Marrs, Courtney, Lecky & McMullen set to Impress at the Belfast International Athletics Meet!
29 June 2017
The Mary Peters Track will again Host the Belfast International Athletics Meet on Wednesday 5th July 2017, starting at 6pm. With athletes coming from UK, Ireland, Europe and South Africa to name but a few.
Megan Marrs (City of Lisburn) is out to impress in the 100mH event, with the aim of taking 0.23s off her current 13.68 PB. Megan will face stiff competition from NI Senior Champion Mollie Courtney (13.28), who has already attained the Gold Coast Nomination Standard. With this strong field Megan and Mollie will take on Scotland’s Heather Paton (13.47), Janke Van Wyk (13.86) of South Africa and England’s Jade Simson (14.21). Commonwealth Youth Games competitors, Lauren Evans (Wales, 14.11) and Anna McCauley (City of Lisburn, 14.06) will also be competing in this Women’s 100mH event, however they will be using the U18 heights.
Commonwealth Youth Games athlete Sommer Lecky (Finn Valley, 1.85m) will be in the running for the high jump title at the International Athletics Meet, however Poland’s Aneta Rydz (1.87m) will be a hard competitor to shake. Sommer has already achieved the Commonwealth Games Gold Coast Standard, and this will be her last high-level competition ahead of the Commonwealth Youth Games in July. There are a number of athletes both locally and internationally in this field that will make this a very high standard competition including England’s Emily Borthwick (1.83m) and Kate Anson (1.80m).
2017 NI & Ulster long jump champion and Commonwealth Games hopeful Adam McMullen (PB 7.85m) will headline the men’s field event with recent GB U20 representative and England U20 Champion Ben Fisher (PB 7.32m). Both athletes will be faced against strong opposition from Colm Bourke, Ireland (PB 7.29m), David Martin (PB 7.40m) and Allan Hamilton (PB 7.88m) of Scotland, and England’s Paul Ogun (PB 7.79m).
Jackie Newton, Director of Coaching and Athlete Development, stated: “We have had a fabulous last few weeks with nine of our athletes achieving the consideration standards for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and others that are very close. We decided to take this opportunity to invite overseas athletes who are at a level that will push our athletes to even better performances. We are now very much looking forward to seeing them in action on the 5th of July.”
General Secretary of Athletics Northern Ireland, John Allen, said: “This is a fantastic event for everyone involved and provides an opportunity to showcase one of the Country’s top athletics arenas. Taking place at the start of the track & field season the Belfast International Athletics Meet will offer fans an opportunity to see world-class athletes compete at the home of Athletics in Northern Ireland ahead of the Games. John Allen continued “The Mary Peters Track is a world class standard venue that is open to the whole athletics community, catering to all levels of the sport from school children and club athletes to those training to compete at an international level.”