Ben Garrard and Sinéad Gaffney at the impressive facilities in Irishtown Stadium

The 3rd meet of the Dublin Graded Meet took place tonight in Irishtown Stadium in Ringsend Dublin. It was my first time at this particular track and its well worth a visit, tucked away in a corner of Ringsend and literally thronged with runners of all abilities who took part in the 10000m, 400m and 800m races. There were 4 women’s 800m races of different standards and around 6 men’s races … fantastic to see such numbers. We met some familar faces up there, bumping into Castlegar’s Sean McDermott on the way in (who later ran a decent 2.15.66 in the 800m) and later on our own Peadar Harvey taking a break from his secondary school teaching duties in Dublin.

Peader ran a solid 2.06.67 in his 800m race, just getting back into track form. Ben ran am impressive 2.01.71 time in the Men’s 800m A race … coming real close to his PB of 2.01.53 from last Thursday in the Connacht schools and only “a matter of time” now before Ben breaks the magical 2 minute barrier for the 800m.

But the highlight of the evening was a new club record and PB from the in-form Sinéad Gaffney who ran a time of 2.21.34 in the Women’s 800m A race, over a second inside Linda Porter’s impressive club record of 2.22.60. The race was tightly bunched throughout which was both an advantage and a disadvantage as the pack running encouraged all runners but made it a little congested on the bends. It was a great race for Sinéad who is well positioned now to slice more time off her record in her international 800m race this coming Saturday.