AAI National Junior & u/23 Indoors 2022 (13th Mar)
Mullingar Walkers to the fore at National Indoors
The AAI National Junior and u/23 Indoors took place in Athlone on Saturday 13th March where Mullingar had a select group in action, including a strong group of race walkers who all had podium finishes.
There were four heats of the Junior Men 60m, so only the winner of each heat and the next four fastest times would advance to the final. Charles Okafor finished second in his heat and was unlucky to miss a place in the final by just one hundredth of a second. The u/23 Women 800m was a straight final where Shauna Leydon put in a really good effort, maintaining a consistent strong pace. Staying with the leading group though 500m a sudden injection of pace saw Shauna drift off the back into fourth, but she drove on and it was only in the closing stages that she was relegated to fifth place but her time of 2:22.66, barely half a second outside her personal best, will give her reason to be very satisfied with her performance in a very competitive National final.
One kilometre into the Junior Women 3,000m Race Walk, Aisling Lane put in a significant injection of pace to pull clear with ease. Maintaining perfect rhythm and form, she kept up the pressure to increase her lead with every lap and cruised to victory and the National title by a huge margin. Aisling in underage for two more years, making her victory all the more noteworthy. In the corresponding u/23 Women 3,000m Race Walk, Sarah Glennon showed her class and with an equally polished performance, pulled clear in the closing stages to win well and secure the National title. Matthew Glennon stamped his authority right from the start of the Junior Men 3,000m Race Walk and showing all his class he powered to victory in a time only marginally outside his personal best for the distance, to take Mullingar’s third race walk title of the day. Following in behind with an excellent performance was his younger brother, Andrew Glennon, taking third place and the bronze medal in 13:37.99, which is a new personal best by over ten seconds. Andrew is underage for two more years, so will be targeting the National title in the next two years. Four race walkers and four medals demonstrated Mullingar’s dominance in the event, great rewards for the time and effort put in by them all under the expert eye of their coach, Michael Lane.
Colin (P) Smith made it look easy in his heat of the Junior Men 800m and with the minimum of effort and saving as much energy as possible cruised home comfortably in second place to advance automatically to the final as a firm medal favourite. The final was run at a furious pace from the gun but Colin moved effortlessly through the field to take his place in the leading group of three. Through the bell in second place, Colin drew on all his reserves in the final lap but just couldn’t close the gap on the leader and finished a close second place in a time only marginally outside his best for the distance, so spared nothing and was rewarded with a National silver medal. This ended a terrific day for Mullingar with another podium finish, making it five medals won altogether.
