for the finish but was still pleased with his medal haul.

Sprinter Greg Duggan was looking to retain the 60m and 200m sprint double he won at last year’s indoor championships. He started well when he powered to victory in the final of the 60m, winning by a margin, but in the 200m had to settle for silver. However, he was still pleased to be competing again on the track, having missed all last summer’s outdoor track season due to injury.

Christy Creagh had never competed indoors before these championships but took to the indoor environment with ease to record a fine victory in the 3,000m. Perhaps now that he has had a taste of indoor success, he’ll be back for more? John Carthy was also a newcomer to indoor competition, but last Sunday is a day he’d rather forget because while in a good position in the 800m, with a little over 300m to go, he was forced to pull up suddenly with a painful calf injury. Thankfully, it didn’t seem too bad after some rest and ice and hopefully John will be back in action again very soon.