Meath Championships on the Track and Field

Meath Championships on the Track and Field

The outdoor season kicked off for the club’s track & field athletes at the Meath Championships on 13th May.

A quick explainer for the benefit of our endurance runners – For our track athletes the year revolves around two seasons (1) Indoor and (2) Outdoor The indoors is important and enjoyable, but the outdoor season is where we usually see the culmination of the year’s training effort. Each season follows the same pattern: first up is the county championship, a few weeks later the provincial and finally the national (although Meath currently doesn’t have an indoor championships). For the indoor season training started in September, and racing was from February to March. Training for the outdoors started in April, the Meath Championships are in May, the Leinsters in June and the Nationals in August. While there are a number of other ‘friendly’ track meets throughout the year, the be-all and end-all for our track athletes are the Meath, Leinster and National Championships for indoor and outdoor.

So, back to 13th May and the Meath Outdoor T&F Championships. Numbers were low unfortunately, due to a combination of holidays, injury and general lack of availablility but we hope to see a boost next year. The track is becoming ever more popular and our own tartan surface, to be laid imminently at Duboyne AC will hopefully help with that.

In the senior Category we had Sarah Faulkner, taking a fine Gold in the 400 and bronze in a competitive 200 and with a good season’s opener in the 100M, a new distance for Sarah.
Our middle distancer Eimear English unfortunately missed her target 1500 due to a late timetable change, but dived into the 800 with a short warm up taking Gold for her efforts. Eimear followed this with the 3000M and again took gold and with a PB to boot.

Our sole junior of the day was Emma Costello who has been training very hard of late and finished a fine 4th position in a competitive junior girls final. Well done Emma.

In the masters category we had Angela Walsh and Roisin Bell, winning silver and gold respectively in the 100 and 200 meters, with Roisin also having a go a the 400 and earning gold (in this albeit depleted field).

The Club’s Special Olympians had a 50 Meter race on the day with Katie and Aimee coming first and second respectively, again thanks to some super training from these two girls recently. Well done Katie and Aimee, keep up the good work!

Keith Eglington defied his injury to take Gold in the Men’s Senior 100M. A strict age category handicapping system denied him the medal this time for a nonetheless strong shot put. Keith also raced well in the 200M, taking Silver in the process.

Phelim Glynn also made a tenative return to racing as he recovers from injury with a fine display of running in the 3000, earning Gold.

We were delighted to see Gerard Martin take his first step on the outdoor track, putting it up to the juniors and seniors in his 1500M race and taking Masters Gold.

Finally our throwers were out in force with Eoin Reynolds taking gold in the senior Javelin. His gym buddie Jack Nyhan took Gold in the Junior Men’s Shotput, and masters athlete Denis Delaney took Gold in the Javelin. Well done all.

 

 

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