There were stark differences in fortunes for some of the Club’s juvenile athletes at the conclusion of the AAI National Juvenile Indoors in Nenagh on Sat/Sun 10th/11th April, from elation at winning medals and achieving personal best performances in finals to disappointment at being eliminated in the tough qualifying heats.

The cream of the performances on Saturday was by Ciara Fogarty, Linda Conroy and Oisin Quinn. For Ciara, she had the satisfaction of rounding off a sensational indoor season with a personal best of 11.44m to finish second in the shot putt for girls under 17 and was very close to the winning throw, which will give her a great boost in confidence ahead of the upcoming Schools track and field fixtures. In the 800m for girls u/15, Linda Conroy really had to pull out all the stops in the closing stages of the final to pull herself from fourth place into the silver medal position right on the line. The race winner had to break Elizabeth Carr’s record set in 2009 to be sure of victory, with Linda only six hundredths of a second outside the old record, which gives an indication of the ferocious pace of the race. Oisin Quinn showed great composure in the very technically challenging 1,000m race walk for boys u/14 where warnings and possible disqualification is never too far away and was rewarded with a well-deserved bronze medal for his efforts. Well done to Ciara, Linda and Oisin.

For others, there was mixed fortune. With hindsight, Robert Yorke will be the first to admit that he went out too hard for the first lap of the 800m u/18 and paid the price in the closing stages as he was overhauled and had to settle for 4th place, just outside the medals, but top marks for effort and proving that he fears no one and the experience will stand him in good stead for the outdoor season. Rachel Yorke is not long recovered from recent injury and struggled to find her best form in the 800m u/19 but can nevertheless be very proud of her performance in a National final. Likewise for Padraig Moran in the 800m u/15, his training has been hampered somewhat of late by a niggling injury but still managed a very respectable 5th place finish in the final. Lorraine Daly competed well in the 800m u/16 but the very fast pace of the opening laps didn’t suit her style of running and she too had to settle for 5th place, but it was only the previous week that she was still competing outdoors in cross country and it is very difficult to switch so quickly to indoor running, especially over 800m. Also struggling with the switch from cross country to indoors, Ciara Hewson and Elizabeth Carr ran well in their 800m u/16 heats but just couldn’t find the necessary extra edge to join Lorraine in the final. For Glen Gaffney, he’ll put the 800m u/14 down to experience as he too struggled to translate terrific cross country form to indoor 800m but will be someone to watch in the Schools competitions and other track fixtures this summer. Another athlete hampered by niggling injury of late, Mairead Sayeh ran well in her heat of the 200m u/16 where her time was 6th fastest overall, but with only 4 lanes in Nenagh, she didn’t advance to the final. We’ll see Mairead too in the upcoming Schools competitions.

While some of our juvenile athletes might have felt disappointed with their performances, at least they got the opportunity to compete in the Nationals. Unfortunately, injury and illness robbed Shane Fitzsimons and Jack Reid of their chances, but we’ll see them in the outdoor competitions later in the year and we wish them well as they recover.

The final day, Sunday, was dedicated to the sprint relay events where Mullingar was very unlucky to say the least. Having absolutely dominated the 4x100m for girls u/12 at the Leinster Indoors back in January, we had high hopes for Ellen Cronin, Adeola Ojomo-Amaka, Niamh Quinn and Meabh McNulty. However, when the girls were well ahead in the heat, disaster struck at the second handover and the baton was dropped. At National level, such mistakes are very costly and too much time was lost retrieving the baton and unfortunately the girls lost out on a place in the final. The girls 4x200m u/15 team of Victoria Harris, Edel Glennon, Linda Conroy and Caoimhe Shaw couldn’t reproduce the sparkle of their performance in the Leinster Indoors and despite valiant team work and effort in the heat, didn’t advance to the final. It was a similar fate for Liam O’Reilly, Boidu Sayeh, Padraig Moran and Oisin Quinn in the 4x200m u/15 and the Leinster Champions didn’t advance to the final from the extremely competitive heats.

Days 3 and 4 rounded off the indoor season for 2010, where Mullingar showed itself to be quite a force at Leinster, especially in the middle-distance events, but there is still a bit of work to be done to make a decisive breakthrough at National level, though full credit to Adeola Ojoma-Amaka (60 u/12 bronze), Cormac Dalton (600m u/13 gold), Vinny Connolly (1,500m u/19 bronze) who won medals on the first week-end, and to Ciara Fogarty (shot putt u/17 silver), Linda Conroy (800m u/15 silver) and Oisin Quinn (1,000m race walk u/14 bronze) for showing the way by example. As always, sincere thanks to the many parents and others that provided transport and traveled in number to Nenagh to look after the athletes. Your dedication and support is commendable.