Records and European Standards for Mageean, Griggs & Morgan

European and Commonwealth silver medallist Ciara Mageean and CNDR Track Club/Puma athlete Nick Griggs were in sparkling form at the weekend’s British Miler’s Meet in Manchester and IFAM meet in Belgium where they took advantage of perfect conditions to set more Irish and Northern Irish records.

31 year old Mageean availed of the perfect conditions to set a new Irish 800m record of 1:59.27, bettering her own NI record, to take 0.15 secs off Cork’s Louise Shanahan time when she set the previous record at the Mary Peters Track a year ago.

Nick Griggs was in spectacular form in the main 5,000m race at the IFAM Belgium meet where the 18 year old beat Darragh McElhinney’s U20 record by 18 seconds to set a new record of 13:36.47. The record beats the previous NI record, set by John Doherty in 1980, with a time of 13:48.84. This takes an amazing 39 seconds off Nick’s previous best time. In the second 5,000m race of the evening,

Callum Morgan (CNDR Track Club) ran 13:57.53 which secured him the U23 European Standard.

These times so early in the season bode well for these two in major competitions later in the summer.

English Athletics U20 Combined Event Championships

Elsewhere, the English Athletics Open U20 Combined Event Championships took place at the weekend, with Finn O’Neill (Lifford Strabane) and Lexx McConnville (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow AC) in the U20 Men’s Decathlon and Brynja Brynjarsdottir (City of Lisburn AC) competing in the U20 Women’s Heptathlon.

Finn and Lexx had a great start to their Decathlon, in the 100m Finn ran 11.33 (PB) and Lexx ran 11.82 (PB), followed by the Long Jump were Finn jumped 6.26m and Lexx 5.81m. Up next was the Shot Put where Finn threw 13.69m and Lexx threw 10.90m (PB), Finn went on to clear the High Jump in 1.82m (PB) followed by Lexx in 1.91m (PB). Day 1 ended with Finn running 400m in 50.28 and Lexx 53.94 (PB).

Day 2 started off the 110m Hurdles, with Finn finishing in a time of 15.31 and Lexx in 16.16. Leading, onto the Discus where Finn threw 37.45m along with Lexx throwing 31.40m, before moving onto the Pole Vault were Finn cleared 3.80m (PB) and Lexx 3.70m (PB). In the penultimate event of the Javelin, Finn threw 41.78m and Lexx 37.11m and in the final event of the competition Finn ran the 1500m in 4:33.68 and Lexx 5:22.35, placing Finn 2^nd with 6764 points and Lexx was 8^th with 5718 points (PB) in the U20 Decathlon.

In the Women’s U20 Heptathlon, Brynja, started off Day 1 with the 100m Hurdles finishing in 15.16 (PB). Leading her onto the High Jump where she cleared 1.64m (PB). In the Shot Put she got 7.98m followed by the final event of the day the 200m where she ran 26.46. Day 2 included the Long Jump where she jumped 5.59m (PB). Next was the Javelin where she threw 27.34m with the final event of the competition being the 800m were she ran 2:22.02 (PB). Brynja finished 5^th with 4707 points (PB).

Congratulation to all our talented athletes and keep up the fantastic work throughout this season.

World Para Athletics Grand Prix

Torque Racing Club’s Andrew Greer competed at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Nottwill, Switzerland, making it the first time he has been invited to compete at the prestigious event.

A T54 wheelchair athlete, Andrew finished 2^nd in his race of the 100m and 30^th overall with a time of 16.28, making this his 2^nd fastest 100m time to date.

In the 200m, Andrew finished just outside of his PB time (29.40), with a time of 29:41, finishing 2^nd in his race and 11^th overall. Finally, in the 400m event, Andrew finished 5^th in his race, and 43^rd overall, with a PB equalling time of 58.24.

Coach, Heather Ardis stated: “This was a great learning experience and sets Andrew up nicely for the rest of his summer races.”