Exciting Times ahead for the Junior Programme
On Wednesday June 7th at the Dublin Graded meet in a wet and cold Santry, the Junior Boys and Junior Girls 4 x 400m teams joined their counterparts, the Junior boys and girls 4 x 100m teams in qualifying for the European U/20 Championships this summer in Grosseto, Italy
The Junior Boys & Girls 4 x 100m teams both achieved their qualifying standards at first time of asking in Waterford at the Tón Le Gaoithe meet in May, and then went on to improve both times in Oordegem at the end of May.
This is the first time Ireland will have all four teams qualified to compete at a Major Championships, and is a reflection of the coaching both from a technical and a developmental perspective going on all over Ireland by our Club and National Coaches, and the commitment being made to the sport by our junior & youth athletes.
The Junior Boys Coach Daniel Kilgallon has built the boys squad up over the past few years, and now has great strength in depth to his squad for 2017, with a big number of boys competing for places on the championship team.
Karen Kirk’s Junior girls team surpassed all expectations last year to finish 5th overall at the 2016 World Junior Championships, and Karen is fortunate to have the same four girls still underage for Junior this year, plus several other athletes competing for places on that team.
A measure of the strength of David McCarthy’s 4 x 400m squads is that both squads achieved their qualification standards last Wednesday without any of their Leaving Cert athletes on either teams, due to exam commitments, so again there is huge competition for places on these teams.
Thank you to the above National Relay Coaches for all the time and effort they have put into the Junior Programme. It is super to see their hard work being rewarded.
Any athletes hoping to secure a place on any of these relay squads needs to post individual times in the 100m and/or400m.
European U/20 Selection Policy can be found HERE
Information about Athletics Ireland’s relay programme can be found HERE.
The Relay Policies can be found here:
Any queries can be sent to Junior High Performance Manager, Jacqui Freyne jacqui@athleticsireland.ie