A: Grange, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland | E: info@mullingarharriers.com

AAI Juvenile Indoors 2018 – day 2 (25th March)

 

Star performances by Mullingar athletes at All-Ireland Indoors

The best way to sum up the second day of the AAI Juvenile Indoors on Sunday 25th March in Athlone IT is to let the numbers speak for themselves – 11 athletes, 8 reached their finals, 5 won medals, 3 crowned All-Ireland Champions.

First into action was Shauna Leydon in the girls 200m u/17 but she didn’t qualify from the extremely competitive heats. For Awa Fane, her heat of the girls 200m u/18 was a mere formality, cruising around the one lap race to win her heat comfortably and earn her place in the final. On to the boys 600m u/12 where Conor Liston and Jamie Wallace were drawn in the same heat, which was won by Conor and Jamie finished very fast to take third and join Conor in the final. Aimee Wallace contested the girls 600m u/13 but just didn’t click on the day and was disappointed not to qualify for the final. Philip McCartan made short work of his heat of the boys 600m u/13, winning to qualify for the final, but Callum Costello made hard work of his heat where he finished 5th but qualified for the final as a fastest loser by a mere four thousandths of a second, less than an inch, but a place in the final nonetheless and a chance to make amends.

Over at the field events, Criostoir Ormsby was in 4th place after four jumps in the boys u/12 long jump, enough to earn him three more jumps and with his 6th and final attempt he leaped out to 4.40m to clinch the gold medal and All-Ireland title, Mullingar’s first of the day. Shane Ormsby impressed in the boys u/14 shot where he put together a very consistent series to take third place and win an All-Ireland bronze medal.

Eoin Quinn ran a fine race in his heat of the boys 800m u/18, finishing fourth and just missing a place in the final in a time that would have won the first heat, but that’s Championship racing. In the girls 800m u/18 heats, Aoife Darby measured her effort perfectly and did just enough to qualify and saved her strength for the final.

The programme then moved to the track finals. Drawing the outside lane in the girls 200m u/18 final, Awa Fane was simply too good for the opposition and blasting from the blocks she led from gun to tape to win in 24.95 seconds, a new PB, and Mullingar’s second All-Ireland title of the day.

The boys 600m u/12 final was run at a fierce pace from the start and Conor Liston and Jamie Wallace had to work hard to keep in contention. Both boys gave great accounts but had to settle for places out of the medals. In the boys 600m u/13 Philip McCartan led the chasing pack on the early leader, with Callum Costello looking much more comfortable than in his earlier heat following close behind. Down the back straight for the final time, the long time leader began to fade and Philip surged past him to the front and powered his way around the final bend into the home straight and crossed the line first to win Mullingar’s third and what was be final All-Ireland title of the day. The race wasn’t over yet though, and coming off the final bend, Callum moved from 5th to 3rd with a phenomenal turn of pace and held his place to the finish to win the bronze medal. We ended the day with Aoife Darby in the final of the girls 800m u/18 where she put in a very strong performance but is still only recovering from recent illness and had to settle for 6th place, out of the medals this time.

For most, this ends the indoor season and they’ll now settle into a new training block to prepare for the schools T&F in early May but not finished yet is the Mullingar boys 4x100m u/12 team that will compete on the final day in Athlone IT looking to add All-Ireland gold to Leinster gold!

 

Shane Ormsby u/14 SP (Bronze) & Criostoir Ormsby u/12 LJ (Gold)