U18 Record for McCracken as Academy Athletes Excel in Athlone

03 April 2025

North Down AC athlete Cameron McCracken provided the championship highlight of the Irish Juvenile Indoor Championships in Athlone at the weekend when setting a new Northern Irish and Irish U18 60m Hurdles record to take the gold medal.

The Roger Sexton coached athlete who has been training in the Athletics NI Academy in Jordanstown since October came into the race as the favorite, having equaled former Academy athlete Garbhan McKenna’s record of 8.02 at the UUJ Sprints Meeting last month. Cameron exploded out of the blocks, leaving rival Conor Penny over the first few hurdles and maintained that gap until the finish line with both athletes breaking the old record.

There was a gold medal for Coleraine Academy athlete Clara Casey (Foyle Valley AC) who won U18 800m in a PB of 2:13.04 and took bronze in the 400m with a PB of 58.40. In the U16s City of Lisburn’s Maddison Welby who has had a strong Cross Country season took silver in the 800m with a PB of 2:12.47 and Jack O’Connor of St. Michael’s AC took two bronze medals in the 200m and 400m with PBs of 22.63 and 50.75 respectively.

In the Triple Jump, Rebecca Trimble toom bronze in the U16 Girls with 10.32m and Ruby Kennedy was 4^th in the U19 event with a PB of 10.22m. It was also the first race of the season for European U18 100m finalist Ben Sykes of Orangegrove return from injury who still managed a 60m PB of 7.01 finishing 4^th in the U18 60m.