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Connacht Indoor Track & Field Championships

Day 1, 25th February 2017 at AIT International Arena

Longford Athletic Club juveniles were in action last weekend at the Connacht Indoor Track & Field Championships at Athlone IT International Arena. Day 1 saw over 300 children from across six counties in the U12 & U13 age groups take to the track in sprint, middle distance, hurdles and relay races as well as the three field events, long jump, high jump and shot putt.

The Indoor Championships gave Club newcomers Ciara Jordan, Ailbhe Brady, Davin Donnelly and Joseph Carrigy their first opportunity to compete on the track putting their few months at training to the test. After a full day of competition Longford’s youngest athletes won two gold, two fourth place and a sixth and seventh place finishing.

Funmi Talabi set the Gold standard in the U13 Girls 60m sprint when she won her heat in 8.38 seconds, the time that beat 42 competitors for her to reach the podium. Laura Farrell and Kaela Brady were also in the top twenty. In the U13 Boys sprints Jack Belton, 8.92 sec, and Joseph Carrigy, 8.96 sec, both impressed finishing closely in 6th and 7th places in a field of 33 runners. Conor Mulligan, 16th, and Ryan Keogh, 22nd, ran well in the U12 Boys races.

Middle distance 600m races were a real test of stamina with Joseph Carrigy giving his all to finish 4th, 1:51.45. Enda Quinn, Sian Gallagher and Siog Reilly all performed very well pushing themselves to set new pbs in this event.

The popular 4X100m Relays drew large numbers of entries with Longford putting forward five teams on Day 1. Both U12 teams finished in 9th place, the Girls time 1:06.85 minutes and Boys 1:05.11 minutes. The U13 Boys Team: Jack Belton, Conor Mulligan, Enda Quinn & Joseph Carrigy, had to settle for 4th place, time 1:00.97 minutes, narrowly missing the medals by only a fraction of a second off 3rd place that was clocked at 1:00.37.

All eyes were on the U13 Girls races tracking the times of each heat as Longford had two teams competing in the line-up of 17 teams. Rachel Mulligan, Tamara Cosgrove, Caoimhe Crossan & Tara Crossan finishied with a time of 1:04.40 minutes in Heat 1. Funmi Talabi, Laura Farrell, Kaela Brady & Siog Reilly had experience on their side running both Indoor and Outdoor Relays last year. They led the race from the start, winning their heat in a time of 57.71 seconds which captured Gold when all the results were tallied.  Their win at Provincial levels sees them qualify for next month’s All-Ireland Juvenile Indoor Relay Finals.

Day 2 will see 500 juveniles from throughout the Connacht region tackle a very long programme of events in the highly competitive U14+ age groups. Longford AC hopes to replicate last year’s success in Middle distance, Relay and High Jump.