Irish Life Health National Juvenile T&F Championships - Day 2 & 3

Day 2 of the All Ireland juvenile championships took place in Tullamore on Saturday and the Nenagh athletes were in fine form. Top athlete of the day was Seán Carolan who scored a double success with a win in both the U19 Shot 14.31m and Hammer where he went over the 50m for the first time. Second to Seán in the Hammer was his teammate Brian Naughton who threw 46m plus.

Jodie McGrath showed our girls have quality too with a silver in the U16 Pole Vault to continue a great season.

Also under 16 James Sage took the bronze medal in the Long Jump with a 5.86m PB and Alex Reynolds threw over 38m to also take the bronze in the Discus competition.

One of the highlights of the day was having three new athletes to this level all deliver great performances and get great experience at this level which bodes well for the future. First Lewis Doyle finished 6th in the the U17 100m final. Then Ellen O'Dwyer was 4th in the U15 High Jump and Luke Purcell was 10th in the U16 3000m.
Well done everyone.

Day 3 of the All Ireland's in Tullamore saw the athletes greeted with beautiful sunshine and they produced some fine athletic performances.

Our U19 boys took up where they left off yesterday with first Darragh Miniter got the better of Sean Carolan in the Long jump with Darragh recording a fantastic new PB of 6.90m. Not to be outdone Seán then reversed the order with another 1-2 finish this time in the Discus.

The Discus competition also saw Joe McEvoy 4th and Brian Naughton 7th which brought these four U19 athletes juvenile careers to a conclusion. Roll on the junior U20 category next year.
Joe McEvoy also cleared 1.95m when taking the silver medal in his high jump. 

Another athlete to continue their good form was Sarah Lane in the U18 catagory this time in the 1500m when she added a silver to last week's 800m bronze.

Ben Connolly had a new 3.60m PB in the U16 pole Vault when taking the silver medal.
That was all the medal performances but we also had a number of very good non podium finishes. 

Ailbhe O'Neill will be a little disappointed after finishing 4th in her 1500m final but overall she has had a great year. 

Tom Walshe returned to form and had a big new PB of 4m.25s when finishing 5th in the U15 1500m final. Cian Hodgins continues his return to racing and should be well pleased with his 4m.32s PB also in the U15 1500m final.

Also in the 1500m were Luke Purcell and Seán Hayes both coming away with new Pb's in the U16 final and Ted Collins finished 6th in the U18 final.

Niall Connolly, Ben's younger brother finished 6th in his first All Ireland final the U14 Discus. 
Pádraig Hassett reached the final of the U17 300m hurdles finishing 7th.

Lewis Doyle also U17 was 5th in his heat of the 200m

Emma Carolan U15 finished 8th in the shot putt final.

So all round it was a very good championships for the club and it brings the juvenile track season to a very satisfactory conclusion.
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Sarah Lane, Ailbhe O'Neill, Margaret Mary Grace and Emily Tierney all compete in Tullamore next Sunday with the Tipperary senior ladies in the Premier League final and we wish them and the whole team the best of luck.