Day 1 of the All Ireland Juvenile T&F Championships

On Saturday July 8th, Day 1 of the All Ireland Juvenile T&F Championships were held in Tullamore.
Dunboyne AC had 8 very talented juvenile athletes representing the club on the national stage. Each of our athletes, like all of their competitors on the day, had come through the tough qualifying rounds which were the Provincial Championships. As such, the competition at this stage was fierce, being the best athletes of their age group in the country.
Tadhg O Mhuircheartaigh got the ball rolling for the club in the best possible style, putting together a seriously impressive series of throws in the Under 15 Boys Javelin. Making short work of the best Javelin throwers in the country Tadgh won with some distance to spare. A great performance from the consistent Tadgh, who has a collection of National medals on his wall at this stage.
Cian Smith was our first athlete on the track competing in the Under 14 Boys 75m Hurdles. Cian has been competing very successfully in other sports recently, most notably GAA, and was up against some very tough opposition. Cian ran and hurdles very well but agonisingly just missed out on making the final by a tiny margin, finishing 9th overall. 9th in Ireland is a is a very impressive performance and no doubt this talented athlete will continue to compete at national level for some time to come.
Thomas Thornton lined up in the field of best long jumpers in the country for the under 18 event.
A consistent set of jumps saw Thomas progress into the final where he got 3 more jumps and on his last attempt he jumped his longest distance of the day to claim a very impressive 7th place. Again 7th in ireland is a great achievement and Thomas is always up there with the best of the country in his various events.
Our next competitor on the track was Ciaran McCormack. Ciaran was competing in his first individual All Ireland competition in the under 12 boys 600m and this usually easy going athlete was incredibly nervous as he lined up for the start.
In an unbelievably fast race, where the first 2 athletes destroyed the previous championship record, Ciaran battled all the way to finish a fantastic 10th in a new PB time. 10th in ireland was a great performance and a very good finish to his hugely successful season.
Sophie Dolan and Aleah Kelly were next up in the under 13 Girls 600m where they both ran very positive races, being up with the pace in 4th and 5th throughout.
As the race unfolded it was Aleah who made headway towards the leaders as Sophie faded slightly. Aleah dug incredibly deep to actually move into a bronze medal position just some 50m from the finish, passing 2 girls, but the effort in doing so was just too much and she was hauled back by the 2 other competitors in the shadow of the winning post finishing in a brilliant 5th place. Sophie dug deep to continue her fast pace to the line and finished not far behind in 10th. Aleah had the consolation of running a big PB in the race. Great performances from the girls being 5th and 10th in the country.
Our final competitor on the track was Kayla Ryan who was competing against the best of the nation in the under 14 girls 800m.
In a muddling race where the pace altered throughout, Kayla took it out hard in the first 100m before things settled down. Moves were made as the race unfolded and Kayla was always up there trying to cover them all. With 300m to go she made a move to close down on the medal positions and moved into 4th place before fading slightly just before the line and finishing in a very impressive 6th place.
Again a fabulous run from Kayla who went for it and being 6th in ireland shows she is right up there with the best in her age group.
Out final competitor was Abigail Knox who was in High Jump action in the under 15 girls High Jump competition. Like the rest of our athletes she was up against the best of her age group in the country and competed very well holding her own and finishing a super 12th overall. She can be proud of being amongst the best high jumpers in the country annd the future is bright for this multi-talented athlete.
So a day of fiercely competitive athletics as you would expect at national level and our band of extremely talented younger club members did their club, their county, their province, their families and their coaches proud. Well done to you all !

https://flickr.com/pho…/151447904@N02/sets/72157683365412893