On Friday 14th July, DCU Educational Trust hosted an exclusive dinner and fireside chat with Irish athletics legend Eamonn Coghlan to mark the return of competitive action to the newly refurbished Morton Stadium with the 2023 Morton Games.
DCU signed a 40-year lease to take over the management of Morton Stadium in 2022 and has just announced the completion of a €3 million upgrade to facilities at Ireland’s national athletics stadium, including the installation of a new Paris 2024 Olympic standard track. The Morton Games was the first major event to take place on the stadium’s newly upgraded track, with the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet bringing a host of top national and international athletes to compete.
In advance of the meet, Eamonn Coghlan joined DCU Educational Trust’s Director of Development, Jason Sherlock for a wide-ranging conversation that covered Eamonn’s trailblazing career, his memories of Morton Stadium, today’s emerging Irish athletics talent and the importance of investing in facilities to enable their development.
Looking to the future of Irish athletics, Eamonn Coghlan said:
“DCU has really taken athletics seriously by investing in Morton Stadium… Athletes who might not go to the States should have the option to stay and thrive in Ireland.”
He also shared his insights on the Irish athletes to watch at the evening’s games, including hurdler Sarah Lavin, distance runner and DCU graduate Cormac Dalton, and Nick Griggs, a Belfast athlete who holds the European U20 3000m title.
Reflecting on Eamonn Coghlan’s influence on Irish sports, including on his own career in Gaelic football, Jason Sherlock commented
“You taught me that if you can compete with the best, so can I, and you taught me to dream big.”
Speaking at the event, Joe Quinsey, CEO of DCU Educational Trust, said
“DCU is widely acknowledged as Ireland’s leading sports university, known both for our commitment to promoting sport as an integral part of the student experience and for the outstanding performances of over 250 elite sports scholarship athletes supported by DCU each year. We have big ambitions, and we want to keep going.”
After the dinner, guests joined the spectators at Morton Stadium, where an eventful Morton Games kicked off. Irish athletes raced to success, with Sarah Lavin winning the women’s 100m hurdles and DCU graduate Cormac Dalton placing second in the men’s 5000m. The men’s 800m saw Ireland’s John Fitzsimons claim gold, while in the women’s 800m, American athlete Olivia Baker secured first place. The most famous race in Irish athletics, the Morton Mile, was won by South Africa’s Mafori Ryan Mphahlele. In a fiercely competitive race, Nick Griggs ran 3:55.73 to finish third – a time that broke his Irish junior record and made him the second-fastest U20 miler in the world.
