The sun shone for the traditional opener at Santry stadium yesterday as the George V Ryan/Louis Vandendries Invitation event brought together the top men's and women's teams for a gentle introduction to the 1998 season.
The inter-club challenge, based on the results from last year's league, produced the best performance by an Irish athlete over 200 metres ever witnessed on Irish soil.
Ulster's Paul Brizzel, who faced Irish 200 metres record holder Gary Ryan, ran the race of his career to beat the Olympian for the first time in 20.81 seconds.
It was the first time an Irish athlete has run the distance in Ireland in under 21 seconds and judging by the delighted reaction of Brizell as he edged out his Nenagh opponent, it was indeed a sweet victory. Ryan completed the early season run in 21.19 seconds, a little way off the 20.67 Irish record he set last year.
Unfortunately for Ballymena/ Antrim sprinter Brizzel, the wind speed of 4.2 was enough to keep his run out of the record books. Combined with his win in the 100 metres, however, where he edged out the other Irish sprint record holder, Neil Ryan, as well as 400 metres hurdles record holder Tom McGurk, Brizell deservedly earned himself the title of "best male athlete of the competition". It will certainly be a confidence boost in the run-up to the Europa Cup event in Lithuania on June 6th and 7th.
Dublin City Harrier (DCH) athlete Karen Shinkins was voted the best female athlete of the event with a 54.1 second winning run in the 400 metres and a second place in the 400 metres hurdles behind Nenagh's Marie O'Meara. Shinkins, another member of the Europa Cup team, ran 54.90 last year for the year's best over the flat 400 metres and yesterday was hand-timed at 54.1, a time which would probably equate to a faster run overall than last season's best effort.
But the combined results, which are essentially what the competition is about, showed Dundrum South Dublin (DSD) men at the top with a 249 point total and DCH women in first placewith 255 points. The event organisers, Crusaders, therefore relinquish the men's GV Ryan trophy, while last year's women's winners, DSD, also hand over the Louis Vandendries Trophy.
Clonliffe Harriers took second place in the men's competition with DCH running in third, while DSD were runners-up in the women's team event and Clonliffe the bronze medal winners.
Tom McGurk, the Olympic 400 metres runner, has already clocked a 50.04 this year, but took 51.66 seconds to dominate the men's 400 metres hurdles. It was the first run in Ireland this year for the San Francisco resident who set a 1996 Irish record of 49.73.
Another international athlete, James Nolan from UCD, had time to showboat across the finish line in the 800 metres. Appearing as a guest in the event, the Irish junior record holder came from third at the bell behind James McIlroy and Brendan O'Shea to hit the straight ahead and come home in 1:48.12.
The 3,000 metres women's race was a platform for Louise Kavanagh to show her pace. Second in this year's national cross country event, Kavanagh was not troubled by any of the field, running in over 11 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.
One of the more competitive races of the day earned DSD's Aoife Byrne a win in the 800 metres. Coming into the final bend bunched together, Byrne, Ballymena's Pauline Quinn and guest runner Maura Prenderville failed to separate up the final straight with Byrne narrowly edging out the other two by fractions. Six tenths of a second separated the three at the end.
The men's 100 metres hurdles were marked by quite the other extreme as veteran TJ Kearns once again showed his sprinting ability. Adding a light touch to the proceedings, BLE president, and yesterday's commentator, Nick Davis subsequently congratulated Kearns on his "150th win" in the annual event. The Irish record holder left the rest of the field seven metres in his wake.
