Leinster Schools T&F 2018 (16th/19th May)

Club athletes in fine form at Leinster Schools T&F

On Wednesday 16th and Saturday 19th May, a number of the Club’s underage athletes competed for their Schools and Colleges in the Leinster Schools T&F, which was the final step to the All-Ireland Schools T&F Finals in June. Competition was fierce as every event was a straight final and only the top two in the sprints and top three in the longer track races and top three in the field events would advance to the All-Ireland Finals.

Ten of the Club’s athletes earned qualification from Leinster across a range of events, which is an excellent representation from the Club. The Glennon siblings are synonymous with race walking excellence and the St. Finian’s trio of Sarah Glennon (senior 3,000m race walk), Matthew Glennon (intermediate 2,000m race walk) and Andrew Glennon (junior 1,200m race walk) all won their respective events with ease to advance to the All-Ireland Finals. There was a winning performance too from Caoimhe O’Brien (Loreto) in the intermediate 800m. Winning silver medals were Awa Fane (Loreto) senior 200m, Eoin Quinn (Colaiste Mhuire) intermediate 800m and Lorcan Mullen (Cistercian Loughrea) junior 1,500m. They will be joined by bronze medal winners Jamie Battle (Colaiste Mhuire) senior 5,000m, Jennifer Fidgeon (Loreto) intermediate 2,000m race walk and Shauna Leydon (Loreto) intermediate triple jump. Amy Geoghegan (Mercy Kilbeggan) minor 1,100m, and Diarmuid Fagan (Colaiste Mhuire) minor 1,100m also won bronze medals, but there is no All-Ireland in these events.

Also competing but missing out on qualification was Shannon Liston (Loreto) minor shot and discus, Phoebe Bate (Loreto) junior 1,500m, Patrick Leydon (St. Finian’s) senior 200m and Colin Smith (Oaklands CC) senior 800m, who was very unlucky to finish fourth, just missing third and qualification by just one hundredth of a second. For the record, Shauna Leydon (Loreto) also competed in the intermediate 80m hurdles and Awa Fane (Loreto) in the senior 100m but they just missed qualification in these events but can focus on their triple jump and 200m respectively in the All-Ireland Finals.

It was a great day too for our near neighbours, North Westmeath AC, and congratulations to Niamh Fogarty (St. Joseph’s Rochfortbridge) who won the senior discus with a record throw of 49.31m, which is also a “B” standard for the World Junior T&F Championships this summer.