Dublin Athletics Board League - Match 1

London Marathon, Hamburg Marathon, National 10k just down the road. Yawn. Santry was where the real action was today with Round 1 of the Dublin Athletics Board League for the youngsters of the region. And mobbed the place was too with large fields in most of the events for the younger age groups in particular. Never mind the standard of competition (and the open nature of the event allows all to compete, long may it continue) it was a great afternoon's sport.

Crusaders were fairly well represented, though with only one boy! And young Philip Murphy was a credit to the club in his first ever outing - well done Philip. There were some good results for the otherwise all-girls team. Most notable were - Isobel O'Leary 2nd and Clodagh Ferry 3rd in their sprints, Emily Shiels 4th and Niamh Ferry 5th in long jump, Sarah Maher 4th in her 500m. And we had other sprint finalists such as Orla Murray and first-timer Eithne Branagan, with the other girls all giving it a great shot. (Grainne McGuill allegedly cleared 1.30 HJ in the deserted indoor practice area - funny how your best jumps always come when no one is watching!)

And a word for the excellent Dublin officials led by Sheila Brennan. There are a number of those officials who seem to be involved on a non-stop basis, even appearing at the events in Nenagh and Magherafelt. Today things ran as smoothly as could ever be expected with armies of youngsters and their coaches and parents roaming around, anxious not to miss their next event. I was eventually collared to lead the ball throw event for the younger boys. In this instance the projectile was a sliotar such as is whacked around with hurleys in this country, whereas in Jersey and England it would be a cricket ball, or rounders ball for the girls. And let me tell you that keeping 25 under-11 boys under control is not my forte, but we got through the competition without too much trauma.

Due to pure idleness I missed my long run today. The only good thing about this is that I have no racing commitment until 1 June. On that day I am captaining a Boards.ie relay team in the Cork Marathon. There are five of us and none of us know each other from a bar of soap having signed up for the relay via a popular athletics internet forum that we all contribute to. So that's something to look forward to and it means that I am setting my alarm clock for 6.30am tomorrow with a view to reviving my running form a little.