NI & Ulster Indoor Age Group Championships
While many of the world’s top athletes were competing over the weekend at the World Indoor Championships in the Emirates Arena, Glasgow, many of our junior athletes were chasing medals at the NI & Ulster Indoor Age Group Championships in Abbotstown, Dublin but the competition was no less fierce.
In the sprints, Cameron McCracken set a new PB of 7.39s to win bronze in the U17 60m, while Jamie Moffatt went even better and was a convincing winner as he struck gold in the U19 event, with a fairly modest time of 7.01s. Cameron was also a convincing winner of the 60mH and took the gold medal in a time of 8.77s. Curtis Hughes may have been struggling with shin splints recently but that didn’t prevent him from taking bronze in the U17 200m in a time of 24.21s (23.97s heat).
Conor Adair has missed a lot of training over the past few months due to illness and injury so wasn’t sure whether he would even compete at these championships, but you wouldn’t have known that by the way he attacked the U19 400m. He was second at the bell, however, he cruised down the back straight and eased into the lead entering the final bend but was still strong enough to hold on to take a thoroughly deserved gold medal and, perhaps even more remarkably, took more than a second of his PB as he stopped the clock at 51.82s.
There were more medals in the middle distance races, with Ethan Constable slicing a massive 6sec off his PB to take the silver medal in the U15 800m with a time of 2:16.66, while Becka Laffin earned another silver in the U18 800 in a time of 2:29.50.
Ethan was another very busy athlete as he also earned a bronze in the U15 long jump with a leap of 4.30m and while he may have been the only competitor in the U15 triple jump, he produced a very consistent series of jumps and won the gold medal with a best effort of 9.03m.
The U17 Boy’s team of Curtis Hughes, Ryan Hamilton, Ben Kirk & Cameron McCracken rounded off the day with an emphatic win in the 4x200m relay with a time of 1:37.09, which was 7sec clear of second place and almost good enough to beat the winners of the U18 boy’s race.
Other final results:
Nyla Hughes finished 6th in the U14G 60mH in 11.10s & 7th in the long jump with 4.04m (PB)
Caoimhe Fenlon finished 4th in the U15G 60mH in 10.16s, 4th in the shot putt (2.72kg) with 7.94m & 6th in the long jump with 4.25
Ben Kirk was competing in his first Age Group Championships and finished 4th in the U17B 60m & 200m in 7.58s & 24.51s respectively
Curtis Hughes finished 5th U17B 60m in 7.60s
Ryan Hamilton finished 7th in the U17B 60m in 7.74s
Cameron McCracken finished 6th in the U17B 200m in 24.69s
[Curtis Hughes]
[Jamie Moffatt]
[Ethan Constable]
[Conor Adair]
[Cameron McCracken]
[Becka Laffin]
{Ben Kirk, Curtis Hughes, Ryan Hamilton, Cameron McCracken]