Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships
30 & 31 March 2019
Athlone IT International Arena
Longford Athletics Club juvenile members win 3 National titles in 800m, Long Jump and High Jump as the Club celebrates its most successful National Indoor Championships ever.
After a very successful weekend at the track Longford Athletics Club continues to go from strength to strength winning a grand total of eight medals at this year’s National Indoor Championships. The Club got off to a flying start in January with three medals at the National Juniors Championship. Cian McPhillips set a new championship best performance (CBP) as he won the 1500m, 3:54.77 minutes, and the two silver medals were won by Nelvin Appiah jumping 1.96m in High Jump and Yemi Talabi 5.24m in Long Jump.
Day 1 of the National Juvenile competition saw nine Longford athletes in action in sprints, long jump and the 1500m with most achieving new personal best (pb) times. Yemi Talabi won the U18 Girls Long Jump title at 5.42m and Bronze in the 60m sprint at 7.67 seconds. Nelvin Appiah had a fantastic photo finish at the line as he won Silver and got a new sub 7 second pb at 6.97. Both Funmi Talabi, U15 7.07 seconds, and Gospel Idahor, U19 7.91 seconds, notched new pbs in their respective heats to qualify for finals finishing 5th and 6th overall.
Events on the second day were 200m, 600m, 800m and high jump, with eight Longford athletes competing. Cian McPhillips made the running look easy as he was the only one across the line in under two minutes as he took Gold in a straight final of fourteen runners in the U18 Boys 800m. Cian is already listed for both 800m and 1500m on the Athletics Ireland (AI) 2019 Top Performances List.
Attention turned to the centre of the track as Nelvin Appiah worked his charm on the large crowd in attendance getting them to support his every jump with a clapping beat. He cleared 4 heights with no faults to take the U19 Men’s High Jump title and impressive new pb at 2.05m. This was bitter sweet for Nelvin as he had to sacrifice an expected medal in the 200m as both events clashed on the timetable. The 2.05m jump puts Nelvin in 2nd place on the AI 2019 Top Performances List and he moves from up 25th to 20th place as one of the youngest athlete to achieve this in high jump on the Irish All Time Indoor List.
Well done to Sarah McPhillips, Kate Hagan, Gospel Idahor and Killian Rawle who all qualified for events on both days and show continued improvement as they gain more experience in competition on the National platform. Many of the teenage members of the Club added Pilates and indoor strength and conditioning to their training over the last year and the benefits will continue to be seen in competition in the coming months.
As the Indoor season is nearly over Longford AC comes away with their largest collection to date, a grand total of eight medals, one Gold and two Silver in Juniors and three Gold, one Silver and one Bronze for Juveniles. Relays are the only event left for the final day of the National Indoor Championships next weekend with Longford AC’s U15 Girls 4X200m team competing in the morning session.
