Connacht Indoor Track & Field Championships
Day 2, Feb 21st held at Athlone IT International Arena
Longford Athletics Club juveniles continued their winning streak on Day 2 of the Connacht Indoor Track & Field Championship last week at the Athlone IT International Arena. All four of the boys relay teams- U14, U15, U16 & U17, placed in the top 3 and qualify for the GloHealth Athletics Ireland National Juvenile Relay Finals on March 19th.
Running together for the first time as a relay team Cathal Farrell, Brendan Finnan, Joe Reilly & Christopher Conaty proudly took to the podium to receive Bronze medals in the U14 Boys 4X200m Relay. The U15 Boys Team of Keelin McGann, Daire McManus and Cian McPhillips were joined by Spanish newcomer Hugo Calvo and also took home the set of Bronze medals.
Nelvin Appiah, Cian Belton, Daire McManus & Niall Moran made it look easy to win Gold in the U16 Boys Relay. The Longford AC team blew the rest of the competitors away, winning with a huge 70m lead in the time of 1.41.77. With this speed and very accurate handovers they will be very competitive at National level.
The best race of the day was the very last event on the timetable. Gold medallists Dylan Horkan, Aaron Kelly, Ronan Farrell and Nelvin Appiah won the U17 Boys Relay with a performance that brought all the spectators at the AIT Arena to their feet. Every member of the team was crucial in securing the victory with only a fraction of a hundredth of a second separating them from 2nd place.
Over the 2 day event 11 juvenile athletes from Longford won Connacht medals in their individual events, placing them in the top 3 in the Western Region. Nelvin Appiah made an impact at his first Provincial Championship winning Gold in three individual events and two more in relay, setting new personal bests that he will be aiming to beat when he goes forward to Nationals. His results speak for themselves, U16 Boys High Jump 1.73m, Long Jump 5.42m and 24.13 seconds in the 200m.
Adeyemi Talabi had her moment on the podium to receive a 1st place Gold. Yemi won the U15 Girls 60m sprint with the fastest time (8.19 seconds) in Connacht for her age group for the second year in a row. She will join her younger sister Funmi who won the U12 Girls’ sprint the previous day, as well as Kenagh’s Aaron Kelly, 2nd place U17 60ms, time of 7.52 seconds, as all 3 will go on to the All-Ireland level in sprints.
Joe Reilly, U14 1st and Cian McPhillips, U15 2nd, dominated in the 800m races. Brendan Finnan won 1st place in the U14 High Jump at 1.35m and Strokestown’s Peter Parker placed 3rd in the U16 Long Jump, 3.89m. A very impressive overall performance at the two day Connacht event by Longford Athletics Club as 25 juveniles have earned their places at the GloHealth Athletics Ireland National Indoor Juvenile finals later this month.
