On Day 2 of the European Team Championships 1st League at on Santry on Sunday, Ben Reynolds brought the home crowd to their feet when he won his heat of the 110m hurdles in a time of 13.71 sec. Ben ran aggressively over the barriers and stormed down the track to victory, with the added bonus of setting a new personal best. Not only did this smash his own Northern Ireland Senior Record, it reached the qualifying standard for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Once the times were combined from the two heats, Reynolds was ranked third overall out of twelve, securing 10 points for the Irish team.
Ben said “It was good, pretty pleased with the result to be honest. I didn’t get started very well but got to mid race and got going. I think it was the crowd, I heard the cheering and it picked me up.”
The Irish team put in an outstanding performance to finish in seventh place overall in the European Team Championships 1st league in Morton Stadium, Dublin. This was Ireland’s best ever performance in the combined men’s and women’s team championships, improving on their eight place from 2010. The Irish team amassed a total of 242 points to finish in seventh place behind league winners Czech Republic who scored a total of 351.5.
Matthew Martin was another North Down representative on the Irish Team. Matthew threw the javelin 60.68m, down on his seasons best of 63.54 to finish 11th and claim 2 points. Czech athlete Vesel Vitezslav, who had a seasons best of 56.94m won the event with 80.44m
Former member Amy Foster enjoyed a good run in the 100m competition on Day 1 (Saturday) when she finished in fifth place overall (11.97secs). Thankfully, the conditions were better Sunday when Amy toed the line for the 200m race (Heat 1); over the distance, Amy produced another solid run, clocking 24.25secs to take 3rd place in the race. This left her (Amy) in 9th place overall, the competition was won by Angela Morosanu (Romania) in 23.48secs.