Well it was back to Athlone again for the 3rd time in 3 weeks. This is a common trip for our Juveniles and regarded as a commute nowadays with only an hour down the motorway allowing them time to race prepare and think about the upcoming battle.
First up early in the morning was Rachel Norman on the U/13 Girls Long Jump. This is a preferred event for Rachel who is adapting brilliantly to this event where from time to time she takes on another task aside from running. The U/13 girls field for this was huge with 33 girls competing. Rachel finished very respectably with a jump of 3’73 on the day.
Next up to the call room was our U/12 Girls of Aideen Reilly and Sinead Magee to face the 60m sprints. Both Aideen and Sinead qualified with ease in the heats and passed through to the Semi Finals. In the Semi’s Sinead finished with fine sprint of 9.71. Aideen up in the next heat again finished with ease wining her heat with a time of 8.86. Aideen then had the patient waiting around for the final. A long for the guys with constant warming up, cooling down and hydrating. Later in the afternoon came Aideen’s final. Finally she met her usual opponent from Cushinstown where both had managed to keep out of each other heats. Now it was the final and they faced a battle. A wonderful battle it was where Aideen pushed her Cushinstown opponent all the way leaving Aideen with a well-deserved and hard worked 2nd place with a fantastic time of 8.80. First place won this with a course record in the girls U/12.
Our U/13 Girls, Dunboyne sprint relay team up in action next with over 8 heats. This was made up of Lucy Eglington, Lorena Harrison, Aislinn Kelly and Rachel Norman who came straight from her Long Jump. Each of the girls were put in separate heats and all ran brilliant on the day. Running at Leinster level is always tough and the girls pushed their competitors all the way. From the heats both Lorena and Aislinn qualified to the next level of Semi-finals where they ran an extremely fast race. This is real Championship racing, from heats, to Semi Finals and Finals. Well done to all the girls and we can look forward to Meath and Leinster outdoors now.
Our U/13 Boys Cian Smith and Ross Lyons were the only Boys competing today in the 60M. Cian already has himself a place in the 60Mh in the National finals next month. Again multiple heats which made up of a heat, semi and a final to get through, Cian winning both heat and semi. Along with the previous bunch of girls, the boys made several trips to the warm up and call area as they progressed into the semi-finals and for Cian into the final finishing in a very credible but painful 4th place with a time of 8.52.
Next up was U/14 boys, Marc Leane, waiting to impress as Marc has tirelessly worked constantly at his sprints in training and focusing heavily on his sprint block starts. Marc sailed through both heat qualifiers into the final and finishing in 3rd place to earn himself a Bronze medal and securing a place at the National Championships. Well done Marc.
In the middle of all the sprint heats was the field events were taking place which saw our U/14 Boys Tadhg O Muircheartaigh who was competing in High Jump and Shot putt. In the Shot event Tadhg always a certain bet for a medal finished in 2nd place with a distance of 11.05. In the High Jump Tadhg won the event finishing with a superb jump of 1’50 seeing Tadgh back to form.
Abigail Knox was our Sole U/14 Girl taking part in High Jump. With very little High Jump practice Abbie performed very well on the day jumping a little below her best with a total height of 1.30. Again a painful but very credible position to finish 4th overall. Well done Abbie.
Victoria Knox up next in U/15 Girls Long Jump. Vickie’s jumps improved one after the other and finished up with a total distance of 3.95 as her best performance on the day. Again not Vickie’s best jump but more to come from Vickie as the season progresses into outdoors.
Up next was Luke Phelan our U/17 boys 60m Sprinter. Luke made the journey down to Athlone, warmed up, completed his race in a very fast 8.05 seconds and then was back in the car after a short cool down for the journey home. Well done Luke, times improving and we will surely see a sub 8 sec this summer.
Thomas Thornton competing in the U/17 boys 200m. This was made up of multiple heats. Thomas took to his heat and battled all the way to finish in 2nd place pushing his competition so much that caused a fall for the St. Pauls athlete who fell at the finish line. In the final Thomas ran a very credible 25.08 slightly slower than his heat time of 24.90. Again great run from Thomas with an overall 6th place finish at Leinster level. Lots more to come this summer for Thomas who also finished 2nd in his Triple Jump.
Well done to all athletes competing. Leinster indoor finals is pure championship racing and everyone should be proud of their achievements. Running in the Athlone International indoor arena in front of over 2000 spectators is an intimidating experience and hopefully you all enjoyed it and gained more experience.
From Leinsters Day 3 we saw Tadgh, Aideen and Marc all qualify for the National Indoor Juvenile championships.
