Clonliffe Harriers AC held their Open Sports Day on Sunday last in Morton Stadium and having attended last year’s event it promised to be a good day. It had a later start of 2pm and the event didn’t disappoint.

We had six athletes from Skerries AC who represented the Club in a very positive fashion in participation, support and performance. We had representatives in the U/10, U/12 and U/14 events.  Jake was first up with his 60m taking home a gold, despite a bad start. Isabelle the sole female representative for Skerries, was next up with her 80m one side of the track while Harvey and Sam ran their 80m on the other side. Isabelle came home in 4^th place in her race, with Sam taking silver in his followed closely by Harvey taking bronze.

Next up was Oscar who had some very tough competition in his 100m against 4 athletes from the home club. He ran an impressive race and with very little encouragement decided to take the lads on again in the 200m. Intimidation started on the starting line with some of the lads deciding to use starting blocks, but this didn’t discourage Oscar. He ran a determined race right to the line.

While the sprints were taking place, Jake was taking his turn in the Long Jump. After being taught the correct technique of long jump by Ailis, he had to move away from this and jump from the sand, just in front of the board.  He gave a good account of himself and took home a bronze medal. While the jumps were taking place Ben arrived after playing a match in Sallynoggin and headed straight for his 300m. He was coming 5^th with 50m to go and got a 2^nd wind the closer he got to the line securing an impressive second place.  Next up was Jake in his 300m, finishing in 5^th place.

Harvey after a lot of encouragement and possibly a bit of bribery ran a great 600m, just missing out on a bronze medal with 2m to go.  Track events were finished now for Skerries AC as no amount of encouragement or bribery could convince Oscar to run the 1,000m for his age group. Then back to the Long Jump pits for Sam, Harvey and Isabelle. The boy’s long jump was being taken very seriously with all the lads counting their steps back from the board, while at the other pit the girls were being told to jump from the sand in front of the board. All the athletes put in impressive jumps as can be seen from the photos.

The last field events of the day for Skerries were Shot Putt for Harvey and Sam with the Long Jump for Oscar.  As with all the field events, each athlete had three attempts, with the best being recorded. Harvey and Sam had never competed in the Shot Putt before and put in some impressive throws, with Harvey claiming a gold medal with a throw of 7.55m. Oscar rounded off the day for Skerries with some nice jumping.

Thanks to all the athletes, their supporters and Clonliffe Harriers AC for a great day.  After two hours and 30 minutes of competition, Skerries AC brought home 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. Well done all and here’s to next year’s event.