The National Senior Track and Field Championships 2019 took place in Morton Stadium, Santry on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July 2019. The Rathfarnham WSAF AC highlight of the championships was Stephen Gaffney winning the bronze medal in the 200m during an exciting Sunday afternoon of finals televised live by RTE. In the 1500m the in form Mitchel Byrne had a bizarre and unfortunate weekend. Sharp and ready to go in Saturday’s heat he had a shoe pulled off in the first lap. A tough Rathfarnham athlete and apparently unperturbed he continued the race and qualified for the final. Going into Sunday’s final with no skin on the sole of one foot after a large blister from Saturday an always smiling Mitchel had resolved to tough it out and give it a blast when disaster struck again by way of a push in the back that nearly floored him. It wasn’t his day but that’s track racing!
Carla Sweeney was 7th in Heat 1 of the 800m in 2:14.87. In the 1500m heat 1 Mitchel Byrne ran 3:58.68, Shane O’Neill 4:12.25 and Cillian Doherty 4:19.17. In the 5000m heat 1 Louis McCarthy ran 15:26.26 and in heat 2 Bobby Murphy ran 15:25.72. Well done to everybody with some great individual performances.