The 100th anniversary of the Irish Schools track and field events took place at Tullamore on Saturday. North Down had 12 athletes participating following on from their successes at the Ulster Schools championships in May.
Johnny Moore, competing in his first Irish Schools event, finished 10th in the Minor Boys Long Jump and Megan Briggs finished 7th in the Minor girls 800M, a competitive race where the athletes finished within seconds of each other. Murphy Miller, who holds the Minor girls record at 800M and competing in the Junior girls 800M this year managed 4th place in a very tight finish. Murphy was then successful with the Strathearn relay team who claimed 3rd position in the 4 x 100M event.
Faye Nixon finished 6th in the Junior Shot Putt while Amy Kimber, Discus, and Hollie Brannigan, 300M, claimed bronze medals. Ollie Wakefield also came 3rd in the Senior Long Jump and Elleana Hull went one better coming 2nd in the Senior Javelin. Michael Gaffney finished 7th in his Javelin event. Glenlola then won the Senior girls relay race with Elleana Hull and Saskia Greer part of the successful quartet.
Jakob Swann, fresh from his win at the Ulster Schools 800m took his race on from the start and succeeded in making it a double by winning convincingly. Excellent performance.
Aaron Sexton not only won the 100M and 200M but beat the record for the 100M recording 10:86, and a clear 1 second ahead of 2nd place. Aaron was also part of the Bangor Grammar relay team alongside Aaron Blackmore who finished 3rd in a tightly fought affair.
In the last individual event of the day Craig McMeechan challenged the 5K race. The race started with a pace more akin to a 1500m and very quickly the field were split. Running alone for most of the race Craig managed a credible 15:28 and 5th place, the leading 2 made it home in sub 15 minutes.
http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/other/isaa_results_2016.pdf