Nenagh Olympic Weekly Notes 13/07/2018

All Ireland Junior U20 & U23 championships

​We were in Tullamore on Saturday for the All Ireland Junior U20 & U23 championships and while we had just a small contingent of five athletes it was all about quality not quantity. 
Our three juniors are all U18 & so have another two years in this age group. 
As usual the Hammer had an early 10 O’clock start and so Brian Naughton was first into action and in his first national junior competition he had an excellent 4th place finish with a 44.23m throw. 
Seán Carolan had a busy day with three events and after fifth in the shot and fourth in the long jump only one centimeter behind third with 6.45 he got into the medals in the Javelin with a throw of 46.27m for the bronze medal. 
Joe McEvoy was in good form in the high jump and his 1.95m clearance was good enough for the silver medal but a little short of the 2.02 needed for to qualify for European U18 champs. 
Our other two athletes are both ladies , both U23 and also just happened to be in the same race the 800m. Ciara Cummins who normally runs the 1500m or Steeplechase joined teammate Aoife Delargy for an 800m shootout and after a very close call Aoife just got up for second in 2.19.03 to Ciara’s 2.19.3 for third. This was Aoife’s third year in a row with a podium finish in this race. 
We return to the National Senior League next weekend with our men’s club team in Athlone and our Ladies in Santry with the Tipperary county team.

​National senior league

The clouds arrived in Athlone for some much needed shade for the second and final qualifying round of the National senior league. Nenagh Olympic went into this as leaders from the first day and without too much drama the lads delivered a very composed performance to book a place in the final which takes place in Tullamore on the 19th August. 
Tom Hennessy was again our star performer with two fine wins in the 800m and 1500m conforming his fine form of late. Paul White was elegance personified as he covered the ground in his long graceful stride when winning the 400m in 48.9s. 
With Peter Ryan unable to participate this weekend Anthony Carolan stepped in and won the 56lbs for distance. 
Robbie Bennett showed a welcome return to form with second in the 100m in 11.08s and third in the 200m in 22.3. 
Mark Tierney with second in the pole vault and third in the Discus added some very valuable points to the team total. Our two youngest participants Seán Carolan, 2nd in Javelin and Joe McEvoy 3rd in long jump have added a new dimension to the team this year. 
Oisín Fitzpatrick as another busy man with second in the 110m hurdles and fourth in triple jump. Oisín heads to Seattle for a year on Thursday to coach and we wish him well in all endeavors. 
So while Oisín heads stateside Dan Finnerty stepped off his private jet from Nevada after a stint working with a high performance group including Aries Merritt and Fred Kerley dropped in to Athlone and finished second in the shot and partnered up with Liam Finn , Paul White and Robbie Bennett to bring the 4x400 team home in third place. 
So the next outing for this group is the All Ireland seniors in a couple of weeks.