Days 1 & 2 of the Irish Age Groups (U13-U19) took place in a blustery and damp Tullamore Stadium on Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th July and a handful of North Down qualifiers made the long trip down to compete against the best athletes from around Ireland.
Rachel McCann could have been forgiven for being a little off her best following her recent involvement at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Hungary, however, she recorded her second fastest time of the season when she ran 58.51s to secure bronze in the U18 400m. Niamh Fenlon & Lucy Kerr finished 4th in separate heats of the U14 girls 75mH with 13.00s & 13.47s respectively, while Stephanie Bell ran 11.25s to finish 6th in her heat of the U13 girls 80m. Brianna Catney lined up in the U17 girls 2000m steeplechase as a relative novice, however, she improved on her previous best time with 9:01.05 for 7th place.
The club’s only jumper in Tullamore was Megan Drummond and she produced a very consistent series of efforts in the U16 long jump, the best of which was 5.13m for 7th place.
Once again, Amy Kimber was the best of the throwers and was just shy of her PB with 30.49m to take the bronze medal in the U18 girls discus (1kg) while Niamh Fenlon twice threw 15.89m for 11th in the U14 discus (0.75kg). Charlie Lawden finished 12th in the U14 boys javelin (400g) with a first round throw of 26.01m, while Morgan Wilson threw 19.41m for 15th in the U14 girls javelin (400g).