The All-Ireland Schools Track and Field finals, one of the most prestigious events in the Irish athletics calendar, took place in Tullamore last weekend with plenty of local successes.
Siblings Conor and Emma Brennan both claimed medals for Moyne CS on a fantastic Friday evening of competition for Longford schools. Conor took the gold medal after winning the Junior Boys 1200m Walk. In a closely contested event, he maintained good form and technique to add another national walks title to his growing collection with a new personal best time set of 5:56.
Emma ensured a second medal would be brought back home to Drumlish when placing second in the Inter Girls 1500m Steeplechase. A strong showing by Emma to win the silver medal just ahead of Newbridge’s Rachel Keaney, a niece of Ray Flynn, following a great battle over the hurdles.
Robin Óg Murphy (Mercy Ballymahon) completed a two-in-a-row of school’s successes when winning the Senior Girls 3000m Walk. It was another assured display by Robin Óg who led from start-to-finish going on to cross the line first in 15:24 for a 30-seconds winning margin.
There was further Longford success on Friday with John Fitzpatrick Jr (Moyne CS) winning the Minor Boys High Jump following a best height of 1.64m. A confident series of jumps from John to claim the gold medal 30 years after his father John Sr won the Inter Boys High Jump title in 1995.
There were also good performances by Paul Aigbogun (Cnoc Mhuire Granard) and Sam Davis (Moyne CS) in the Long Jump and Tiernan O’Reilly (Moyne CS) in the High Jump.
Saturday saw a mix of sunshine and showers in the breezy conditions but that didn’t deter Aistis Vaitkevicius from putting in an excellent performance in the Junior Boys 200m. He clocked a swift 23.76 seconds to win a superb silver medal for Moyne CS. In the middle-distance events; Orla Miney (Moyne CS, 800m), Oisín Dillon (Lanesboro CC, 800m) and Rian McCaffrey (St. Mel’s College, Mile) all ran good times in very competitive races.
Marc Galligan (Cnoc Mhuire), Mia Kiernan (Moyne CS) and the returning John Fitzpatrick Jr each gave it their all against strong competition in the sprint hurdles events. Also in action on Saturday were Moyne’s Sophia Carey and Kelvin Adeosun (St. Mel’s College) in the High Jump plus Willow Parker of Cnoc Mhuire in the 100m with each performing well.
In terms of medal successes, it was the best ever All-Ireland Track and Field by county Longford schools. There were also a number of personal bests achieved across a range of events. A measure of the good preparation by the athletes and the great work being done by dedicated coaches at schools and clubs locally. Well done to all.
