O'Donnell & Madden selected for Irish team for new DNA event in Glasgow

Leitrim’s Gerard O’Donnell & Eanna Madden will swap their Carrick AC singlet for the Ireland vest in February after Athletics Ireland announced on Friday that the duo has been selected to compete for Ireland in the innovative DNA event in Glasgow.

DNA stands for Dynamic New Athletics and is a team-based competition concept for athletics created by European Athletics to complement the classic athletics format which will be held at the Emirates Stadium in Glasgow on February 5, 2022.

A YEAR NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN

THE LAST POINT

Team Ireland will be taking on teams from Scotland, England, Wales, Spain and Turkey across 11 track and fields to gather points to decide their position going into the decider event “The Hunt”.

O’Donnell will compete in the Men’s 60m Hurdles while Madden will go over 200m in the Hunt Relay, with O’Donnell also listed as a coach for the Mohill man along with his fellow Dublin Sprint coach Jeremy Lyons.

O’Donnell and Madden will be joined by fellow Dublin Sprint Club members Cillin Greene (Galway City Harriers) and Jack Raftery of Donore Harriers in the Irish team.

O’Donnell, who works as a RDO with Athletics Ireland, was selected off the back of some very strong performances in 2021, including retaining the National 110m Hurdles title as well as a strong performance in the City of Lisburn Senior Invitational in Belfast.

Madden had a competitive outdoor 200m season in 2021 winning silver at the Flanders Cup in Belgium and at the Athletics Northern Ireland Open in Belfast while also testing himself with some very strong performances over 400m.

Ultramarathoner Ricki Wynne on the literal highs of his sporting year in 2021

For details and tickets to this event please see here: https://dna.run/what-is-dna/

The full team is as follows:

• Women’s 60m Molly Scott (SLOT AC - Deirdre Scott)
• Men’s 60m Israel Olatunde (UCD AC - Daniel Kilgallon)
• Women’s 60m Hurdles Kate Doherty (DSD AC - Daniel Kilgallon)
• Men’s 60m Hurdles Gerard O’Donnell (Carrick on Shannon AC - Jeremy Lyons & Aideen Sinnott)
• Women’s 800m Louise Shanahan (Leevale AC - Phil O’Dell)
• Women’s Long Jump Ruby Millet (St Abbans - Michael Kelly/Eoin Kelly)
• Men’s High Jump Ciaran Connolly (Le Cheile AC - Lisa Dixon)
• Men’s Shot Putt James Kelly (Finn Valley AC - John Kelly Sr)
• Mixed 2x2x200M: Sarah McCarthy (Mid Sutton AC - Sandra Daly)
• Mixed 2x2x200M Mark Smyth (Raheny Shamrocks - Kay Bannon)

Mixed 4x400m

• Catherine McManus (Dublin City Harriers AC - Brian McManus)
• Rachel McCann (North Down AC - Michael Roberts)
• Cillin Greene (Galway City Harriers - Jeremy Lyons & Gerard O’Donnell)
• Robert McDonnell (Galway City Harriers - Brendan Glynn)

Hunt Relay

• 800m Alanna Lally (UCD AC - James Nolan)
• 600m Jack Raftery (Donore Harriers - Jeremy Lyons, Gerard O’Donnell & Aideen Sinnott)
• 400m Roisin Harrison (Emerald AC - Eoghan McNamara)
• 200m Eanna Madden (Carrick on Shannon AC - Jeremy Lyons & Gerard O’Donnell)