ATHLETES WALK TALL ON DAY 1 OF ALL IRELAND SCHOOLS’
Day 1 of the 123.ie All Ireland Schools’ Track & Field Championships delivered a host of fine performances across a sun-drenched three-hour session in Tullamore this evening (June 2nd).
The walk’s events provided some superb track action, including an intriguing duel between Jake O’Brien (St Geralds DLS College Castlebar) and Andrew Glennon (St Finians Mullingar) in the Senior Boys 3,000m Walk which would ultimately see the Mullingar athlete storm away to gold with 4 laps to go to cross in a winning time of 12:40.68.
Aisling Lane (Mercy Ballymahon) was all class in the senior girls race and produced a confident 14:54.35 winning time over the 3,000m distance to back up last year’s intermediate title.
A from-the-front winning performance from Savanagh O`Callaghan (Mercy College Tuam) saw her take this year’s Inter Girls 2,000m Walk title in 9:36.15, following in her father Pierce’s footsteps who claimed the Minor Boy’s title in 1992.
Winner of the Inter Boys race (2,000m), Matthew Newell (Colaiste Bhaile Chlair), looked ultra-impressive in claiming his respective gold in 8:12.72
The Senior Girls 1500m S/C looked as though it could be race of the evening, and it didn’t disappoint, delivering a thrilling final lap which saw Elanor Foot (Loreto Abbey Dalkey) finish four seconds ahead of Claragh Kearne (Presentation Wexford) in a winning time of 5:12.56.
The Intermediate Boys 1500m S/C was another thriller, with a neck and neck duel down the home straight between Aidan Maher (St Colmans Fermoy 4:30.63) and Diarmuid Moloney (Nenagh CBS 4:30.78) seeing the Fermoy athlete just come out on top in the finish.
Billy Coogan (CBS Kilkenny) continues to impress, and he stormed away to the Senior 2000m S/C title in 6:01:11.
There was also plenty of action in the field events with Max Clover (Bandon Grammar) catching the eye in a brilliant junior long jump competition which was won with a best of 11.46m. Fionn Brennan (Minor Boys Tyndall College) was another to impress, producing a best throw of 12.87 to take home the shot put title.
Day two of these championships starts bright and early tomorrow with the first events getting up and running from 9am as the 393 schools take to action across the track and field events.