Every year since 1916, the Irish Schools Track and Field Championships have produced some standout results, oftentimes markers of international success, and Seán Doggett was among those to grab the spotlight in Tullamore this weekend.
The two-day event, where over 1,000 athletes qualified from 392 schools across the country, saw championship records broken in several events, none more impressively so than Doggett’s 47.22 seconds in the senior boys 400 metres. Despite windy conditions, the 18-year-old smashed the previous mark of 47.66 set by Brian Gregan in 2008.
For Doggett, a student at Coláiste an Éachréidh in Athenry, it also continued his impressive rise in the event, which he only started racing in 2023. Last year, he became the youngest Irish athlete to compete in a senior European Championships, featuring in the men’s 4x400m relay in Rome.
Doggett, co-coached by his father Stephen, was one of the runaway winners at the weekend, beating Christopher Lynch (Belvedere College) who was second in 49.29, with Conor McDonagh (St Attractas CS, Tubbercurry) third in 50.5.
Maria Zakharenko (Avondale CC) also stamped her authority on the senior girls 400m race to take the title in 55.58.
In the senior boys 100m event, Belvedere College’s Cillian Doherty took the top spot in 10.86, with Elena O’ Sullivan (Regina Mundi, Cork) winning the senior girls race in 11.96. Ben Skyes from Grosvenor GS, Belfast took the intermediate boys 100m title in 10.72, equalling the championship record.
European Under-18 medallist Joe Burke from Our Lady’s Templemore showed his class in the senior boys 200m, securing gold in 21.52. The senior boys 1,500m was won by Lorcan Benjacar (Ard Scoil Rís) in 3:58.12, and in the intermediate girls 3,000m, Emma Hickey from St Mary’s, New Ross (9:28.14) and Freya Renton from Sacred Heart, Westport (9:33.87) both ran under the previous championship record of 9:49.82. Renton then flipped the tables on Hickey to take the 1,500m title in 4:30.59.
In the field, Michael Kent from Good Counsel College, New Ross also cleared a new championship record of 4.55m in the senior boys pole vault, with European Under-18 gold medallist Thomas Williams (Coláiste Dún an Rí, Kingscourt) dominating the senior boys hammer with a best of 62.30m.
One of the long-standing records to survive the weekend was John Treacy’s senior boys 5,000m mark of 14:17.0, set in 1974, with Cillian Gleeson from Coláiste Chiaráin, Leixlip giving it a good rattle to win in 14:19.66.
Meanwhile Sharlene Mawdsley finished fifth with a season best of 51.12 in the 400m event at the third Grand Slam Track meeting in Philadelphia.
Victory went to Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic in 49.12, the Olympic and World champion already having claimed the Grand Slam title in Miami, worth $100,000. Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain originally finished second, but was disqualified for a lane infringement.
Mawdsley then finished seventh in the 200m event on Sunday evening, also won by Paulino who earned another $100,000, with Andrew Coscoran finishing fourth in the 3,000m in 8:02.17.
Sophie O’Sullivan has also qualified for the NCAA Track and Field Championships, winning her regional 1,500m in 4:08.21, in what is her last season at the University of Washington.
Mark English will also look to continue his good form at the Palio Città della Quercia meeting in Italy on Monday, two days after he improved his own Irish 800m record to 1:44.34 to win the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Friday.
