Leinster Senior & Masters Indoors 2024 (9th Mar)
The Leinster Senior & Masters Indoors took place in Athlone on Saturday 9th March and on an action-packed day there were some great results for the small squad of Mullingar Harriers athletes that competed, all of them winning medals, and some winning more than one medal.
Early into action was Paddy Boyhan in the Masters Long Jump where he tied for first place after his third attempt but had to settle for second place after count-back, though still has to be very satisfied with a silver medal. Aidan O’Donoghue competed in the Masters Pole Vault and leaped to a new PB of 2.20m to win the Leinster title. As it’s a new event this year, his winning vault stands as the Championship Record. On the track, Tom Walsh raced to gold in his master 60m and Aidan O’Donoghue continued his improvement in the Master 60m Hurdles and set a new Championship Record of 12.44 seconds on his way to victory, bettering his own Record set only last year. Paddy Boyhan competed in the Masters 3,000m Race Walk but unfortunately he fell foul of the judges in this extremely technical event and was disqualified. Paddy Boyhan bounced back though in the Masters Triple Jump where he although he had trouble with his run up mark for a while and had three foul jumps, but with his last of four attempts he made a valid jump to secure the silver medal.
There was a big entry in the Master 200m where Aidan O’Donoghue ran an excellent race to finish just out of the medals in fourth place in 30.34 seconds. Hoping to run sub-three minutes for 800m, Linda Cunningham was delighted with her effort of 2 minutes 55.97 seconds in the Master 800m, which gave her a podium place for the silver medal. Aidan O’Donoghue rounded off a busy day for him in the Masters High Jump, leaping to the silver medal place in a close contest. Tom Walsh returned to competition for his favourite event, the Masters 28 Pounds Weight for Distance, recording a best of 7.56m to win gold and round off and excellent day for Mullingar’s master athletes in style. Well done to all the athletes that competed and flew the flag for Mullingar [AO’D].
