The Woodie’s DIY AAI Combined Event Championships (Sen, Jun, Mas, Juv & Youth) are due to be the first events taking place in the state of the art AIT Arena this Saturday the 26th of January.

The juvenile and youth athletes will have the distinction of being the first athletes to officially compete in the new stadium with wide speculation that some great times will be run due to the fast nature of the track.

In the Junior Men category, the U19 indoor title holder Eric Stam (Bandon AC) will face stiff competition from the Indoor U19 and Outdoor Junior second place holder Shane Aston (Trim AC). Now based in Athlone IT, Aston will be looking to once again make the podium position on his home training ground.

In the Junior Women events, the current Irish Schools Combined Events and Indoor U19 champion Katie ’Donoghue (Craughwell A.C.) will face up against Irish Schools third place athlete Jessica Drohan (Shercock A.C.) along with Catriona Twomey (Kilkenny City Harriers A.C) who placed second in the U18 age group in the 2012 outdoors Combined Events and will be looking to improve on her performances coming into the junior ranks.

Several competitors from last years master indoors are once again competing at this years Combined Events Championships looking to improve on their 2012 performances including Patrick Moran (Mayo AC) and Pat Power (St. Josephs AC) who placed second in the outdoor championships.

The Masters Women events see two entrants, Verena Fenlon (St Jospeh’s AC) and Maria Duffy (St. Peters AC) who, like the senior women’s sole two competitors Andrea Bickerdike (Leevale) and Laura Frey (Lagan Valley AC), will battle it out for the top podium position in their respective age categories. In the Senior Men, the 2012 outdoor champion Michael Bowler (Kilkenny City Hrs A.C) will be likely to add another senior title to his name.

Timetable for the days events can be found here. Start Time: 10.00