Harty Shines for Silver in the Sun

With the brief glimpse of summer in full flow on Saturday, conditions were excellent for the Northern Ireland & Ulster Track & Field Championships at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast. Bright sunshine and most importantly relatively calm conditions meant that fast times were possible and the Women's 1500 metres was no exception.

Coming into her 5th 1500 metres race of the season and with a season's and personal best of 4m48.4 seconds, Newcastle AC's Kerry Harty, recently selected for the Irish Mountain Racing Team to compete at the European Mountain Racing Championships in Austria in July, was on paper 11 seconds down on this year's Northern Ireland number 1, Wendy Davis from Lagan Valley.

A first lap in 71.8 seconds left her in close order in 5th place behind leader Davis, Dromore's Lyndsey Freel (season's best of 4m43.3), Lagan Valley's Catriona McCorkell (season's best of 4m46.7) and Tir Connail's Sinead Peoples. A 75.5 seconds second lap left Peoples off the pace and four in contention for the medals.

Lap three is a vital one in any 1500m and it was here that the previous 12 months of training start to show. With the pace winding up to a 74.5 seconds lap, Harty had moved onto the shoulder of Davis with just 300 metres to go. In one of the closest finishes of the day, she dug deep and holding off the challenge of McCorkell she pushed hard to catch Davis.

Holding on, Davis came home to win in a new personal best and the fastest time in Northern Ireland this year in 4 minutes 32.7 seconds. Harty registered 51.4 seconds for the last 300 metres to gain a well deserved silver in 4 minutes 33.2 seconds, an amazing 15 seconds inside her personal best.

Northern Ireland & Ulster Track & Field Championships 2005

Women's 1500 metres

1 Wendy Davis LaganValley 4.32.68
2 Kerry Harty Newcastle 4.33.21
3 Catriona McCorkell LaganValley 4.34.32
4 Lyndsey Freel Dromore 4.37.49
5 Sinead Peoples Tir Connail 4.45.70
6 Dennise Smith Kilbarchan 4.47.05
7 Sheila Doyle Dundrum South Dublin 4.54.76
8 Claire McKillop St Malachy's 4.59.04
9 Shelagh Bodkin City of Derry 5.02.68
10 Nichola McCaughey Abbey 5.16.67

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