Connaught Track & Field Championships 2013 Day 2

The track at the Athlone Institute of Technology was the venue for day two of the Connaught Juvenile Track & Field Championships and Longford Athletic Club athletes put in some top class performances.  Athletes were competing in the under 13’s age upwards where the club produced two additional qualifiers for the National Finals in July.  Thomas Mc Gann continued his recent good form by picking up two bronze medals in the 100 meters and 200 meters for boys under 16.  In the 100 meters heats, Johnny Finnan and Thomas competed and Thomas qualified for the final with Johnny just missing out on the final and no doubt will be back.  In the final, Thomas was up against two top class performers but easily took the bronze medal.  Both Thomas and Johnny competed in the 200 meters with Thomas again qualifying from his heat.  Johnny’s preferred distance is the 100 meters but no doubt he can make very significant improvements over this distance in the near future.  The 200 meter meters final provided some top class sprinting and Thomas ran a strong race to finish third and pick up the bronze medal and adding to his impressive haul of Connaught medals this season.  Based on the times Thomas ran, he will be competitive in the National Finals.  Johnny competed in the long jump and just missed out on a medal and he had an extremely busy day. Mary Sloane made a welcome return to the track and ran a tactical race to finish fourth in the under 16 girls 1500 meters and qualify for the National Finals.  With a bit more training Mary can look forward to these finals and reproduced the form she showed last year in these finals.  The club had a relay team in the under 13 girls 4 X 100 meters heats and while the baton change overs were very good unfortunately the girls did not qualify for the final later in the day and can be satisfied with their performance given that there is no really strong sprinters in this group. Aoife Sheridan, Dearbhaile Rooney, Cliodhna Mulligan, Emily McCarthy & Alanna Mulligan ran in the 80 meters heats but did not manage to progress through the various rounds to the finals and no doubt this was a good learning experience for them.  Dearbhaile and Alanna competed in the 600 meters where they ran good races but never challenged for the medals on offer.  These two girls can look forward to the cross country season later in the year as they have excellent running technique.  Aoife and Cliodha competed in the Long Jump. Thomas Ivel competed in the under 13 boys 600m and came 6^th in his heat. Unfortunately for Thomas, he had a disastrous start as the boy next to him fell and this held Thomas back as he had to nearly stop and jump over the fallen athlete which cost him valuable seconds.  Despite this Thomas ran as excellent race.  Thomas also competed in the Long Jump. Niamh Brady and Sarah Sloane competed in the girls under 14 800 meters with both girls running well, Niamh also competed in the 80 meter sprint.  Overall all the athletes competed well on the day in what was a very high standard of competition.  The club would like to thank the parents, supporters and coaches for all their help and support over the two days of these Connaught Championships.