National Juvenile Indoors 2024 – Days 2 & 3 (6th/7th Apr)
National Indoor 1,500m Title for Aimee Wallace
The indoor season concluded on Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th April at Days 2 and 3 of the National Juvenile Indoors in Athlone. First into action early on Saturday morning was Kyle Faherty in the u/18 boys 400m heats where he ran a solid race in the first of three extremely competitive heats to finish third, unfortunate to narrowly miss a place in the final.
We had two middle distance athletes in action. Aimee Wallace was the pre-race favourite in the u/19 girls 1,500m, as she is the fastest Irish u/20 athlete this season. From the outset, Aimee took control of the race and produced a dominant display, leading from start to finish. Her winning time of 4 minutes 36.8 seconds was a new Championship Record, breaking the previous best time by a large margin of four seconds. Previous winners of this race include the current Irish champions over 1500m (Carla Sweeney) and 800m (Louise Shanahan, an Olympian and a European finalist, highlighting the quality of Aimee’s performance. Philip McCartan was in the first heat of u/19 boys 1,500m and ran a strong race to finish sixth in 4:27.7. Philip is an athlete returning to this level of competition and can look forward to further improvement as the season progresses.
Mullingar has a very proud record in race walking, so there was little surprise when Daniel Glennon cruised to victory in the u/16 boys 1,500m Walk, well clear of second place, while his older brother John Glennon placed third in the u/18 boys 1,500m Walk after a very competitive and close race.
Sunday belonged to our 800m athletes. Lily Walsh kept close to the lead girls in her heat of the u/14 girls 800m and put in a long sprint finish to pass the top 3 and win in a photo finish to claim a place in the final in a new personal best of 2 minutes 22.20 seconds. The pace was quicker again in the final, and with the lead trio pulling ahead, Lily battled hard in the chasing pack. Coming into the last lap she got spiked by the girl behind her but still put in a strong sprint to cross the line in another photo finish for fourth, fifth and sixth, all finishing in 2:22, but Lily was judged sixth by mere hundredths of a second, disappointed to be out of the medals but happy with a great day of racing.
Cillian Galvin took command in his heat of the u/14 boys 800m and led from gun to the tape winning in a personal best of 2 minutes 14.39 seconds. The final was a step up in competitiveness, and although taking charge of the race after a fast start he was pushed all the way through the first 3 laps. Passed on the back straight of the final lap, Cillian chased the new race leader, finishing a close second to win a National silver medal and pick up another personal best of 2 minutes 11.21 seconds.
Having broken the 2 minute barrier in the Leinster Indoors in March, Conor Liston was full of confidence ahead of the u/18 boys 800m but such is the cruelty of sport, Conor just couldn’t settle into his usual free running style and despite every effort finished out of the automatic qualifying places in his extremely competitive heat, narrowly missing a place in the final [JR/CW/GD].
