Leinster Junior, Senior & Masters Indoors 2020 (22nd Feb)
Junior, Senior and Master Leinster Medals for Mullingar
The National Indoor Arena in Dublin was the venue for the Leinster Junior, Senior and Masters Indoors on Saturday 22nd February. First into action was Pauric Brady in the Master Men 1,500m and though he is not back to full racing form he dug deep and raced hard, only narrowly missing a podium place, coming fourth in a very competitive race. Not content to settle for that, Pauric made the brave decision to return to the track later in the day and was rewarded with the bronze medal in the Master Men 800m, perhaps taking inspiration from, and proving, the wise saying that training alone isn’t always enough and you need to race yourself fit. Mullingar’s well established reputation for excellence in race walking was confirmed by victories for Sean McMullin and Colm Walsh in their respective categories in the Master Men 3,000m race walk, with Colm setting a new Championship Record of 15:23.69, a huge improvement of nearly two minutes on the previous record.
The Junior Men 200m heats were a mere formality for Charles Okafor where he cruised to victory and set himself up as the clear pre-race favourite. Powering from the blocks in the final, Charles ran to a clear-cut victory in a new PB and Championship Record of 22.04 seconds and he continues to improve with every race. Shauna Leydon put a good series of jumps together in the Junior Women Triple Jump, her best effort being 10.53m, which is her best in a couple of years and was good enough to win the bronze medal.
Making her debut in a Leinster senior track event, Andrea Brady competed well in the senior women 3,000m and though she finished out of the medals in fourth place, after the race she expressed satisfaction with her efforts. Being more accustomed to longer distances in cross country or road races in recent months, Gerard Gavin was very pleased to bring home the silver medal in the Master Men 3,000m despite his race not quite going to plan. Gerard’s race was over before he knew it, literally, but he did not know it and he believes he ran an extra lap, though it probably would not have altered the result.
Linda Cunningham made her debut in track racing in the Senior Women 400m. Her gamble not to race as a master but as a senior athlete certainly paid off handsomely and fighting all the way to the finish line she placed third to win her first Championship track medal. Linda would actually have won a medal in the master women 400m but a senior medal is more satisfying!
