National Juvenile T&F 2025 – Day 3 (12th July)
The final day of the National Juvenile T&F took place in a sweltering Tullamore on Saturday 12th July where plenty of fluids, sunscreen and keeping in the shade was the order of the day on what was the hottest day of the year so far. It was very warm from the off and got hotter and hotter as the day progressed, eventually reaching 30degC, which were very challenging conditions to compete in, but the Mullingar athletes proved up to the challenge.
Blathnaid Peters had an early start, lucky to miss the worst of the heat to come. Competing in the u/17 girls Javelin she was delighted to make the final eight. Despite throwing a massive improvement of nearly 5m on her best in Leinster, it wasn’t enough to finish in the medals, placing eighth overall, but considering she only took up the javelin a few months ago, making the last eight in a National final is a terrific result.
First on the track was Kyle Faherty who sprinted to second place in his heat of the u/19 boys 200m in a personal best time of 22.70 seconds to qualify for the later final. Blasting from the blocks in the final and running a terrific bend, Kyle was well placed coming into the home straight but in a close race he had to settle for fifth place, out of the medals, but another National final to his credit.
Lily Walsh ran a tactically clever race in the u/15 girls 1,500m, slowing the pace after making her way to the front of the group. Staying in control, with a large pack of runners behind her, she gradually increased the tempo until just Lily and last year’s runner-up broke clear with about 500m to go. From there the pace kept increasing until, at 200m to go, Lily released her last kick and opened a gap coming up the home straight to win by almost 2 seconds, delighted to win another National title.
Oisin Clarke and Antonio Bertolo had a very different experiences in the u/15 boys 1,500m. The leaders went out hard from the gun and never let up. As the group split into smaller packs, Oisin found himself in fourth place and chasing third for the latter half of the race but just couldn’t close the gap before the finish line, coming home in fourth place. Antonio got caught out of position when the breaks came at the front and was distanced early but put in a strong last lap to pass a number of runners and finished twelfth, but can take some consolation from competing in a National final.
The entry was so big for the u/18 boys 1,500m that they were split into two timed races, with the medals decided on the fastest times over the two races. Of course that meant both races were run hard from the gun and Luke Greene seemed to struggle a bit to settle into his running in his race but maintained his effort to the finish, out of the medal places but a good effort in the sweltering conditions.
We ended a long hot day with the u/19 boys 1,500m where Jamie Wallace never put a foot wrong, staying right up with the leaders and was perfectly placed to respond to a break from the front, chasing the leader all the way on the last lap and it was only in the last 50m or so that he finally had to concede he wouldn’t catch him, but finishing an excellent second place to take National silver. Finishing strong behind was Donagh Carey, leading the second group home in seventh place, which is a great result at this level [CW/GD].
