National Junior Records the Highlight for Irish Team at World Juniors

19 July 2004

Two National Junior Records and a series of personal bests highlighted the Irish team's performance at the World Junior Championsips in Grosseto over the past several days. Ann Loughnane had the highest finish of the team as she set a National Junior record of 49:24.89 in 13th place in the 10,000m walk. Linda Byrne also set a NJR in the burgeoning women's 3000m steeplechase as she was a fighting 8th in her heat of the event in a time of 10:59.34.

Mandy Crowe ran brilliantly in the prelims of the 200m setting a personal best of 24.18 to win her heat. Later in the day she came up a little short in the semi final, finishing 6th and missed out on the final. 1500m runner Danny Darcy came very close to making the final of his event as he ran a lifetime best of 3:47.75 for 5th in his heat. Just one second faster would have seen him through.

Possibly unluckiest of all were the women's 4x100m relay team, who reportedly set a new National Junior Record in the heat before finding out they had been disqualified for an exchange zone violation.