Lawler claims national title in stunning style

Marcus Lawler obliterated the field on his way to claiming a fourth national senior outdoor title today in Santry on the first day of the of 123.ie National Senior Track & Field Championships.

The 30-yard-old was in a league of his own as he finished in a time of 20.66, well ahead of second placed Darragh McConville who finished in 21.41.

There was another medal for Carlow though back in third where Tinryland AC’s Adam Murphy ran a brilliant race to pip Darragh Murphy by just .004 seconds for the bronze medal.

Lawler was understandably delighted with his performance and the result as he completed a national title double having won the indoor 200m earlier in the year.

“It was into a headwind but it was quicker that my indoor title. It was pretty decent compared to my season overall, probably a season’s best or pretty close to it,” he said when speaking on Athletics Ireland TV.

Looking back at the replay of the race, Lawler described how it had gone.

“I felt like I got out very well. I wanted to really attack the first 50 and then the bend has been my strong part all season. Looking at it, I probably came into the straight really well and from that point I was just trying to hold it as best I could. I think I finished reasonably well considering the wind and yeah, nice time,” he said.

Lawler dabbled in the longer distance of 400m in recent years and agreed that he has had some benefits from that when returning to his first love of sprinting but stressed that it still all about speed.

“Possibly (improved) on the strength side of things, but I do think my speed has gone up as well and that’s the main thing we focus on, speed is everything,” he said.

Lawler, who is back working with his mother Patrica as his coach, herself a legendary athlete in her own right, said he was initially a little disappointed about how he carried his indoor form earlier in the year into the outdoor season but he is peaking at the right time.

“I don’t think my indoor form has exactly transformed into outdoor form, I’ve had my little setbacks along the way this last couple of months but we are getting there now,” he said.

Elsewhere, on the first day of the Championships, there was disappointment for Jenny Sawyer in her attempts to retain her 400m hurdles title when she failed to qualify for tomorrow’s final.

The action will continue on Sunday and Carlow have serious medal chances in the likes of the St Laurence O’Toole AC trio of Adam Nolan (110m hurdles), Matthew Callinan Keenan (Pole Vault) and Molly Scott, who is entered in both 100m and the 100m hurdles.

St Abbans AC’s Maisy O’Sullivan also qualified for Sunday’s 800m final after she finished third in her heat. That wasn’t enough for automatic qualification but her time of 2:09.99 was one of the four fastest times outside the top two across the three heats.