AAI National Combined Events Championships 2022 (23rd July)

National Pentathlon Silver for Aidan O’Donoghue

The AAI National Combined Events Championships were held in Tullamore on Saturday 23rd July. While the day started wet and overcast, the rain soon cleared and the athletes were pleased with the dry but breezy conditions. Aidan O’Donoghue competed for Mullingar in the Master Men Pentathlon. This was a change from last year’s four event quadrathlon and this year the 100m was replaced with the 100m hurdles and the high jump was added to the competition to make it a pentathlon. Aidan was delighted to complete the hurdles, his first time competing in the event and believes there is room for improvement. He produced a good measure in both the long jump and the shot putt, putting him in second place after three events and was hoping to make ground in his favourite event, the high jump. However, the breeze picked up and it made jumping difficult and he was unable to close the gap on the leader. The final event was the 1,500m and after a long day, Aidan made no more gains on the leader but was still delighted to win silver in his master age category.