Having won two gold medals last weekend at the National Juvenile Indoors, Andrew Fitzpatrick returned to TUS Athlone on Saturday last seeking to complete a clean sweep of All-Ireland titles.
With top spot on the podium already achieved in the Under-13 60m Hurdles and Shot Put, it was the turn of the High Jump on Saturday afternoon for the very talented Andrew. Once again, the gold medal was achieved with a winning height of 1.52m ensuring the success. This completed back-to-back indoor high jump titles for the Melview National School pupil with Andrew having won the U12 competition last year.
Barely five minutes after his final jump, Andrew joined teammates El’nathan Okoh, Paul Aigbogun and Adam Mulleady for the final of the U14 4 x 200m relay. El’nathan ran an exceptionally quick first leg before handing the baton over to Andrew who, despite having had no proper warm up, kept Longford firmly in medal contention with a strong run. Paul and Adam also raced fast 200m legs and, in a high-quality age group, the quartet would go on to place fourth less than a second off a bronze medal.
This superb collective effort saw the team clock a best-ever time of 1:48.59 and they really mixed it with three of Ireland’s leading juvenile track clubs of Ratoath, Metro St. Brigids and Galway City Harriers. The earlier heat to qualify for the final had seen Alvin Prempeh Wiafe deputise for Andrew, due to the high jump competition ongoing, with Alvin running strongly in his first appearance in the Longford singlet.
Congratulations to Andrew on his fantastic triple gold medal success and well done to the relay panel on their performance having prepared so well over recent weeks under the guidance of coach John Fitzpatrick.
Earlier on Saturday, Kevin Óg Murphy placed seventh with a good performance in the U17 Shot Put (5kg) and a longest effort of 10.85m. Good seeing Kevin Óg back competing again.
