Irish Schools Multi-Events 25 Sept

Sat 25 September 2010--admin

Santry, Dublin was the venue on Saturday for the climax of the domestic schools’ athletics season – the Irish Schools Combined Events Championships. A number of City Of Lisburn athletes had qualified to represent their schools and their province via the recent Ulster Schools champs at Bangor.

In the Senior Girls event Karyn Dumigan had a point to prove after finishing 3rd at the “Ulsters” when she had three fouls in the long jump. There were no such mishaps today as Karyn put together a series of strong performances to clinch gold and the Irish Schools title in convincing fashion! She led from the first event (100mH) where she recorded 16.70s and never looked back. This is a fitting reward for Karyn at the end of a very good season.

Libby Rose was hoping to do well in the very competitive Inter Girls age group where there were places up for grabs for the Schools International in Glasgow in December. Ultimately it was a very successful day for Libby where she finished with bronze, less than 40 points behind silver, which secures her international selection. Her pentathlon included no less than three PBs. A long jump breakthrough was only a matter of time based on recent training form and she produced it when it mattered with a big PB of 5.17m. Her good form continued into the shot where her revised PB of 9.26m would have taken gold at the Ulster Schools earlier in the season (where she won the sprint hurdles). Her third PB was at 800m with a great run for 2m 34secs.

In the Junior Girls age group Ulster Schools champion Anna McIlmoyle would surely have joined Libby on the International team but an injury sustained on the eve of the competition meant she was unable to travel. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Adam Hill placed 11th in the high quality Inter Boys event with his highlights being PBs at 200m in 26.30s and also high jump with 1.73.

Congratulations to all the athletes on producing such good performances and so many PBs at the end of a long season.