Colin Doyle and Aoife O’Sullivan selected for MTU Athletics Club awards

As the academic year recently came to a close, choosing the top male and female athletes of MTU Athletics Club was no easy task giving the many achievements during the year.

“In April we were ranked the third best university at the IUAA outdoor track championships in Santry and back in February we were placed fourth at the indoor championships at the Sports Ireland Campus,” explained Craig Harrington, the Athletics Development Officer at MTU.

At a recent ceremony at the college track these prestigious awards were presented respectively to sprinter Colin Doyle and high jumper Aoife O’Sullivan.

Doyle raced away with the 200m indoor title at Abbotstown and on the night before his award he had a good outing at the Cork City Sports at both 100m and 200m.

“Two weeks ago Craig put on a meet here on the track and I equalled my PB of 10.48 and at the Sports I was just outside that with 10.53, but was very happy in front of the home crowd,” said the 24-year-old from the Model Farm Road, a member of the Leevale club.

“MTU athletics is really starting to bump up and we’ve certainly gone competitive over those varisity competitions, we’re now starting to win battles against the big universities such as UCD and DCU, so it’s great to see.

Craig is a magic man, he’s had a huge influence. He has been a great help to me over my four years in college, none of my achievements would have been possible without him.” 

At the indoors in February, Aoife O’ Sullivan booked her place on the Irish all-time list with a new IUAA indoor high jump record of 1.85m.  This was a massive 7cm personal best and now places her equal fourth indoor all-time.

“I really wasn’t expecting that because I sprained my foot a few months previously so that kind of came out of nowhere,” said the Liscarroll native.

Outdoors, at the Morton Stadium, the 22-year-old made it a varisity double when taking gold with a clearance of 1.81m.

O’Sullivan started off her athletics career as most kids do with cross-country. 

“I then did distance running so that kind of moved into pentathlons and multi-events, after that I starting getting into high jump as I was tall and people said ‘you’d be a perfect fit for it.’

“The facilities here [at MTU] are amazing, you have the track and the gym and then Leevale down the road. Wherever I go there’s always somewhere to train and Craig is always there to help out, whether it’s with physio or advice.” 

 For the past two years, the athletics club at MTU has been sponsored by H2 Complianc, a consulting firm that provides tailored solutions for chemical and environmental compliance. 

H2 Compliance is part of the Landbell Group and is located at the Rubicon Centre at MTU, Kevin Hoban, director of the company, said they were delighted to be involved and congratulated the two athletes on their achievements throughout the year.