AAI Juvenile Indoors 2018 – day 1 (18th March)
PHOTOS BELOW
Golden All Ireland Indoors for Glennon siblings
The Glennon underage race walking siblings, Andrew, Matthew and Sarah all took gold on the first day of the AAI Juvenile Indoors on Sunday 18th march in Athlone IT. Young Andrew Glennon was just too good for the opposition in the boys 1,000m u/14 race walk and swept to victory, pulling clear on the final lap with an impressive turn of pace to win his first All-Ireland title. Matthew Glennon also impressed in the boys 1,500m u/16 race walk, dominating the race from the start and winning by a big margin, well over half a lap ahead. To make it three for three for the Glennon family, settling in to the early pace in the girls 1,500m u/18 race walk, Sarah Glennon bided her time but with two laps to go surged into the lead, pulling clear and opening a gap that was just too big to close and she raced to victory with over thirty seconds to spare to win a third gold for Mullingar and reinforce the Club’s reputation in race walking. Our final walker, Jayne Walsh competed in the girls 1,500m u/16 where she battled well but finished out of the medals in sixth place.
On to the metric mile where Bea Drummond competed in the girls 1,500m u/16, putting in a solid performance but had to settle for seventh place, out of the medals. In the boys 1,500m u/16 Colin Smith put in a good performance but just couldn’t match the pace in the closing laps and finished out of the medal places. There were two heats of the boys 1,500m u/17 and Eoin Quinn was unlucky not to advance to the final, missing a place by a narrow margin after a brave effort in his heat. Aoife Darby cruised through her heat of the girls 1,500m u/18 to earn her place in the final. Normally a certainty for a medal at this level, a bout of illness only a week before had clearly taken its toll and while she had enough in the tank for one race, the heat, there just wasn’t enough for two races in one day and she was very disappointed not to win a medal but she certainly gave it every effort.
We had two young sprinters in action in the 60m. Criostoir Ormsby impressed in his heat of the boys 60m u/12 where he finished second to earn a place in the final and though he ran quicker in the final he finished out of the medal places but has to take great satisfaction from making his first individual All-Ireland final. Callum Costello couldn’t quite match the performance that saw him take silver in Leinster and didn’t advance from his heat of the boys 60m u/13, but still put in a strong showing against top quality opposition. In the field events, Shauna Leydon contested the girls u/17 long jump but struggled a bit with her mark and finished out of the medal places.
