Irish Schools Athletics 2015.
Mon 1 June 2015--admin
Once again around 30 of our athletes headed down to Tullamore at the weekend for the Irish Schools Athletics Championships.
Each of those athletes had been selected to represent their school at the district championships and then qualified for the Ulster championships by finishing in the top 3 in their event. They had then had to finish in the top 2 or 3 in Ulster to even reach this stage.
Getting there is a fantastic achievement but many went on to excel even further.
In the Junior girls age group we had AnnaM running a great PB in the 200m (25.68s) to take the bronze medal before helping her relay team to silver. OliviaN finished 4th in the 1500m and HollyM, who is still eligible for this age group next year, was 6th in the 75mHd. Shannon jumped a huge PB of 4.90m placing her 5th in the LJ and OliviaS cleared at PB 2.55m for 3rd in the PV.
We had great representation in the Inter Girls events. SarahF and Maddie tackled the middle distance events finishing 7th in the 800m and 4th in the 1500m respectively. Kate and Therese both ran in the 80mHd taking 5th and 7th places with Therese running a PB in the process. Kate then returned to her TJ to produce a PB of 10.88m and take the bronze medal.
Phoebe was also involved in that TJ before moving to HJ where she took a bronze of her own in conditions which were less than ideal. Cousin Eve competed in a much delayed LJ competition and Sarah threw well in an extremely high quality Javelin event.
Ellie took the Inter PV by storm clearing 2.95m to set a new Irish Schools record and lift the Gold medal.
We had 2 girls in the Senior age group. CaitlinR ran a PB in the 400mHd before Roseanna unfortunately had to ease up in the 100m and withdraw from the 200m because of injury concerns.
The 2 Junior boys who had qualified were Ethan and Ryan. Ryan competed in the LJ but was also hampered by injury issues but Ethan equalled his HJ PB of 1.70m to take the silver medal.
Ciaran got the Inter boys off to a fantastic start with his superb run in the 400mHd. His time of 55.02s was a PB but he was just caught at the line and had to settle for silver with Bradley, who has another year at this level, also running a PB in the same race. JakeH took bronze in the 800m. We had 2 athletes in the HJ with Robbie clearing 1.95m for silver and Josh finishing 6th. Josh then moved to the TJ where he produced a PB hop, step and jump of 12.51m for a bronze medal.
We were also well represented in the Senior boys section. Karl and Christian ran in the 100m and both produced fantastic PB with Christian’s 10.85s leaving him 4th ahead of Karl (10.97s) in 6th.Christian was in action again in the 200m where his PB of 21.75s was enough for 3rd. TomB finished 7th in the 800m.
Ben suffered from a clash in the timetable due to the much delayed LJ. He went from LJ warm up to hurdles and back picking up a silver with his 14.76s PB hurdle run. The disruption meant he was not able to get his run up right in the LJ where he had to settle for 4th. Andrew threw 48.94m for silver in the discus.
We also had Erin, Alex, Cara, JakeP and Gareth travel down to run in relays.
Over 30 club athletes involved at the top level schools athletics on this island.
1 gold medal
1 Irish Schools record
5 Silver medals
7 Bronze Medals
A pretty good day’s work for our athletes.
Well done to all who travelled and to parents, coaches and supporters for making the long journey.