Two national senior titles return to Glasnevin this week after DCU Athletics Club members Jack Forde (St. Killian’s AC) and Niamh McCorry (Raheny Shamrocks AC) won their respective multi-event titles in Athlone.
Both athletes competed across a gruelling two day schedule and rose to the top winning their competitions with relative ease.
Forde made the step-up to the senior ranks and showed his class in the heptathlon. The Wexford man, who is a second year Actuarial Mathematics student, won silver medals for DCU in the multi-events both indoors and outdoors in 2022 and having excelled in the multi-events from a young age was always going to be difficult to beat.
He won six out of his seven events in the competition, achieving four PB’s. His hurdles were particularly strong, with the technique work he has done with Paul Byrne, Head of Athletics in DCU, being evident. He clocked a time of 9.07s for the event.
His other PB’s came in the 60m (7.52s), Pole Vault (3.80m) and 1000m (2.57.24). In total he amassed 4,624 points which moves him up to 15th on the Irish All-Time list for the event. It also put him well over 1000 points clear of Evan Hayes (Waterford AC) who won silver.
McCorry took the intervarsity title in Athlone twelve months ago and was looking to build on a series of good performances at the National U23 Indoor Championships the week before.
She opened her pentathlon with a time of 9.68s in the 60m Hurdles, just shy of the 9.65s she had ran in Abbottstown the weekend before. In the Long Jump she equalled her PB of 4.60m, before a PB throw of 11.18m in the Shot Put.
Impressive performances followed in the High Jump (1.52m) and 800m (2.42.94), as McCorry finished with a total of 3,018 points, nearly 1000 points ahead of the silver medal winning athlete.
In winning the national title, McCorry and Forde become the first athletes from their respective clubs to achieve the feat, a massive achievement and something they will no doubt remember for the remainder of their athletics careers.
Both will return to action this coming weekend at the IUAA (intervarsity) Indoor Championships in the National Indoor Arena, Abbottstown where they will compete in the pentathlon.
DCU Athletics are expected to announce a strong team for the event on Tuesday with a host of European and national medal winning athletes expected to feature.
Rory Cassidy
Image Credit: Waterford AC