National Juvenile T&F 2024 – Day 1 (7th July)

Day 1 of the National Juvenile T&F was held on Sunday 7th July in Tullamore where it was warm and dry by the afternoon, perfect conditions for the middle distance events.

Lily Walsh competed in the 800m u/14 where she had a really great run and was absolutely delighted with the result. It was a very tactical race with a lot of jostling for position throughout and up to 600m it was quite slow with lots of movement in the pack but Lily kept right in the thick of the action and held her ground near the front to avoid being boxed in. When the final move came at 200m, Lily was in the top three that broke away and racing hard with a furious sprint to the line she finished third behind the two girls who were first and second at the National Indoors 800m back in April.

The steeplechase is rightly regarded as one of the toughest track events, but Ailbhe O’Farrell was up to the task and put in a terrific effort in the 2,000m steeplechase u/18. Expertly negotiating the wooden barriers and water jump over the five laps and running nearly 20 seconds faster than she ran in Leinster, Ailbhe finished strongly in fifth place, an excellent result in a National final [GD].