Morland and Mawdsley to star at GloHealth All Ireland Schools

Best day on the calendar set for centenary year

Earmarked as the ‘best day on the athletics calendar,’ the GloHealth All Ireland Schools Track and Field Championships on Saturday (June 4th) will be in celebratory mode as the Irish Schools’ Athletics Association celebrates its centenary year.

Action on the day will be live streamed by nTrai with commentary from the  ‘depths of hell’ commentary team, Cathal Dennehy and Ronan Duggan, from 12pm on YouTube HERE  and will broadcast the current generation of stars. There will also be extensive social media coverage.

The action-packed day gets underway at 9:00am with the junior girls’ hammer and concludes with the senior boys’ 4x100m relay at 6pm – totalling 120 events. Timetable HERE

Morland and Mawdsley to star

Elizabeth Morland (Dunshaughlin) and Sharlene Mawdsley (St Mary’s Newport) will be two of the main attractions in Tullamore with both athletes in exceptional form of late.

Multi-event star Elizabeth Morland won the GloHealth Leinster senior girls’ 100m hurdles in a modest 15.67 despite a heavy fall but has subsequently went on to set a new junior, U23 and senior Heptathlon record at the GloHealth National Combined Events Championships in Santry last week.

The Meath schoolgirl tallied 5545 points and her marks were:  100m hurdles - 13.92; high jump - 1.70m; shot put - 10.53m; 200m - 24.95; long jump - 5.75m; javelin - 39.84m; 800m - 2:21.22. She is entered in the 100m hurdles only on Saturday.

Sharlene Mawdsley has been going from strength to strength this season and was in scintillating form last weekend in Oordegem when she clocked 23.55 seconds (-0.8 wind) for 200m which put her on top of the overall Irish rankings and was a World Junior A standard and B qualifying time for the European Athletics Championships – and only .3 off an Olympic standard. As such she will be the favourite in the senior girls’ 100m and 200m.

School of Throws

Irish junior international Michaela Walsh of SM&P Swinford has been the main headline maker when it comes to the throws and she won the senior girls’ shot and hammer emphatically at the GloHealth Connacht Schools Track and Field Championships in Athlone IT.

Walsh put 14.94m in the shot and 51.46m in the hammer. At the Leinsters there were European Youth marks continued in the senior girls' discus where Niamh Fogarty (St Joseph's Rochfortbridge) won with 43.40m and Darragh Gaffney (St Finian's) also set a European Youth mark winning the discus with 53.48m - he also won the shot put with 15.55m.

In Ulster St. Eunan’s Brendan O’Donnell impressed in the Inter Boys’ Hammer registering a lengthy throw of 66.84m.

In Munster Orlaith O’Brien of Yeats College Waterford set a record of 43.19m in the senior girls’ javelin, as did Megan Linehan of Hazelwood College, Dromcollogher, who threw 42.97m in the junior girls’ discus. Ciara Sheehy of St. Mary’s Charleville did likewise with 13.04m in the junior girls’ shot put.

Ashbourne stars

Ashbourne's Keith Marks and Shane Joyce both completed achieved victory on the double at the Leinsters and will be looking to help their school usurp Belvedere for the senior boys’ College of Science trophy.

Marks won the senior boys' long jump with 7.36m and the high jump with 1.90m – he jumped an impressive 7.48m last week for Clonliffe Harriers at the European Clubs. Joyce won the senior boys' triple jump with 14.29m and the javelin with 54.80m. Joyce will have to be on song in the triple jump once more to keep Jordan Hoang (Colaiste Choilm) at bay.

Carthy Walsh Jumping to New Heights

Ryan Carthy Walsh (Good Counsel) set a new intermediate boy's high jump record of 2.05m at the GloHealth Leinster Schools which was also a European Youths qualifying height. Carthy Walsh cleared 2.10m in the South Leinsters and will be looking to soar to new heights in Tullamore.  

Ciara Kennelly of St. Brigid’s Killarney has been another to impress in the high jump and she soared over 1.65m to win the junior girls’ Munster title.

Lucas Moylan (Patrician Newbridge) won the Leinster junior boys’ 80m hurdles in 9.24 and then went on to score a big win in the high jump with an impressive record of 1.86m will be another to watch.

The pole vault has seen records aplenty. In Leinster alone, Sarah Derham (Dominican Griffith Avenue) set a new senior pole vault record of 3.05m; Lara O’Byrne (St Joseph’s Lucan) posted a new record in the inter girls' pole vault of 2.80m; and Ella Duane (Cross and Passion) won the junior pole vault with a new record of 2.72m.

In Munster championships Yuri Kanash of St. Augustine’s, Dungarvan set a record of  4.25m in the senior boys’ pole vault while Emma Coffey of St. Angela’s, Cork cleared a record of 3.20m in the intermediate pole vault.

