At Ireland’s new National Sports Campus in Dublin, Ben Reynolds clocked 7.77s for the 60m hurdles while competing in the AAI Games on Sunday 5th February, and in doing so, achieved the 7.80s qualifying standard for the European Indoor Championships to be held in Belgrade at the beginning of March.
Meanwhile the Meadowbank Arena in Magherafelt was as cold as ever at the weekend, but that didn’t deter the hundreds of young athletes who travelled from all over the province to take part in the Ulster & NI Indoor Age Group championships held on Sat/Sun 4/5th February.
It was great to see so many NDAC juniors competing, however, the two most impressive performances of the weekend surely came in the shot, where Tilly McWhinney threw a massive PB of 8.66m to seal victory in the U12 Girls Shot (2kg) and finish 2.5m clear of second. Not to be outdone, Faye Nixon had an equally emphatic victory in the U16 Girls shot (3kg) where she also set a new PB of 10.67m to win by over 2m.
Katie Kimber set a new PB of 8.44s to take gold in the U15 Girls 60m and Jonny Moore was an agonising 3cm behind the winner when he jumped a lifetime best of 5.69m to take the silver medal in the U16 Boys long jump.
In the U17 Girls, Rachel McCann took silver in the 200m with a time of 27.15s while Isaac Hart took gold in the U17 Boys 200m with a time of 24.57s. Special mention must go to Eve Dann who competes in the T38 parallel class and finished an excellent 4th in the U17 Girls 60m final with a time of 9.86s.Holly Brannigan took the gold medal and was a comfortable winner in the U19 Girls 400m with 60.74s and Ollie Wakefield was also a clear winner when he jumped 6.15m to claim the gold medal in the U19 Boys long jump.
All of the middle distance events were held as a series of time trials and despite running a PB in the U13 Girls 600m, Niamh Fenlon was unlucky to miss out on a medal by 0.3sec, finishing 4th in 1:53.38. Less than a second separated the first four in the U15 Girls 800m, where Megan Briggs was another one to lose out, this time finishing a mere 0.12s outside the medals in 4th with a time of 2:30.17. Murphy Miller was our only representative in the 1500m but didn’t disappoint as she was her usual dominant self, running 5:00:16 and winning gold in the U16 Girls.
Other performances were as follows:
U12 Girls
Anna Cousins – 5th 60m final in 9.35s
Stephanie Bell – 6th 60m final in 9.68s (9.49s heat), 9th long jump with 3.39m & 14th 600m in 2:07.87
Tilly McWhinney – 4th 60m heats in 10.16s & 4th high jump with 1.10m
Hannah Lawden – 6th Shot (2kg) with 4.75m &16th long jump with 2.37m
U13 Girls
Niamh Fenlon – 7th shot (2kg) with 7.22m & 12th long jump with 3.51m
Poppy Dann – 3rd 60m heats in 9.53s, 10th long jump with 3.64m & 17th shot (2kg) with 5.47m
Girls 4 x 100M relay 6th
U13 Boys
Andrew Brown – 3rd 60m heats in 9.69s
Charlie Lawden – 7th shot (2kg) with 7.30m13th long jump with 3.49m
Boys 4 x 100M relay 7th
U15 Girls
Katie Kimber – 6th in high jump with 1.30m (PB)
U16 Boys
Jonny Moore – 7th 60m final in 7.98s (PB)
U17 Girls
Eve Dann (T38) – 4th 200m heats in 34.82s
U17 Boys
Isaac Hart – 9th in the 800m in a time of 2:24.91
U18 Boys
Luke Adair – 5th 60m final in 7.80s