Brendan O’Donnell
A young Donegal athlete has hammered home his mark for the season ahead.
Lifford Strabane AC’s Brendan O’Donnell had an outstanding start to the season yesterday when he achieved the European Youths Qualifying standard at a Throws Meet in Dunboyne, Co Meath.
Last year’s European Youth Olympics finalist, O’Donnell was hoping for some early good season form in his first competition of the New Year.
However, with his sixth throw of the competition, O’Donnell launched the hammer out to 64.72m, surpassing the 63.50m European standard by well over a metre and propelling the young Donegal lad into the top 10 throwers in Europe.
Reaching the standard today was more than just reward for the 16 year old, having put in a dedicated winter of conditioning training to prepare him for the step up to this level. Under the watchful eye of his coach and father John, Brendan has developed into one of the most exciting young prospects to emerge from the county in recent years.
The European Youths take place in Tblisi, Georgia in July, the venue for last years European Youth Olympics where O’Donnell finished an impressive 7th place in the Final.
O’Donnell is now the third Irish athlete to achieve the European Youths standard and with his outstanding throw today, the Lifford Strabane athlete can look forward to further improvement and development in the coming months and the target of another European Final on the horizon come July.
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