Mullingar Harriers Juvenile Spring T&F Meeting 2026 (19th Apr)
The weather couldn’t have been nicer on Sunday 19th April when we held the 6th edition of the Mullingar Harriers Juvenile Spring T&F Meeting. In glorious sunshine and calm conditions, our younger members age 9 to 15 years had an ideal opportunity to compete in a sprint, middle distance, long jump, and turbo javelin or javelin, and we also had an u/16 girls mile and u/16 boys mile, with trophies to be won, which should give our younger members something to aspire to competing for in the years ahead.
A very big number of youngsters competed in over 40 events and it was very busy from the start, but thanks to great assistance from a big team of coaches and parents, everything went to plan and everyone got to compete in the events they wished to. This was a great opportunity for our younger members to take part in track and field competition and introduce newcomers in particular to the ins and outs of competition, including assembly and check in at the start line, waiting in lane or in line at the finish for results to be recorded, and even attending a medal ceremony when called. We hope they gained from the experience and also learned that the officials at any competition, not just this one, are there to help the athletes to take part and enjoy the event and there is nothing to fear in taking part.
Whether they won medals or not, everyone had fun and will have learned a lot about T&F competitions, which we hope will encourage them to compete over the coming season. Thanks to those that brought buns, cakes and other goodies and of course to the volunteers who manned the refreshment table and looked after the catering needs of the thirsty and hungry athletes, coaches, officials and parents.
A big thank you to the parents for taking the time to bring their children to the event and staying to provide great vocal support and encouragement, to all the children for taking part, but a very special thanks to Colm Walsh who put in many hours of preparation in the days leading up to the event to make it a success [GD].
