UUJ Indoor Meet 14 Jan
Tue 17 January 2012--admin
Saturday afternoon past saw large numbers of athletes descend upon the UUJ High-Performance Centre for an Athletics NI open meet. The crowds included many City of Lisburn AC junior athletes who were taking the opportunity for some welcome competition ahead of the coming indoor championships.
Megan Marrs was the stand-out performer of the Lisburn squad and probably the meet overall with a splendid run over the 60m hurdles in a time beaten by only two U15 athletes in the UK in 2011. Adam Hill led the way for the boys with an excellent win and PB in the high jump. However they weren’t the only ones to record good performances as there were a load of encouraging new PB’s from the the boys and girls in red.
60m sprints
Race three saw a win for Kathryn Case in 8.96s just ahead of U15 Phoebe Tan’s good 9.00s with Alix Galbraith improving her PB by over half a second to 9.31s.
New Lisburn recruit U17 Nelson Amaral dipped under 8 secs for the first time with 7.91s in race 2. U15 Ryan Keenan’s preference may be for the slightly longer stuff but he was impressive over the 60m setting a PB of 8.65s ahead of Cameron Kelly’s 8.78s.
60m Hurdles
The stand-out performance here was Megan Marrs’ run of 9.12 seconds, a super run for a 14 year-old, showing she is in good shape ahead of the indoor champs. This appears to be the no. 1 performance in the early U15 UK ranking lists for 2012. Behind Megan there was a PB from Caitlin Rose in 10.35s while Sarah Woods showed she has adapted well to the new hurdle spacings in her first run as an U15, recording 11.16s.
Adam Hill was just 0.02s off his indoor best with 9.20s while Cameron Kelly was fastest U15 on the day with 9.93s and Sam Wallace recorded 10.56s.
Long Jump
Aiobhin McManus was one of many athletes in attendance who were hoping to lay down a marker to the selectors of the UK School Games team for the trip to the Olympic Stadium in May. She certainly did that with a solid 5.08m indoor PB. Of the U15 girls there were indoor bests for Phoebe Tan with 4.12m and a best indoor or out for Sarah Woods with 3.81m. Nelson recorded 4.53m in the boy’s event.
Triple Jump
Adam Hill continued his busy afternoon with an 11.42m jump, just ahead of brother Jonathan’s 11.39m. Sam Wallace jumped 9.87m. Kathryn Case has just resumed training after returning from her travels and she recorded 9.39m here.
High Jump
Adam Hill was magnificent here, extending his PB first to 1.81m and then clearing 1.84m for a great day’s work to place 1st overall. Sam Wallace was in good form clearing 1.45 to equal his PB while Cameron Kelly managed 1.35m.
Megan Marrs moved her PB up 5cms to 1.60m to lead the way for the Lisburn ladies and placing top U15 girl on the day overall. Anna McIlmoyle made the decision to jump despite a five week lay-off due to injury. Shorty was looking great as she cleared 1.55m before the troublesome knee forced her to withdraw. Phoebe Tan and Caitlin Rose both cleared the good height of 1.40m with hopefully more to come in the Odyssey. Alix Galbraith jumped an indoor PB of 1.30m with Sarah Woods producing a lifetime best of 1.25m.
Shot
New Lisburn U15 athlete Matthew Dalton made a promising debut in the club vest, throwing 10.65m in his first competition with the 4k shot to place top U15 on the day, while Nelson Amaral had a decent 8.15m on his debut with the 5k.
Alix Galbraith has moved up to U15 this year and threw an excellent 7.89m with the 3.25k to be top U15 girl on the day ahead of Sarah Woods with 6.96m and Annie Alexander with 6.56m. With the 4k Kathryn Case threw 6.79m and Caitlin Rose 6.13m. Other athletes unfortunately missed out on the chance to throw due to a timetable clash with the hurdles.
Congratulations to all those athletes who took the opportunity to compete so well. The numbers present suggest there is the demand for these meets, and it would be great to see an extra date or two added to the indoor calendar next season for the younger athletes.