THERE WERE mixed fortunes for Irish trio Thomas Barr, Mark English and Sarah Lavin in the Doha Diamond League in Qatar today.
In the men’s 400m Hurdles final, Thomas Barr finished seventh with a time of 49.88, as he fell short of his PB of 47.97 and his season’s best time of 49.79 secured last weekend.
The race was won by USA’s Rai Benjamin with a time of 47.48.
In the women’s 100m Hurdles, Sarah Lavin finished eighth with a time of 13.08, well off her PB of 12.79.
The race was won by Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico in 12.48 seconds.
Finally, Mark English earned a season-best time of 1:48.56 in the 800m.
The Donegal native finished seventh in a race won by Algeria’s Slimane Moula (1:46.06).
There’s a crop of some seriously good young talented centres coming through the clubs atm Forde, Postlewaithe, Brownlee, Gavin, Cooney all in and around 6ft 3’, 16st. And hooker too McCarthy, Stewart, Barron, McKee, Smyth, Sheahan. Not so much at prop although Clarkson has definitely stood up so far. Hopefully Boyle, Milne, Wilson, McCarthy, Foxe can kick on. Niall Smyth in the Leinster academy looks very promising. Big tighthead that is very mobile and athletic and impressed for Blackrock a year or two ago. Hopefully Furlong can stay injury free and find some sort of resurgence in the last couple of years in his career because were definitely reliant on him.
@Harry O’ Callaghan: switch a few of them hookers to prop
@Harry O’ Callaghan: Usanov, u20 again this season, is highly rated . He did well with Emerging Ireland at 19 years of age. He’s not huge but is powerful. I think Niall Smyth must have come off injured for Leinster A last week as he was replaced early in the first half. Another big TH is Andrew Sparrow, huge lad 19 and half stone. Great young talent coming through.
Very talented is Jude. Anybody watching the game properly may even spot him in the lineout occasionally.