Irish Schools and European Off Road Championships Success

Sprints

Veronica O’Neill (Thornhill College Derry) rounded off her impressive Irish Schools career in the hurdles, picking up double gold in both the Senior Girls 400mH in 1:01.94 and 100mH in 14.52 with a wind of -1.0 respectively. Ashleigh McCardle (Holy Cross Strabane) was 2^nd behind Veronica in the Senior Girls 100mH in 15.01.

There was also a sprint double in the Junior Boys for Ewan Donald (Regent House) who won the 100m in 11.65 (wind -2.9) and 200m in 22.92 (wind -1.2). Sprint gold medals also came the way of Esther Hameen Smith (Lagan College Belfast) who won the Minor Girls 100m in 12.79 (wind -2.1), Kai Harris (Wellington College Belfast) who won the Minor Boys 100m in 12.27 (wind -2.7) and Ben Sykes who won the Inter Boys event in a blistering 11.15 given the headwind of 3.2 metres per second.

There were silver medals for Jacob Dumigan (Wallace HS) in the Minor 75m Hurdles 11.72 (wind -2.4) and for Ruairi Parks (Campbell College) in the Inter 400m in 50.69. Several athletes made the sprint podiums in 3^rd including Sara Devany (Regent House) 75m Hurdles 11.74 (wind -0.4), Cameron McCracken (RBAI) Inter Boys 400m Hurdles 57.07, Michael Temetan (Newbridge Intergrated) Minor Boys 100m 12.57 (wind -2.7), Isla Henry (Regent House) Junior Girls 100m 12.92 (wind -2.6) and 200m 26.46 (wind -1.2), Zac Thompson (Campbell College) Junior Boys 100m 11.97 (wind -2.9), Russel Veikune (Campbell College) Inter Boys 100m 11.27 (wind -3.2), Jamie Moffat (Bangor Grammar) Senior 100m 11.11 (wind -2.0), Joshua Awujoola (Dromore High School) Inter Boys 200m 22.51 (wind -1.3) and Toby Thompson (Campbell College) Senior Boys 200m 21.91 (wind -1.3).

Throws

There were Senior Girls throws titles for ANI Academy athletes Aida Zukauskaite (Hunterhouse College) in the Hammer (44.16m) and Ashleigh McCardle (Holy Cross Strabane) in the Shot (11.84m) as well as Ellie McCurdy (Holy Cross Strabane) in the Javelin (38.56m). Evie Gorman also took the gold medal in the Junior Girls Shot with 9.83m.

Silver medals were won by Grace McBride (Kilkeel HS) in the Senior Girls Discus (31.13m), Dylan Gray (RBAI) in the Junior Boys Shot (12.72m), Carys Carlisle in the Junior Girls Javelin (36.20m) and Austin Adair (Ballyclare High) in the Inter Boys Javelin with 49.16m.

In the Javelin there were bronze medals for Sam Grossmith (Wallace HS) in the Junior Boys with 38.42m and Blaine Lynch (Omagh CBS) in the Senior Boys with 48.56m.

Endurance

Madison Welby (Friend’s Schools Lisburn) continued her great run of form by winning the Minor Girls 800m in 2.19.32.

In the Inter Girls 800m Ava Diver (Dominican College) ran a great race finishing 2^nd in 2.14.97.

Eimear McCarroll (Loreto Omagh) finished 3rd in the Senior Girls 1500m in a time of 3:30.47.

Olivia Morgan (Rathmore) was runner up in the U16 Girl’s Mile in a very close finish running 5.13.18.

In the Inter Girls 3000m Emily Morris (Strathearn) just held off Cora Scullion (Loreto Omagh) finishing 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. In a very tactical Senior Girls 3000m Anna Gardiner (Assumption Grammar) finished 2^nd running 10.03.58. In the Inter Boys 3000m Harry McKenzie (Enniskillen Royal) ran very strongly finishing 2^nd in 8.49.35 in a very competitive race.

Tom Fleming (Ballyclare High) started the weekend off well as the Senior Boys 5000m was held on Friday evening. He had a very strong run finishing 3^rd in 15.01.40.

Jumps

Isobella O’Dowd (Victoria College) won the Minor Girls High Jump title on countback in a new Championship Record of 1.56m while Sara Devany (Regent House) and Brynja Brynjarsdottir (Laurelhill CC) won the Minor Girls in 5.13m (wind of 0.0) and Senior Girls in 5.53m (wind of -2.0) Long Jump titles respectively.

Silver medals were won by Karl Martin (Grosvenor GS) in the Senior Triple Jump in 12.88m (wind of -2.5), Caleb McFadden (Belfast High) in the Inter Boys High Jump in 1.90m and Morgan Wilson (Glenlola Collegiate) in the Senior Girls Pole Vault in 2.60m.

There were bronze medals in the High Jump for John Herron (Omagh HS) in the Minor Boys in 1.60m and Paige Shaw (Glastry College) in the Junior Girls in 1.55m while Lara Scott (St. Patricks Maghera was 3^rd in the Senior Girls Triple Jump with 10.89m (wind of -0.2).

Relays

To round off a successful two days there was a tight finish in the Minor Girls 4x100m ended with Strathearn taking gold in 53.06 and Regent House silver in 53.11, Campbell College won the Junior Boys in 46.36. Methodist College took bronze in the Junior Girls 4x100m as did Regent House in the Inter Girls and Inter Boys. Campbell College won the Senior Boys 4x100m in 43.08 with Grosvenor taking bronze in the Senior Girls. 

Further a field in Annecy France at the European Off Road Championships Zak Hanna (Newcastle AC) finished 34^th in the uphill race with teammate Aaron McGrady (East Down AC) finishing 54^th.