Irish University Athletics Association (IUAA) Championships
Some of the country’s top young talent are set to represent their universities this weekend at the Irish University Athletics Association (IUAA) Championships taking place at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Abbottstown on Saturday 28th January.
Competition gets underway just after 10am with the Women’s 400m heats kicking off the track programme, and the Men’s High Jump on the field side of things. Live updates will be available on the IUAA Instagram page. Last year’s team champions were Dublin City University (DCU) on the Women’s side and University of Limerick (UL) on the Men’s, with both colleges will looking to defend their titles in the 2023 iteration of the championship. Hot on their heels in the hunt for silverware will be last year’s runners up University College Dublin (UCD) and University College Cork (UCC).
In the Men’s 400m, Ciaran Carthy (DCU) will be looking to perform well coming off the back of a win in the National U23 Championships. However, he’ll be up against his DCU teammate Jack Raftery, last year’s silver medallist in this event.
In the mid distances, all eyes will be on the Women’s 1500m as Fiona Everard (UG) looks to continue her strong form after a stellar performance at last week’s World Series Cross Cup in Belgium. With some of the big names missing, the Men’s 1500m is there for the taking for athletes such as Philip Marron (TUD) and Colin Smith (DCU). The men’s 3000m features seasoned international athlete Darragh McElhinney, as well as past university gold medallist Oisín Spillane. In a stacked Women’s 3000m, last year’s silver medallist Aoife O’Cuill of DCU will be up against her up and coming teammate Roise Roberts, the experienced Danielle Donegan, and Edel Monaghan of TUD who will be hoping to put up competition for the top spot in her first indoor race of the season.
Katie Nolke (DCU) will be following up on her gold medal in the National Junior Indoor Championships Long Jump, and Aisling McHugh (DCU) will take on Sophie Meredith (UL) in the Triple Jump. Michaela Walsh (DCU) will be the one to beat in the Women’s Shot Put
There will be no shortage of drama across the events, with a massive entry of 350+ athletes likely to reveal some new talent on the Universities Athletics stage. The bumper entry is a great reflection of the popularity of college athletics in Ireland at the moment, with many young athletes undoubtedly inspired by the leading Irish stars.
The 4x200m relay final will round out the programme at 6.05pm, with colleges fielding their strongest four in an attempt to pick up those last few valuable team points and nab that all-important overall trophy.
Preview provided by IUAA