21st July, 2010
More good news for the National Sports Campus

Following on the recent success of the National Track and Field Championships at the Morton Stadium in Santry, seven runners achieved a sub-4 minute time in the Morton Mile on Wednesday 21st July. The race was won by American Will Lear. Waterford man David McCarthy was amongst those to break the magical 4 minute barrier. Once again, the newly laid Olympic MONDO FTX track came in for favourable mention which adds to its reputation as being probably the fastest track in Ireland. The event was a joint promotion by the Dublin Athletics Board and Clonliffe Harriers AC. This was another fitting tribute to the memory of the late Billy Morton.

Meanwhile the National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown was the venue for the National Youth Open Swimming Championship over the weekend of 22nd – 25th July. Melanie Nocher, Aisling Cooney, Sycerika McMahon, Conor Donnelly, Kyle Stolk, Barry Murphy and Grainne Murphy were amongst the star performers.

The Championships were open to international participation with individual swimmers from the UK, France, Egypt and South Africa taking part. A team of 50 swimmers from Alexandria in Egypt was based at the Centre for the week. Similarly, a team of 7 swimmers from South Africa was also based at the Centre. It is clearly evident that some of these swimmers are real medal contenders for the future. Once again the participation of international competitors alongside our own elite Irish swimmers has consolidated the growing reputation of the National Aquatic Centre as an ideal pre-Olympic training venue.

Both the Santry and Abbotstown venues are managed by NSCDA (Operations) Ltd, the operations company of the National Sports Campus Development Authority (NSCDA).