AAI National Juvenile T&F 2023 – day 1 (1st July)

The first day of the AAI National Juvenile T&F took place in Tullamore on Saturday 1st July. Competition was for u/9 to u/13 and Mullingar had three athletes in action.

First on the track was Cillian Galvin in the 600m u/13 where he kept nicely in touch with the leading group from the start. Cillian worked hard and put in a great effort, but the leaders began to pull clear with about 200m to go and Cillian was unable to close the gap and had to settle for a place out of the medals in seventh place, which is still a great result in a competitive National final. Some consolation was that he finished ahead of the boy that had beaten him in the Leinster T&F a month before, showing that Cillian continues to improve.

While the u/12 and u/13 athletes competed as individuals, the younger age groups competed as a team of two, or a “pair”, with the time run by each athlete added together to give a team score, which decided the medal places. Daniel Cummins and Conor Gavin had won the Leinster title in the 600m u/11 pairs but it’s a big step up to National. Daniel stormed to the front in his race and it was only in the closing stages that he was overtaken but he pushed on and finished very strong in fourth in a quicker time than he ran in Leinster to keep Mullingar’s medal hopes alive. In the second race, Conor settled in quickly to his running and even though he ran nearly as quick as in Leinster and finished well up, when the two times were added, the Mullingar boys finished in sixth place overall, only as few seconds off the medal places, but top marks for effort.