Once again, Ireland’s best young athletes descended on Tullamore for days 1 & 2 of the Irish Life Health Juvenile championships held on Sat 8th & Sun 9th July. The busiest and most successful athlete of the weekend was Troy McConvillewho’s three events all took place on Saturday. Once again he completely dominated the U16 high jump and was a comfortablewinner, taking gold with a clearance of 1.87m. Over the slightly lower 100m hurdles (2’9″) he set a PB of 13.76 in the heats and although he couldn’t quite match that in the final, was still good enough to win a bronze medal with 13.85s. At the end of a long and exhausting day, he earned a second bronze medal in the long jump with a third round jump of 5.91m.
Zac Moraghan also set a new PB and dipped under 12 seconds for the first time to edge an excellent gold medal in U15 80mH with a time of 11.97s. He also came 5th in the javelin (500g) with a best effort of 36.98m.
Once again Rachel McCann was in good form as she cruised to victory in her heat of the U17 400m, however, the final turned out to be one of the closest finishes of the day with just two hundredths separating second, third & fourth. Rachel finished in a dead heat for second place with another impressive time of 58.02s, however, the photo finish revealed that she had won the silver medal by a matter of thousandths.
Katie Kimber has also been in great form recently and in winning her heat of the U14 100m set another PB of 12.81s, however, she went even better in the final recording 12.74s to take the bronze medal in another close finish. Not to be outdone, her older sister, Amy Kimber, also continued her recent good form with another consistent series of throws in the U17 discus but it was her opening throw of 28.53m that turned out to be her best effort of the day and earned another well deserved bronze medal.
Megan Drummond started a busy afternoon by taking a further quarter of a second off her PB when she clocked 12.93s in the heats of the U15 100m. She followed this by competing in an incredibly tight long jump where just 10cm separated second to fifth place, however, she eventually finished just outside the medals in 4th with a best jump of 5.05m. Unfortunately the exertion of the long jump took its toll for the final of he 100m and she was unable to repeat her earlier performance but still finished a very creditable 6th in 13.12s. The fast improving Eva Morrow was also unlucky not to earn a medal in the U14 long jump, also finishing 4th in 4.80m. Rio Catney ran a solid race to finish 5th in the final of the U19 3000m with 11:15.14. Lexx McConville finished 5th in his heat of the of the U14 75mH but his 12.80s was not sufficient to progress to the final. Unfortunately Holly Brannigan has recently been struggling with illness and injury and, as a result, was only able to manage 63.10s for 5th place in her heat of the U19 400m. Day 3 of the championships will take place on Sun 16th July.