Weeekend Report - 24th Feb

2024 European U18 Bronze Medallist Conor Kelly (Derry Track Club) has had a fantastic 2025, having ran a new NI & Irish record recently. In Dublin he bettered this mark twice at the weekend with 46.63 in the semi-final and 46.55 to win in the gold, only 0.01 off the championship record. Kelly now tops the lists for the U20 European rankings and has a strong chance of making the relay team for next month’s European Indoor Championships.

On Saturday, Sommer Lecky (Finn Valley AC) went into the weekend ranked second in the season lists but managed to produce a season’s best with a first-time clearance of 1.81m that won gold on countback ahead of Tara O’Connor who also cleared 1.81m.

Roisin Flanagan (Finn Valley) had a dominant win in the women’s 3000m final, finishing almost eight seconds ahead of her nearest rival in 9.14.02. In the men’s 3000m final James Gormley (Carmen), who holds the European Indoor A standard, just lost out to Sean Tobin in a very tactical race by one hundredth of a second to take silver. Callum Morgan (CNDR) ran a strong last 400 m and finished 3^rd in 8.11.27.

In the men’s 1500m final Lughaidh Mallon (UCD) went one better than last year to finish second behind Paris Olympian Cathal Doyle. Brhane Gebrebrhan (Annadale Striders) finished very strongly to snatch third place in what proved to be a very tactical race.

Northern Ireland Shot Put record holder John Kelly (Finn Valley AC) was just short of his SB when taking the silver medal behind Olympian Eric Favours with 17.85m. In the Women’s event, Academy combined events athlete Ashleigh McCardle (Lifford Strabane) took the bronze medal with a final round PB of 12.42m. Anna McCauley (City of Lisburn AC) produced an indoor PB of 12.26m to take fourth in the Shot, a SB of 8.74 in the 60m Hurdles which also placed her fourth, and a Long Jump of 5.66m for a bronze medal.

Commonwealth Youth Games medallist Ben Fisher (City of Lisburn) jumped 7.07m for silver in the Men’s Long Jump.

Rachel McCann (North Down AC) who recently set a significant PB to win the Irish Universities Championships had to settle for the bronze in a very competitive race with numerous Olympians. Rachel was just 0.06 off her PB time and is in a very strong position for European Indoor Relay selection.

In the women’s 1500m final sixteen-year-old Emer McKee (Willowfield) had a great run finishing 6^th in an indoor pb of 4.29.08.

Elsewhere at the weekend, Frank McGrath (Lagan Valley) finished second in the prestigious English National XC Championships U20 Men’s race rounding up a breakthrough cross country season for him.