James Kelly represented Ireland and finished 3rd in the 6 man shot putt event as Ireland came 3rd at the first ever European Athletics DNA competition in Glasgow today.
Dynamic New Athletics or DNA is an innovative, team-based mixed gender competition concept for athletics created by the European Athletics to complement the classic athletics format.
The Finn Valley athlete competed in 1 of the 10 events today to rank Ireland in joint second, before the final race ‘The Hunt’.
9 Irishmen and 9 Irishwomen made up the team who did the country proud and James was one of the strong point scorers for Team Ireland.
Team Ireland were one of 6 nations in the competition, along with winners Spain and runners-up England, as well as Scotland, Wales and Portugal.
The shot putt event had 2 groups with a 1 throw shootout between the 3 players in the group.
Kelly threw 16.34m against Spain’s Carlos Tobalina put the Spaniard’s throw of 17.73 gave him the win.
His 16.65m throw against Francisco Belo of Portugal, who fouled his throw, gave James a 3rd/4th place play-off against Wales’ Patrick Swan.
Swan also fouled so James knew any successful throw would see him come third, however the St Johnston man kept up his consistency and threw 16.48 to win 8 points for Ireland.
Ireland came tied first to get 11 points in the high jump through Ciaran Connolly, while Louise Shanahan came second in the women’s 800m with a season’s best of 2:04.82.
Kate Doherty also came second in the 60m hurdles with a personal best of 8.25s and Molly Scott was also second in the women’s 60m with a time of 7.33s, the 3 girls all gaining 10 points for Ireland.
Israel Olatunde was third in the men’s 60m, finishing in 6.68s and Ruby Millet was third in the long jump with a personal best of 6.40m.
Ireland were fourth in the 4x400m realy with Cillin Greene, Catherine McManus, Rachel McCain and Robert McDonnell putting in good performances, finishing in 3:24.05.
Gerard O’Donnell was 5th in the men’s 60m hurdles in 8.14s while Mark Smyth and Sarah McCarthy had a promising start in the 2x2x200m mixed relay, they finished 6th.
This left Ireland tied for second with England on 77 points going into the final event, The Hunt.
As Spain were on 97 points, they started 6.7seconds ahead of second and third.
Alanna Lally (800m), Roland Surlis (600m), Roisin Harrison (400m) and Eanna Madden (200m) were the Irish quartet in the mixed medley relay who came home in third place, behind Spain and England.