NI Senior & U20/19/18 champs
Sat 11 June 2011--admin
Frequent heavy showers and cool conditions greeted the large City of Lisburn squad attending the NI and Ulster Senior champs at Antrim today. However, despite the elements there was plenty to smile about for the Lisburn athletes who took home numerous medals and several Senior titles.
Ciara Mageean as expected was one of the stars of the show, easing to a classy 4:23 win in the 1500m. Karyn Dumigan has had a late start to her season after a few niggling injuries but made up for it with a super run to win the Senior 100m hurdles (and junior gold) plus silver in the Senior long jump (plus U20 gold). Hollie Johnston was the third Lisburn athlete to claim a Senior title, winning a very close triple jump competition with a PB of 10.85. This of course also gave her the U19 title but she barely had time to celebrate her medals with her proud parents before being whisked off to doping control!
Libby Rose took 3rd in the U18 100m, 2nd in the long jump plus gold in the shot with a throw that was also good enough for Senior silver. Sister Sylvia took home U20 gold from the 100m and javelin. Kathryn Wallace was the only club athlete to compete in reasonable conditions due to the hammer’s early start before the weather broke. She took advantage with a 35.16m PB for U18 gold which was good enough for senior bronze plus she took silver in the U18 shot.
Anna McIlmoyle stepped up to the Senior high jump and took silver with 1.55m. Caris Greenwood won her U18 discus and her 32m throw was also good enough for Senior silver. Despite terrible throwing conditions Amanda Mitchell produced by far the best series of her career with a PB and several 26m throws to claim U18 silver and Senior bronze.
There also plenty of good performances from the men, if not quite the same medal haul. Brendan Murphy ran well for 2nd in the Senior 400mH in 54.86s before also taking 4th in the 200m while Allister Woods ran a 1:57 PB to place 4th in the Senior 800m. Adam Hill had a successful day, placing 2nd in the U18 110m Hurdles in 16.40. He also went over 12m for the first time in the triple jump to add over a metre to his PB for U18 bronze while his 1.65m high jump earned him U18 gold and Senior silver.
Chris Reynolds won the NI Senior title last year but had to settle for silver today although his 41m throw was a great effort in his first outing of the season. In the U18 discus there was a fantastic competition between Tom Jess and Josh Atkinson. Throwing the 1.5k implement both threw PBs with Tom edging it by 43m to 41m. In the shot Tom and Josh took silver (12.34m) and bronze (11.48m) respectively. However our star in the shot circle was James Megarity who unleashed a monster 13.54m final round effort to extend his PB by well over a metre to take U19 gold.
Final medal totals looked like this…
Women – 21 medals including 9 Senior medals and 3 Senior titles
Men – 11 medals including 3 Senior medals
Well done to all Lisburn athletes on their performances today, with the 32 medal total comparing well to the 12 gained on the equivalent day last year. For Senior medals alone the club doubled their tally from 6 in 2010 to 12 in 2011.