AUTHOR

Zain Ahmed

By the evening of Friday 11 th July, the Achilles team had assembled in central Dublin. Some had arrived one or two days earlier to see a few of Dublin’s attractions, including tours of Trinity College, exploring Temple Bar, and even spectating the Morton games - an international meet taking place in the stadium we would race in the next day. However, upon the arrival of the following morning, it was time to accept that the true objective of the trip was in fact not the tour of the Guinness storehouse.

When it came to sprints against DUHAC, the Achilles team dominated. Anise Mellodey won the women’s 100m achieving a PB of 12.70, with Georgia O’Dell following with 13.19, securing both first and second. The men’s was equally strong with alumni Samuel Clarke and Kaesi Opara winning both the 100m and 200m, each time followed by Chizute Ogbedeh and Pelumi Babalola close behind. In the 400m there were PB’s across the board for the men’s light-blues, as well as Alexandra Burchill winning the women’s 400m. The men’s hurdles were also strong with Samuel Clarke and James McCulloch winning the 110m and 400m respectively. A particular highlight was Max Walk in the 5000m, with Terry Fawden acting as a pacer for Max for over half the race despite having secured a win in the 10000m not too much earlier. Once Terry took the gas off it was all up to Max who pushed on for a time of 14:40, securing the full-blue in spectacular fashion.

The highly anticipated Irish throwing event ‘Weight for distance’ didn’t end up happening, and so the men’s throwers stepped up to fill in a second 4x100 relay team with Oxford. Whilst the first Achilles team did win, there was a slip up in the changeover for the second team which tragically ended up in disqualification. This should not detract from their performances in the throws, however, with a win for Marley Young as well as second place and PB for Alex Blake Martin in shot put. After Achilles received the Cross Channel Classic Shield and a victory wangle from our Vice President we were welcomed into the Trinity College Pavillion by DUHAC for a post-match banquet before experiencing the Dublin nightlife at Copper Face Jacks, or Dicey’s Garden for those under 20, so all got to join in the celebration.