Spanish athlete and IT Sligo Mechanical Engineering student Alberto Sanchez won a gold medal in the 5,000 metres at the Irish Universities Athletics Championship held over the weekend in the Antrim Forum.
Alberto, who is the recipient of a sports scholarship from IT Sligo, won the race with a terrific tactical performance on the day. In extremely difficult conditions for athletes, due to high winds, he ran the perfect race tucking in behind John Coghlan of Dublin City University for most of the distance, before unleashing a decisive kick over the last 300 metres to claim victory. In third place was Andrew Agnew of Queen’s University Belfast. The winning time on the day was 14.52.9.
The race favourite John Coghlan, son of Irish athletics legend Eamon Coghlan, was part of the Irish U23 team that won the European Championships in February this year.
It was a fully deserved victory for the Spanish native, who has dedicated himself to rigorous training every day of the week since his arrival in Sligo last September.
The gold medal he won in Antrim adds to his bronze which he won at the indoor championships in February in a 3,000m race.
Alberto is a Spanish U 23 international cross-country athlete and has come to IT Sligo on the Erasmus programme. He is a very popular figure in the Sligo athletics circles, as he also competes regularly for Sligo AC.