In the men’s high jump reigning indoor champion Barry Pender (St. Abban’s AC) will be the favorite looking to add this year’s senior outdoor title to his indoor title. He will face competition from Brian Flatley (Shercock AC) and Junior Champion, Jamie Murtagh (St. Andrews A.C.) who both will be aiming to make the podium.
Irish record holder Deirdre Ryan (DSD AC) will be in line for the women’s title hoping to improve on her seasons best of 1.83m in the run up to the Olympic Games. Pippa Rogan (Greystones & District AC), Aisling Croke (Dooneen AC ) and Leona Byrne (St Laurence O’Toole AC) will also battle it out for a place on the podium.
Reigning national senior champion Adam McMullen (University of Ulster) will be the one to beat in the men’s long jump after recently jumping 7.43m at the British Athletics League Premiership. He will face competition from the reigning national indoor champion Eamonn Fahey (Donore Harriers) along with Tom Reynolds (North Down) who is ranked second so far this year.
In the women’s long jump, Irish record holder Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC) and last year’s outdoor champion Mary McLoone (Tir Chonaill) will go up against up and coming Sarah McCarthy (Mid Sutton A.C) who recently jumped 6.05m to take the National Junior title in Tullamore on June 24th. This performance boosted McCarthy up the top lists to become the number one ranked so far this year.
McLoone will also be looking to retain her triple jump senior title and will be going up against this year’s junior champion Sarah Buggy (St. Abbans A.C) and Mary Devlin (City of Derry AC). Eoin Kelly (St Abbans AC) will also be looking to keep hold of his senior title with Denis Finnegan (Leevale AC) and Alan Kennedy (Abbey AC) also likely to be in contention.
David Donegan (Clonliffe AC) will be the favorite in the men’s pole vault looking to improve his PB of 5.00m and break the Clonliffe club record of 5.05m which he narrowly missed out on when jumping 4.80m at the European Clubs in Monte Gordo earlier this year. Tori Pena (Finn Valley AC) will be the favorite in the women’s vault. Pena set a new Irish pole vault record of 4.52m in April to gain selection for the European Track and Field Championships in Helsinki where she jumped 4.35m but failed to progress to the final round. She will be looking to come into form before heading to London to the Olympic Games in August.
