National u/20 & u/23 Indoors 2024 (20th Jan)
Mullingar had a small group competing at the National u/20 and u/23 Indoors in Athlone on Saturday 20th January.
Colin P Smith competed in the 1,500m u/23 and right from the start it was clear that he was not going to be going home without a medal as he kept right up with the leading group, which slowly whittled down as the laps unfolded. Colin was in second place at the bell and made a determined effort to chase down the leader, racing hard to the finish but unable to close the gap, crossing the line in second place in 3 minutes 55.48 seconds, close to his best for the distance. Diarmuid Fagan competed in the 1,500m u/20 where he raced well but had to settle for a place out of the medals on this occasion.
Still relatively new to the event, Kyle Faherty competed in the 400m u/20 and at only 16 years of age, was one of the youngest in the competition. That didn’t concern him though and in his heat he went hard from the gun and with strong athletes just in front and on his shoulder he was pushed to a new personal best of 52.17 seconds. With the 6 fastest times from 6 heats qualifying for the final, Kyle’s fourth place finish in his heat wasn’t enough to advance, but it was all about the experience and this race will give him great confidence when he drops down to his own age group in the season ahead.
Mullingar has a great reputation in race walking and that was on show again in the 3,000m race walks. In the u/20 race, Andrew Glennon battled hard and finished in second place but unfortunately he was subsequently disqualified, which is always a risk in this tough very technical event. In the u/23 race, Matthew Glennon went straight to the front from the gun and continued to set the pace throughout the race but never managing to pull clear of the athlete in second place who tracked him closely. It took all of Matthew’s experience to hold off a late challenge on the home straight to finish first and retain the National title he won last year, but only by a half second, which is a very close finish indeed in a 3,000m race.
