NIALive- A Night of Olympians, Paralympians and New Records
The third NIA Live kicked off an exciting night of athletics competition with a strong crowd of athletics fans both in the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena and for the first time to a live stream audience, with Katie Kirk and Meet Director David Matthews commentating on the exciting night of athletics.
In the Men’s 400m it was a battle of Olympians between Mark English (Finn Valley AC) and Marcus Lawler (Clonliffe Harriers), from the off this was going to be an intense competition. Lawler took an early lead in the race, but English pulled out to take the lead and the win coming into the last 15 metres with a time of 47.20. Mark English won a €100 voucher for his fastest man performance.
The big feature of the night was the Popup Races Sponsored Men’s 1500m race, with cross country star and rising indoor talent Nick Griggs (Mid Ulster AC) taking both the prize and a New National Junior Title with a time of 3:43.71.
In the Women 800m it was another affair when World Indoors Master Champion Kelly Neely (City of Lisburn AC) and Paralympian Greta Streimyte (Clonliffe Harriers AC) took to the track, it was close race throughout with second splitting the difference as the Neely edged her way ahead finishing at 2:14.63 with Streimyte finishing at 2:16.27.
Clare Mooney (Naas AC), Carla Sweeney (Rathfarnham W.S.A.F.A.C) and Alanna Lally (UCD AC) also took the 800m with Mooney taking top spot just outside her PB with a time of 2:04.93, followed by Sweeney and Lally respectively.
Double Olympian Michelle Finn was the favourite heading into the Women’s 1500m and out on a strong performance at the NIA with a finishing time of 4:20.29 just seconds outside her outdoor PB of 4:23.28.
In the Field events Matthew Callinan Keenan (St. L O’Toole AC) took top spot with 4.70m in the Pole Vault followed by rising talent Conor Callinan (Leevale AC) came second with a height on 4.60m closing in on his PB of 4.75m.
In the Women’s Shot Put, Geraldine Stewart (Tir Chonaill AC) stole the show with an strong finish at 11.38m.
Link to Full Results: HERE
Link to Stream: HERE