DCU Dragons on fire at Irish University Championships

DCU cemented its place at the top of Irish Intervarsity athletics with a dominating performance at the recent Irish Universities Indoor Championships in Nenagh.

Both men’s and women’s teams amassed more than double the points of nearest rivals UL to retain both team titles and remain on course for a clean sweep of all intervarsity championships.

Final year student Leona Byrne was one of the busiest athletes of the weekend, striking gold in the women’s 60m hurdles, combined events, high jump and long jump.

Ladies captain Brona Furlong was another stalwart for the DCU cause, taking victory convincingly in the 400m and triple jump, while taking silver behind teammate Claire Brady in the 60m. First-year student Sharon Kilduff struck gold in the 200m in 25.66 seconds, while other winners on the women’s side were Laura Reynolds in the walk, Ciara Durkan in the 1500m and Mary Sutherland in the Weight For Distance event. The DCU women dominated the two relay events, taking easy wins over UL and TCD.

On the men’s side, DCU’s middle-distance aces Joe Warne and Eoin Everard had comfortable wins in the 800m and 1500m respectively. Freshman Ronan Duggan was an unlucky fourth behind Warne in the 800 metres, the victim of much barging.

Second year students John Coghlan and Brendan O’Neill fought out a riveting duel in the 3000m, alternating the pace and running away from their rivals to make it a DCU one-two. At the line, Coghlan took the win in 8:26.22, less than a second ahead of O’Neill.

Talented sprinter Chris Russell bounced back from a recent injury scare to take a stellar sprint double, winning the 60m in 7.02 seconds and the 200 metres in 22.68 seconds. Paul Byrne took the Combined Events title but was second best to team mate Chris Crowley in the high jump.

Feidhlim Kelly completed an exhausting schedule, running three rounds of the 400m, taking bronze in the 1500m, and then helping the men’s team to silver in the 4 x 200m relay and gold in the distance medley relay in record time.

Next up for the DCU Dragons is the Intervarsity Cross Country in Belfast on March 8, where DCU will be hot favourites to retain their team titles.

For Brona Furlong and Gemma Hynes, the European Indoor Championships on March 6-8 beckon, where they will compete in the 4 x 400m relay in their first taste of major championship competition at senior level.