[Not a valid template][Not a valid template]Alan Kennedy followed up on his triple jump win in the Irish Indoor Championships by winning silver in the long jump on Day 2 ot the Championships at the Odyssey Arena on Sunday. However Sunday belonged to Ben Reynolds who was the outright winner of the Athlete of the Meeting Award for his performance at 60m hurdles. Already the Irish U23 record holder and by our reckoning the holder of the uncollated Northern Ireland indoor record, Ben, who recently qualified to compete for Ireland rather than GB, twice ran inside that time, ahead of Vilian Papso of Slovakia and Senior record holder Peter Coghlan. In a somewhat bizarre semi final in which no one was eliminated, Ben won in 7.85 sec and followed with 7.75 secs in the final proper. Agonisinly this was a hundredth of a second off the qualifying time for the Word Championships in Istanbul in a fortnights time but Ben hopes to race again in Belgium next week.
Alan has proved a superb acquisition since joining North Down last year from the defunct Abbey club. He had previously jumped 7.18m outdoors and 7.08m indoors but his 7.06m in the fourth round on Sunday is a North Down indoor record as was his triple jump on Saturday.
In the final of the mens’ 1500m, Niall Robinson was boxed in somewhat in the early stages and finished in 10th with 4:00.75 min. In the womens’ 1500m, there had been no semi final so the field in the final was huge. Jessica Craig ran a well-judged race and moved up a lot in the closing stages to finish 5th in an outright pb of 4:50.14 min. Rachel Gibson, 9th in 4:58.94 had her best race since joining North Down.
Earlier, in age groups morning session, Andrew Kennedy competed in the U16 boys shot, putting 10.00m with the 4Kg shot for 6th place.
Summing up the new club indoor records over the two days, new senior records went to Ben Reynolds at 60m hurdles and Alan Kennedy at long and triple jumps. New U15 records went to Oliver Wakefield at 60m hurdles and to Claire Francis at 800m.
BBC Interview Clips including Amy Foster & Ben Reynolds
Results