The new Clonliffe Stadium in Santry opens with an international athletics meeting.
William (Billy) Morton the honorary secretary of Clonliffe Harriers Athletics Club is present for the opening evening of international athletics in Ireland's newest sporting venue, Clonliffe Stadium.
Located in Santry on the Dublin-Belfast road, the stadium has a quarter-mile cinder track and is a replica of Melbourne's Olympic seven lane running track, and was constructed by the same company. Field events will take place on the grass arena enclosed by the track.
With a capacity of eight thousand, the main stand is packed. Olympic star Ronnie Delany competes in the inaugural half-mile race. It was not a win on home turf as he came in second place at 1 minute 50.2 seconds to Brian Hewson’s time of 1 minute and 49.7 seconds, in what commentator Liam Brown describes as,
A very interesting and exciting race.
The first event over, the stadium was declared officially open by Ronnie Delaney who pays tribute to Billy Morton and looks forward to,
Some wonderful times done on this track this year.
In his address Billy Morton looks to the future of the stadium,
It’s Ireland’s track, and we in Clonliffe Harriers are very happy that we were the people who laid it down.
This episode of 'City Newsreel’ was broadcast on 19 May 1958. The presenter is John Ross, the reporter is Kevin O’Kelly and race commentator is Liam Browne.
William Morton (1963)
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