National Combined Events
Sunday’s Combined Events Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Dublin saw ten of our young athletes take part in the five-event pentathlon. A busy day of competition with plenty of personal bests achieved and great experience gained by all. For two Longford athletes, John Fitzpatrick Jr. and El’Nathan Okoh, there was fantastic success enjoyed with both claiming national titles.
John took the honours in the Under-15 boys category with excellent results in the Shot Put and High Jump in particular, setting the top marks in both, greatly boosting his points tally. He capped off the event an impressive clear winner of the 800m to bring his overall score to 2307, over 500 points ahead of the runner-up for a resounding win to take the gold medal.
The U14 boys competition was more closely contested with consistent strong results by El’Nathan, including top spot in the Long Jump, leaving him well positioned going into the last event of the 800m. He showed his strength to take the win following a brilliant run to claim the gold with 2065 points, some 50 points greater than the silver medallist.
Sophia Carey was also the leading 800m performer, this time of the U16 girls, to round out a good competition for her and a sixth-place finish overall. Cadhla Golden, Julie Taitt and Leah Waters each performed well across the day putting together a solid series of results.
Tiernan O’Reilly, Adam Mulleady, Sam Davis and Paul Aigbogun each did well also competing at their first national multi-events with Tiernan achieving a top 5 placing in the U15 boys event.
Congratulations to all and well done to our two national gold medallists. Plenty of good experience to take by each athlete ahead of February’s Connacht Indoors. Many thanks to the parents for their support and a big thank you to coach John Fitzpatrick for his time and commitment in preparing the group ahead of Sunday’s event.
Results Roundup
On Saturday, the National Indoor Arena also hosted the AAI Games with Holly Rogers and Fiona Gettings both taking in valuable track time and racing. Holly got in two good run outs in the 60m and later Fiona clocked a strong 10:01 in the 3000m.
Patryk Prusak took the honours at Sunday’s World Half Marathon Festival event at Donadea Forest Park in Kildare. His winning time of 1 hour 25 minutes was some three minutes ahead of the runner-up. The previous day saw John Farrell complete the marathon distance at the same venue.