The Leinster Track and Field Championships for under 14 to 19 years took place in ideal conditions for competitors and spectators on Saturday/Sunday 20th/21st June in Tullamore and as is now customary, there was a string of successes for the Club across a range of events, distances and ages with most Club athletes that competed finishing in the top four and gaining automatic qualification to the National Finals in July.

SATURDAY

It takes dedication and application to succeed in athletics, and hats off to Ciara Fogarty who broke her holidays to fly home on Friday evening, competed on Saturday, and then returned to France after winning the u/16 shot putt. This is the kind of dedication that should be an example to all. On the track, first on the score board for Mullingar was Edel Glennon who took silver in the 2,000m walk u/14 and there was success too for young Oisin Quinn in his 2,000m walk u/14 where he took bronze, which is a great result considering that he was giving away a year as there is no u/13 track walk. The medals continued to come, as Philip Giles took bronze in the 80m hurdles u/15 and booked his place in the National Finals.

Thomas Fagan gave a solid performance in the 3,000m u/17 and was rewarded with bronze, but disappointment for Vincent Connolly in the 3,000m u/18 where he finished out of the medals despite a great run. David Moran is still learning the 400m, which is a difficult event, but showed great courage and strength to fight back on the finish straight to place 4th in the u/18 race.

The younger Mullingar juvenile athletes have a well deserved awesome reputation in middle-distance, and Liam O’Reilly started proceedings well with a bronze in the 1,500m u/14 and this was followed by a piece of exhibition running by Shane Fitzsimons in the 1,500m u/15 where he led from early on to win in 4:13.44, a new Championship Best Performance, improving by over 13 seconds on the previous best that was set in 1999 by none other than a certain Mark Christie. Thomas Lynn also ran extremely well and showed he is returning to form with a 4th place finish and will join Shane in the National Finals. Not to be outdone, Linda Conroy also dominated her 1,500m u/14 and no surprise when she finished 1st to give the Mullingar supporters more to cheer about. We weren’t finished yet though, as Ciara Hewson led the pack home in the girls 1,500m u/15 with Lorraine Daly having a great race too to finish 3rd.

On to the 800m, where Robert Yorke showed great pace to finish 2nd in the highly contested 800m u/17, with Adam Daly finishing an agonizing 5th place, missing out on automatic qualification by just one place. It was unusual to see Jake Byrne line out for the 800m u/18, as he normally competes over the longer distances, but he still finished 2nd, though he surely has renewed respect for half milers because he remarked afterwards that his legs were like jelly due to the furious pace of an 800m race.

Also competing on the Saturday but finishing out of the medals were newcomer Ciara Sexton (javelin u/14), who shows great promise, Boidu Sayeh (200m u/14), Stephen Nea (1,500m u/16), Eamon Lawlor (100m u/18) and Rachel Yorke (800m u/18).

SUNDAY

On to day two, Sunday, and over a period of 25 minutes or so, everyone wondered how Mullingar can produce so many talented half milers? Linda Conroy completed a double with a runaway win in the 800m u/14. Lorraine Daly got the better of Ciara Hewson in the 800m u/15 where she finished 2nd, just ahead of Ciara in 3rd. Aine O’Reilly was terribly unlucky to be narrowly beaten on the line in the 800m u/16 and finish 5th. Liam O’Reilly added to his 1,500m bronze with another bronze, in the 800m u/14. After Saturday’s performance, all eyes were on Shane Fitzsimons in the 800m u/15, where it wasn’t so much if he’d win, but by how much? Going through the first lap in a blistering 58 seconds, he came home well clear to win in 2:01.29, setting yet another Championship Best Performance, bettering the previous by 6 seconds, with Thomas Lynn just edged out in 5th place. Clearly buoyed up by the excitement of the performances of his Club mates, Stephen Nea ran a terrific race in the 800m u/16 and was clearly delighted with his first Leinster track medal, a bronze. He added to his medal haul later in the afternoon with another bronze in the 3,000m after a tantalizing tactical race where he used his finishing speed to great effect on the last lap.

Thomas Fagan moved down to the 1,500m u/17 where he finished 3rd, just ahead of Robert Yorke in 4th and both now qualify for the National Finals. Jake Byrne was back in familiar territory in the 1,500m u/18 and showed no after effects of his venture into 800m territory the day before and won convincingly, but disappointment again for Vincent Connolly when he finished 5th despite a very good run.

Also competing on Sunday and reaching sprint finals but finishing out of the medals were Rachel Yorke (200m u/18), Eamon Lawlor (200m u/18) and David Moran (200m u/18).

By close of proceeding on Sunday evening, Mullingar has secured 7 gold medals, 4 silver, 10 bronze and 3 fourth place finishes, and 15 athletes now qualify as of right in 24 individual events for the National Finals in July. This was a terrific Championship for the Club and everyone that competed, medal or not, deserves full credit.