Leinster Juvenile Indoors 2018 – day 1 (10th Feb)
Andrew Glennon (1,000m u/14 walk) GOLD
MORE PHOTOS BELOW
Walkers to the fore at Leinster Juvenile Indoors
The underage indoor season proper got underway on Saturday 10th February on day one of the Leinster Juvenile Indoors in Athlone IT and the Mullingar athletes turned in some excellent performances, winning 3 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal, in addition, 4 others finished just out of the medal places in 4th place and we had a big number qualify for their finals, so excellent performances by them all. A particular highlight was four Mullingar boys in the 60m u/12 sprint final, so this will be a quartet to watch for in the relays in two weeks time.
Mullingar’s race walkers continue to blaze the medal trail with gold for Andrew Glennon (1,000m u/14 walk) in his first Leinster Championship, and it was gold too for Matthew Glennon (1,500m u/16 walk) and Sarah Glennon (1,500m u/18 walk) in a new Championship Record of 7:01.57. Finishing just outside the medal places in 4th place was Jayne Walsh (1,500m u/16 walk) but she still qualifies for the All-Ireland Finals. Staying with walks, this year Leinster held the Junior, Senior and Masters walks on day one of the Juvenile Championships and Sean McMullin was an easy winner of the gold medal in his master category of the 3,000m walk and it was gold too for Rachel Glennon in the senior 3,000m walk, so Leinster race walk titles for all the Glennon siblings.
Rachel Cornally ran her first indoor 400m when she competed in the girls 400m u/19 and was delighted to come away with the silver medal after a fine race. On to the 1,500m programme, where Bea Drummond competed well in the girls 1,500m u/16 but finished just out of the medals in 4th place. In the corresponding boys 1,500m u/16 race, Colin Smith came through strongly to take 4th place, just missing bronze by a narrow margin, with Colin McGee also finishing well. Andrew Shaw battled well in the boys 1,500m u/17 but finished out of the medals in a very competitive race. In the boys 1,500m u/18, Andrew Daly was unlucky to finish just out of the medals in 4th place, just missing bronze right on the line, but will still qualify for the All-Ireland Finals. We finally got in the medals again when Aoife Darby stormed through in the girls 1,500m u/18 to take the silver medal.
In the field events, Caoimhe Donohue (u/13) and Alanna Costello (u/15) enjoyed their long jump competitions despite not finishing in the medal places. Shane Ormsby got in the medals in the boys u/14 shot and with a fine series to finish third and take the bronze medal.
As always, entries for the 60m sprints were very big, so a lot of heats were required, making qualification for the finals extremely difficult. There were 7 heats in the girls 60m u/12 where Muireann Donohue, Aideen Langtry and Morgan Corcoran competed with spirit but didn’t advance to the semi-finals. Mullingar had nine competing in the 6 heats of the boys 60m u/12, where Hugo Sleator, Dara Smullen, Alex Lynch, Matthew Reynolds and Rory McDonnell ran well but didn’t advance with Criostoir Ormsby, Conor Liston, Jamie Wallace and Kyle Faherty to the semi-finals. All four safely negotiated the semi-finals and it was great to see four from Mullingar in the final where they all competed brilliantly, Criostoir taking the bronze, Conor Liston only hundredths of a second behind, and Jamie and Kyle also sprinting brilliantly. There were 8 heats in the girls 60m u/13 and Caoimhe Kilmurray, Grace Byrne, Caoimhe Donohue and Shauna Traynor competed strongly against stiff opposition but didn’t advance with Aimee Wallace to the semi-finals. Aimee ran quicker as the rounds progressed and made it safely thorough to the final where she ran another great sprint but was very unlucky to finish out of the medals in a very close race.
Callum Costello made short work of his heat of the boys 60m u/13, winning easily to qualify comfortably for the final. Lining up for the final as a real medal prospect, Callum didn’t disappoint and blasted from the blocks to take the silver medal in a very close finish, only a few hundredths of a second away from gold. Amy O’Donoghue (girls 60m u/14), Alanna Costello and Shannon Liston (girls 60m u/15) and Niamh Cully (girls 60m u/16) ran well in their heats but didn’t advance to their finals, but no problem for Awa Fane in the girls 60m u/18, cruising easily through to the final, running a PB of 7.83 second in her heat. The final was run at a blistering pace and it took close scrutiny of the photo finish to determine the winner of the bronze medal, with Awa placed fifth, only three hundredths separating third, fourth and fifth. This concluded a long but enjoyable day of indoor competition.