In the horizontal jumps Ballyclare High’s Lydia Mills rewrote the Ulster records book with a new Senior Girls’ mark in the Triple Jump of 11.49m and will be looking to hop, step and jump to All Ireland glory.

Fastest students in Ireland on show

Ciara Neville of Castletroy College Newport starred at the GloHealth Munster Schools Track and Field Championships, held in extremely windy conditions at the Waterford Regional Sports Centre.

Neville won the intermediate girls’ 100m in 12.84 and the 200m in 25.26 into strong headwinds before anchoring her school to victory in the 4x100m relay in 50.26.

Janine Boyle (St Columba’s) was the outstanding Intermediate Girl in Ulster sprinting to new records over both 100m and 200m with clockings of 11.98 and 24.97. It’s set to be a fascinating rivalry between the pair and the rest of the leading sprinters.

Christopher O’Donnell from Magh College in Bundoran was another to impress in Antrim Forum scorching to a 48.57 in the Senior Boys’ 400m to set a new mark but will face stiff competition from Jamie Mitchell (Ardscoil Ris Limerick) in the one lap event.

In the intermediate girls’ 300m Lauren Cadden (Ursuline Sligo) will be aiming to continue her rich vein of form – as will Arlene Crossan (Loreto College Letterkenny) in the senior girls’ 400m Hurdles.

Sean Lawlor (Kylemore) completed the senior boys' sprint double in the Leinsters winning the 100m in 10.83 and the 200m in 21.86. He will be looking for a repeat-performance come Saturday.

Joe Gibson of Bandon Grammar established himself as Munster’s fastest schoolboy, winning the senior boys’ 100m in 11.82, while teammate Joey Henchy took 200m gold in 22.92. They teamed up to carry Bandon Grammar to victory in the 4x100m in 43.44.

Winner of the Connacht senior boys’ 100m was Graham Kerr of Sligo Grammar in 11.13 secs, with Cillian Greene of Pres Athenry second in 11.19; In the 200m, that result was reversed with Green beating Kerr to win in 22.11 secs and he will pose a big threat in the half lap event.

Bangor Grammar’s Aaron Sexton set new figures of 22.12 seconds in the Ulster Intermediate Boys’ 200m and will feature once more.

Patience Jumbo Gula (St Vincent’s Dundalk) continues show her rivals a clean pair of heels in the sprints with long striding Dundalk student securing the Leinster junior girls’ sprints double. She won the 100m in 12.45 and the 200m in 25.22.

Distance races to whet the appetite once more

The intermediate girls’ 3,000m should be another race to savour with Amy Rose Farrell (Mount Anville), Abbie Taylor (St Gerard’s) and Jodie McCann (Institute of Education) all going under the previous Leinster record of 10:15.26 set by Tara Jameson in 2008.

Farrell showed her class in the last two laps to win in 9:55.60 with Taylor second in 10:04.91 with McCann third in 10:14.99.

Other Leinster middle distance maestros are senior boys’ Kevin McGrath (St Pat’s, Navan) and Jack O’Leary (Clongowes) who impressed in the provincial 1500m and 5,000m. McGrath won the 1500m in 3:58.76 and O'Leary won the 5,000m in 15:28.55.

The senior boys’ 5,000m is full of quality even without the presence of Kevin Mulcaire (Ennis Track). O’Leary will be the slight favourite ahead of James Edgar (Friends’ School Lisburn), Peter Lynch (St Kieran’s Kilkenny), Craig McMeechan (Bangor Grammar) and Cathal Doyle (Clonliffe Harriers) – just to name some of the field.

Sophie Murphy (Mount Anville) impressed in the senior girls’ 3,000m at the Leinsters with a front-running 10:04.53.

Louis O'Loughlin (Moyle Park) who won the GloHealth All Ireland junior boys' cross country title in March won the 800m with ease in 2:05.24.

In the senior girls’ 800m Amy Hamill (Colaiste Oiriall Monaghan), Laura Whitelaw (Loreto Mullingar) and Rose Finnegan (Eureka Kells) will be duking it out with Cian McBride of Summerhill Sligo eager to make his mark in the senior boys’ 800m and 1500m.

Eimear Fitzpatrick (Our Ladies Terenure) will be one of the leading steeplechasers on show. She continued to show her expertise over the barriers in the senior girls’ 1500m steeplechase at the Leinsters with a winning time of 5:05.84.

McHugh and Flynn walking tall

Emily McHugh and Maria Flynn (both St Mary’s Naas) showed fleet of foot at the Leinsters – both went under the old junior girls’ 1200m record with McHugh taking gold in 5:09.76. Flynn walked 5:18.03. This puts Kate Veale’s (St Augustine’s) record of 5:27.27 set in 2008 under serious threat.