Yemi Talabi Selected for World Athletics Championships
Edgeworthstown’s Yemi Talabi has been named in the Irish 4 x 100 metres relay team to compete at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA later this month.
Selection was confirmed by Athletics Ireland following the Irish women’s relay team’s strong performance at the Diamond League meet in Stockholm on Thursday evening where they clocked a fast 44.25 seconds for a third-place finish. Yemi has been picked along with Sarah Leahy (Killarney Valley), Lauren Roy (City of Lisburn), Joan Healy (Leevale) and reserve Kate Doherty (Dundrum South Dublin).
Having just completed her first year at the University of Texas Arlington, Yemi has shown great form this track season including running 11.44 seconds in May for a 100m personal best. This is the seventh fastest-ever time by an Irish woman and ranks 19-year-old Yemi in second in the 2022 standings.
The World Championships will take place at the famous Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Yemi has only recently ran on the track there as part of the UTA Mavericks relay team which competed at the NCAA Collegiate finals last month.Yemi and her Irish relay teammates will line up for the 4 x 100m heats on 22 July.
All at Longford AC extend our congratulations to Yemi and her family on this fantastic achievement and we wish her well in her preparations for Oregon.
Double Gold for John Fitzpatrick at All-Ireland Juvenile Track & Field
A brilliant double gold success for the talented John Fitzpatrick was the club highlight of the opening weekend atthe All-Ireland Juvenile Track and Field Championships in Tullamore. John’s best height of 1.47m secured the top spot on the podium in the Under-12 Boys High Jump on Saturday. With gold already won, he then almost cleared 1.50m with another super effort. Less than an hour later, John claimed gold in the U12 Shot Put with the longest effort. In March, John had also won gold in both events at the National Indoors.
Following his morning medal-winning exploits, John’s busy day of competition still wasn’t finished as the Javelin followed in the afternoon in which he narrowly missed out on a medal but did very well to place fourth. John’s brother Andrew was also in action as he and Charlie Nolan won silver medals with an excellent display in the U10 Boys Turbo Javelin pairs event. Andrew and Charlie’s best throws combined for the second longest distance of the entrants. Congratulations to John, Andrew and Charlie on winning National medals.
Sinéad Masterson leaped 1.35m in the U13 High Jump whileLeah Waters and Daria Lavorko also performed well in the High Jump at the U12 and U16 age groups respectively. Izzy Masterson carrying a slight knee injury couldn’t run at her best but still gave it her all in the U13 80m. Oisín Dillon put in a good run to place sixth in the U13 boys 600m and, in a high quality U15 girls 800m, Emma Brennan and Rachel Keenan ran strongly for good finish times. Well done all.
Ray Flynn Mile: A milestone is reached this week with it being 40 years since Ray Flynn set the Irish record for both the mile and the 1500 metres at the Dream Mile in Oslo on 7 July 1982. Congratulations to Ray on still being the standard-setter among men’s middle-distance athletes in Ireland and it’s quite remarkable that both records remain at the top of the rankings after four decades. To mark this, the Ray Flynn Mile event will take place in Longford on Wednesday 21 September at 7pm. Registration is now open online for €5, plus booking fee, at the Pop-Up Races website. The mile will take place in and around the grounds of St. Mel’s College. Ray will be present on the evening during his visit back to Longford from his home in Tennessee.
