Sean Breathnach produced the longest throw of the year by an Irish shot putter on day 3 of the Galway T&F Series which took place last night, Thursday July 17th, in perfect weather conditions in Dangan. Although dark clouds threatened rain, it never came, and there was a rare windless evening on the track.

Breathnach has been in superb form this season and already leads the Irish rankings for 2008 but his best effort last night of 16.01 was a full 59 cm's better than this previous best this season. In fact it's close to ten years since Sean last threw over 16 metres. With the National Senior T&F Championships this Sunday hopes are high that Sean can lift the national title. Mary Barrett was also in superb form and threw 10.00, her longest effort in quite some time to take county masters gold ahead of Claire McNamara who took the senior title.

On the track there was a thrilling mens 5000m which produced a hair raising finish. With a large entry on the start line, a group of 4 set the early pace and ran together for most of the first 11.5 laps. Michael Maher of Ennis TC had pushed the pace throughout and with a lap to go he opened what looked like a winning lead over Ruaidhri Geraghty. However, just like in the 1500m two weeks ago, Geraghty pulled out a huge kick over the last 150m and looked like he might steal the win, but Maher had enough to hold on by a fraction of a second for the win. Both athletes were clocked with new pb's at 15:41. In fact, just like the 1500m two weeks ago, most of the field posted lifetime best performances.

Laura Shaughnessy was just shy of her pb in the 3000m claiming the win in 10:37.4 ahead of Michelle Lynch and Cliona Fitzpatrick, while in the 400m Laura was narrowly beaten by Sarah Finnegan of Craughwell, with Rachel Finnegan in 3rd. Daniel Loughnane took the mens 400m in 51.9 to add to his 800m title from day 1.

The relays again proved a big attraction with, a 4x100m on the programme last night. Athenry AC fielded a strong team in the Ladies race with Katelyn Duane anchoring the team to the win ahead of a mixed guest team led home by Sarah Finnegan. Craughwell AC took the mens 4x100m with a big performance from William Finnegan proving crucial.

Thanks again to everybody who assisted on the night, most notably starter Oliver Geraghty, Brendan Monaghan and Mary Barrett who administered the field events, and PJ Coyle, Gary Thorton, Alan Burke and Iain Shaw who oversaw the finish line.

Full results attached.