Abdel Laadjel (Donore Harriers) and Finn O’Neill (Lifford Strabane AC) broke Irish U23 indoor records last weekend in the 5000m and Heptathlon respectively.
Laadjel, who recently finished ninth at the NCAA Division I Cross Country representing the University of Oregon, was in action at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener meet that took place on the notoriously fast Boston University track. The Dubliner clocked an outright PB of 13:24.17 to knock over five seconds off the previous record he had held since the same event last year. This moves Laadjel to fourth on the Irish senior indoor all-time list.
O’Neill, who studies at University of Texas at San Antonio, was competing at the Silver State Invitational in Reno, Nevada where he accumulated 5261 points in the Heptathlon (7.29/60m, 6.72m/LJ, 13.63m/SP, 1.88m/HJ, 8.52/60mH, 4.15m/PV, 2:45.00/1000m). This exceeds the previous record by 161 points and also moves O’Neill to fourth on the Irish senior indoor all-time list.
