The first weekend of the National Juvenile Athletics Championships took place in Tullamore on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th July and as we’ve come to expect, Mullingar athletes featured among the medallists with two silver and two bronze.

First into action on Sunday was Ciara Fogarty in the under 16 Shot Putt. Ciara once again proved to be one of the top young talents in the Country in this technical event and was rewarded with a silver medal. This was the culmination of a very successful season for Ciara and gives her encouragement to progress even further over the coming months and into next year’s indoor season.

Mullingar has built quite a reputation in middle distance athletics and Cormac Dalton was keen to show that the future is in safe hands. Despite finding himself boxed in during the first half of the 600m u/12 race, Cormac stuck diligently to his task and battled his way through to take a well deserved bronze medal. He was steadily gaining on the two athletes in front but the finish line came just in time to deny Cormac victory. However he can be well satisfied with a great season and look forward to the cross country season with relish!

In the 800m u/14, Linda Conroy was considered a real medal prospect and didn’t disappoint. She was always in the leading group and took the lead with 200m to go. Despite looking like the likely winner at that point, she had to give way to two opponents and settle for the bronze medal. Linda is already looking forward to the 1500m next Sunday and where she can end a very successful season on a high note.

Shane Fitzsimons was pre-race favourite in the 800m u/15 and was always at the forefront of the race. However on this occasion Shane had to settle for second place in the closing stages of a hard fought tactical race. Like Linda, he can now focus on this weekend’s 1500m.

The real breakthrough of the weekend was the performance of Robert Yorke in the 800m u/17. Having comfortably qualified through his heats earlier in the day Robert adopted aggressive tactics in the final and stayed right with the leaders. He went into second place late in the race but was passed by two competitors in the final straight and was fourth in an agonizingly close finish. Robert can be very pleased with his performance, secure in the knowledge that his first All-Ireland medal is not far away. For an athlete who has returned to the sport less than a year ago, we can expect to hear a lot more about Robert in the future.

Also in action in the 600m u/13 was Oisin Quinn where he ran a brave race but was just outside the medals on this occasion. Ciara Hewson and Lorraine Daly were also in action in the 800m u/15 and both ran well in a very competitive race.  Rachel Yorke was also competing in the 800m u/18 and will benefit greatly from the experience of reaching an All-Ireland Final. Liam O’Reilly comfortably qualified for the 800m u/14 final and was in the leading group for the first half of the race but unfortunately he finished out of the medals.

In the 3,000m u/16 Thomas Fagan and Stephen Nea both raced well and can build on this for the forthcoming cross country season. Philip Giles raced well in the 80m hurdles u/15 on Saturday and narrowly missed out on advancing to the final.