All-Ireland Gold for Lara and Matthew at Tullamore Day 1

Sun 15 July 2012--admin

2 Golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes was the medal tally at an overcast but dry Tullamore on Saturday at the All-Ireland age-group championships day 1. A breeze was gusting into the faces of the athletes in the home straight which affected times in the sprints and sprint hurdles, but there were a number of excellent performances from the young athletes from City of Lisburn who had qualified via the recent NI and Ulster championships at Antim.

Matthew Dalton is the outstanding all-round male athlete on display in Northern Ireland at U15 level just now, and he had further success here at All-Ireland level. He won a very tight long jump competeition with a 5.45m PB in round 4, after being out of the medals after the cut at round three. This was a 1cm improvement on his previous best and just enough to secure gold with three more athletes jumping at least 5.40m. He was earlier 2nd in a 12.05m PB in the 80m hurdles (-0.7m wind) in only his 2nd ever competitive hurdles race and will be back in two weeks for the shot at which he won Irish indoor gold in March.

Lara Creighton was the other CoLAC gold medallist after a superb 2.30m PB to win the Irish U16 Pole Vault title to go with her NI title. She also threw a super 27.37m PB for 4th in the javelin where she produced her best-ever series by far. Jane Anderson’s looked strong as she blasted to a great silver in the 80m hurdles (-3.5 m/s) and there were bronzes for Aoibhin McManus in the U17 long jump (5.16m) and Caris Greenwood in the U19 discus (34.55m).

Also in action and competing well were Ben Fisher who was 4th in the U15 80m hurdles with 12.75s and 11th in the long jump (4.89m). Cameron Kelly was 6th in that same hurdles race behind Matthew and Ben in 13.66s although he tweaked a hamstring in the process which cut short his weekend.

Sam Wallace’s PB of 15.22s (-2.2) for 5th in the U16 100m was perhaps the biggest breakthrough performance of the Lisburn squad on Day 1, as this was over a half a second inside his previous best and the best performance of his career. There was also a 4th place for Roseanna McGuckian in the U16m in 12.73 s (-0.2 m/s), just ahead of Megan Marrs in 12.79. Jonathan Hill had a 12.37m PB in the U18 triple jump and that saw him finish just outside the medals in 4th.

Alix Galbraith qualified easily for the final of her U14 75m hurdles in 12.99s but after false starting in the final she sat in her blocks at the re-start and finished 7th in 13.14s (-0.9s). Robbie Marrs was 5th in his U14 80m hurdles final in a 12.23s PB (-2.9 m/s) with Josh Armstrong 6th in a 13.12s PB. Robbie had earlier missed out on the 80m final by just 0.01s!

Adam Hill was 6th in the U19 110m hurdles in 16.59s (-0.7m PB). Amanda Mitchell was 8th in the U19 discus in 24.90m, while Sarah Woods missed out on a place in the U15 80m hurdles final with a run of 14.16s, again into a stiff headwind. Caitlin Rose was 9th in the U16 high jump with 1.45m, while Bradley Mulholland (U13) and Josh Armstrong (U14) both cleared 1.30m to finish 11th and 10th respectively in their high jump events.

Well done to all our medallists and other athletes on their performances.