It was a fantastic day on Saturday at the National Athletics Championships for the Under 9 to Under 13 ages in Tullamore. Many medals were won, there was a Championship Best Performance by John Fitzpatrick and, most of all, lots of fun was had.
John scaled new heights when leaping a brilliant 1.58 metres to win the U13 High Jump with his gold-medal winning PB effort a full 18cm ahead of the silver medallist. This followed earlier success when achieving an excellent bronze medal placing in the Shot Put.
John’s day wasn’t over as Long Jump success followed winning gold with a longest effort of 4.61 metres in a closely contested event. An extremely impressive feat given that John only took up the event properly in recent months. A return of two golds and a bronze a brilliant return on another great day of competition for John.
One of the day’s highlights came when the U12 4 x 100m relay team of Dillon Walsh, El’Nathan Okoh, Andrew Fitzpatrick and Adam Mulleady set a blistering time of 56.43 seconds in an outstanding team display to convincingly win gold. The feat also marked a double as Nationals indoor relay success had come for the Club, including Donncha Farrell, back in March in Athlone.
Saturday morning’s action saw great gold success in the U10 pairs. In the 60m, the quick feet of Joe Rooney and Jairo Aklassou set the fastest time overall as the boys’ combined 19.72 seconds was 0.01 seconds faster than second place North Cork AC.
Jairo followed sprints success then teaming up with Zac Nolan for a very impressive victory in the Turbo Javelin. Excellent throwing by the pair resulted with a combined distance of over 41 metres to take the title with Jairo’s longest throw the furthest effort individually in the age group.
More medals followed with silver for Andrew Fitzpatrick and Charlie Nolan in the U11 Turbo Javelin pairs. The second longest combined distance secured a spot on the podium for the duo with Andrew setting the best overall individual throw with 27.38m.
In the U9 age events; Ashlee Brady, Emily Weafer, Maia Belton and Caitlin Eager all did very well across a range of events including 60m, Turbo Javelin (5th place) and relay. Sarah Connolly, Leah Waters, Sophia Smith and Zoe Mulligan each competed strongly in the U13 age events, such as 80m and High Jump, including an excellent 5th place finish in the 4 x 100m relay.
Another great day for the Club and its young athletes who each prepared so well in advance of competition. Well done to all.
