The dull overcast conditions at Tullamore Harriers stadium brightened considerably with some top class competition at the Woodie’s DIY juvenile track and field championships.
Laura McSweeney (Bandon AC) won the U18 shot by a big margin after throwing 13.67m in the third round. Her throw is a new record and is also considerably longer then the 13.05m thrown by Eva Massey in 1997.
Another athlete to win by a big margin was Kayleigh Cronin (Spa Muckross AC) whose fourth round throw of 40.48m replaces the 38.32m record of Louise Healy in 1995.
Ciara Deely (Kilkenny City Harriers) won the U13 60m hurdles in a time of 9.63 to better the record of Molly Scott set last year.
The girls U15 produced another new record when Michaela Walsh (Swinford AC) had a best throw of 48.66m to improve on the performance of Alice Akers who threw 44.01m in 2010.
The two U19 3,000m steeplechase events produced two new bests with Siobhan McGinley (Celtic AC) clocking 12:52.83 to better the 12:58.10 of Fiona Mulroy from 2011. And Michael Carey Clonmel clocked 10.03.6 to better the 10:03.96 of Stephen Lawlor in 2010.
Claire Fitzgerald’s 2009 U19 best of 42.37m was well beaten by Sophie Parkinson (Gowran AC) who won the competition with a throw of 44.03m.
