Irish Juvenile Indoors – Gold for Matthew!
Tue 27 March 2012--admin
A number of the City of Lisburn AC junior squad were in Nenagh at the weekend at the the All-Ireland Indoor championships. They returned with one gold and two silvers but also a load of PB’s (and those all-important All-Ireland hoodies) after two great days of competition.
Matthew Dalton had an exceptional weekend, becoming the Irish Indoor U15 shot champion. His story is a remarkable one as he seemed to have ruined his chances of competing after sustaining a fractured thumb three weeks ago at school rugby practice. However on the day before the event the cast was removed and with the all-clear received from the doctor he travelled to Nenagh more in hope than expectation as he had been very restricted in the amount of technical work he could do recently.
However he showed yet again what an excellent competitor he is to record a splendid series of throws, including three at over 13m with a best of 13:38m! This smashed his PB from the Odyssey by over a metre and has seen him improve with the 3.25k implement from 10.04m last outdoor season to over 13 metres now. In the high jump on day two he yet again produced his lifetime best on the big stage, raising his PB from 1.51m to 1.60m for an unexpected silver.
Ben Fisher won his first ever indoor medal at All-Ireland level, producing PB’s of 5.24m then 5:28m in the first two rounds of the U15 long jump. He led until round five and responded with a huge leap in round six which was a marginal foul. The previous day he narrowly failed to reach the 60m final, running 8.19s after not reacting well to the starter’s electronic signal which caused a few problems over the weekend.
Olivia Savage enjoyed her first All-Ireland’s, throwing a PB of 7.38m to place 5th in the U12 shot and also taking 10th place on the high jump with 1.05m.
Alix Galbraith, after her success in the Odyssey, contested three U14 events on day two here, producing excellent performances each time to underline her potential as a multi-eventer. First up was the shot where she opened with a huge PB of 10.68m to place 6th overall.
She was pulled from the shot straight to the hurdles heats where despite a moment of panic as she tried to measure her blocks setting in inches instead of cms she composed herself to qualify safely for the final! In the final she ran an excellent 10.06s to just miss her PB. She finished her day’s work with a 1.40m jump high jump – 1 cm below her PB for a 5th place finish.
Cameron Kelly qualified well for the final of the U15 60m hurdles where he ran a PB of 9.67s. He was also 9th in the high jump with 1.45m.
Phoebe Tan is another athlete from the high jump squad who has performed well this winter, clearing a 1.46m PB for NI and Ulster silver in the Odyssey and 1.45m here for 8th place in the U15 event. This was an extremely close competition, with the first seven places all clearing the next height of 1.50m. Phoebe had a very good first attempt at 1.50m – this would have given her a share of the title if she had cleared it.
U16 Caitlin Rose equalled her PB of 1.45m while placing a very respectable 6th in the high jump while Annie Alexander was 11th in the U15 shot with 7.60m, very close to her PB throw at the Odyssey.
A special mention must be made of Joanne Savage who broke the club record for the journey from Nenagh to Belfast on Sunday afternoon. We’ll not record the time here just in case any PSNI or Garda officers are reading – although it’s unlikely they’d have been able to catch her anyway!! Finally thanks also to dads Peter Galbraith and Brian Fisher for some excellent photos.