June 2017: Latest Achievements of the Young Spartans

At Olympian AC meeting on June 25th, Matt Doherty was the winner of the 800 m in 1.59. The Spartan made light work of his opponents with Noel Logan stepping out of the comfort zone running 2.06. He then won the 3000m comfortably 20mins later in 9.26. (If you like to win too, try Costa del Cash video slot.)

This year’s Tailteann Games took place on Saturday 24th June at Santry, Dublin. The Spartans representations had a respectable performance. Eimear Kelly ended 4th in 80M Hurdles with 12.12s, Austin Hargan ended 4th in Triple Jump, with 12m 14cm and 9th in High Jump, and Aela Stewart ended 6th in 800m with 2m 19.47s.

At the Belfast IMC meeting over 20 junior competitors took on the 1,000m Primary School races. Our representative Finn O’Neill won the boy’s event in 3:00.12 (1st place), while Fionn McLaughlin won us the third place as well. In the girl’s race, Rosie Byrne snatched another medal for the Spartans by finishing third.

The weekend before was also a great success! Junior Spartans collected 10 medals at Mary Peters Track on a very warm Saturday with standout performances from hurdlers Eimear Kelly and Nathan Fitzpatrick.

Eimear won double gold in the U16 80mH and 250mH. She also went on to win silver in the high jump equaling the winning jump of 1.45m but losing the gold on countback. Nathan Fitzpatrick won silver in both the 80mH and 250mH U15 events. In the U15 girls, competing in the 250mH for the first time, Connie O’Brien ran well in qualifying and finished strong for 5th.

In the U14 girls 200m, the trio of Mollie Nicholl, Amy Spain and Emma MacDonald all ran well in their heats to qualify for the final but it was Mollie who had the form, in the end, finishing in 3rd place. Amy was placed 4th to add to her 4th place in the 80m earlier in the day. Emily Neill was a clear winner in her U15 200m heat and in a fast final finished 4th.

In the U15 girls, 800 m Cara Laverty once again showed her form, completely unchallenged in her time trial, Cara ran 2.22 winning gold a full 3 seconds clear of her nearest rival. In the U16 girls 800m Aela Stewart ran a 1 second PB for 2.19, but in a strong field, this was only enough for 3rd.

In the U17 girls race, Mary Cait Byrne ran well for 4th and was unlucky not to medal. The standard of competition was high in the boys 800m events with Sam Cole and Michael Houston both finishing outside the medals.

Two athletes competing in the jumps were Christian Slater and Austin Hargan. Christian competed in the U15 Boys Long Jump and High Jump and finished 3rd and 4th respectively, Austin jumped 2.12m in the U17 Boys Triple jump winning the silver medal.

Congratulations to all athletes and coaches – all top 4 finishers qualify for All Irelands in Tullamore in 3 weeks’ time!