It’s been a busy few weekends for Olympian Youth & Athletic Club athletes with the Ulster/ ANI Track & Field Championships.
Last Sunday 4th June seen an early start for all, with 21 of Olympian Y&AC budding young athletics stars taking the long run up to the fantastic Peacelink arena at Clones, Co. Monaghan to contest the Ulster Children’s Games and U12 & U13 Championships.
Saturday 10th June seen a few athletes travel to the Ulster/ ANI Age Group Age Group Championships at Mary Peters Track, Belfast. With top three medals and All Ireland qualification places up for grabs, the competition on both days could not have been any fiercer.
The Children’s Games seen over 700 children competing over the various age groups, and all our young Olympian’s rose to the challenge. With a number of our young guns competing for the first time at this high level everyone competed with great heart with a number achieving some brilliant Personal Bests (PB’s).
Most notably results at the Children’s Games were as follows:
Boyd Russell competed brilliantly in the Under 12 Boys 600m and picked up an overall Silver medal in a new PB time of 1.47.29 mins and he also earned himself a spot in the All Ireland Championships at Tullamore, Co. Offaly in July. With 2 heats having already been contested Boyd knew what he had to do and with 200m to go he went for the line. It was neck and neck down the home straight in this fiercely fought contest with Tom Doherty Monaghan Phoenix with the young Monaghan lad winning out in the last few strides by only 0.6secs and winning the overall title.
Another brilliant result was in the U9 Girls Long Jump with both Ellie Duddy and Aoife Mc Geehan competing out of their skins in their first ever Ulster Championship competition. They combined together both jumping new PB’s to finish 4th overall team narrowly missing out by a mere 12cms on a team bronze and a spot down at the All Ireland Childrens Games.
Josh Toland finished up an agonising 5th overall narrowly missing out on count back for a bronze medal and only 5cm from Gold in the Under 13 Boys High Jump. Josh competing in his first ever competition jumped a brilliant 1.25m and with a few more training sessions will soar to new heights in a relatively new event for him. Josh also ran in the 60m finishing 16th overall in a new PB time of 12.22secs.
Other Results on the day were:
Under 9 Girls
Ellie Duddy was 5th in her heat of the 60m in new PB time of 11.36secs
Aoife Mc Geehin was 10th overall in the Turbo Javelin with a throw of 5.11m
Under 10 Girls
Chloe Deeney finished 6th in heat of the 60m in a time of 11.44secs
Caitlin Mc Cabe finished 9th overall in the 500m in a fantastic new PB of 1.51.49mins
Orlagh Faul (2.80m) and Caitlin Mc Cabe (2.36m) combined together in the Long Jump finishing up 6th team overall only 50cm from the bronze medal position. Both girls were backed up by Chloe Deeney who jumped out to 2.05m.
Both Ellie Duddy and Aoife Mc Geehan moved up an age group to compete with Orlagh Faul and Chloe Deeney in the Under 10 Girls relay team finishing up 7th in the Final.
Under 11 Girls
Bonnie Gillard (10.02secs) and Louise Carberry (11.23) combined together in the 60m with both girls running PB’s where they finished up a commendable 9th position overall team in a very competitive team event with nearly 20 teams competing on the day.
Tara Mc Dermott finished 7th in heat in the 600m in a time of 2.24.38mins.
Bonnie Gillard (2.84m) and Tara Mc Dermott (2.60m) combined together in the Long Jump finishing up 7th team overall position. Both girls were backed up by Sarah Carberry jumping in her first ever competition jumped well.
The sisters pairing of Sarah and Louise Carberry combined together in the Turbo Javelin to throw out them javelins to finish an impressive 6th overall team in their first ever competition at this level.
The Under 11 Girls team of Louise, Bonnie, Sarah and Tara competed in the relay finishing 5th in their heat.
Under 11 Boys
The pairing of James Russell and Eoghan O’ Donnell threw themselves into a combined team position of 5th in the Turbo Javelin. With James throwing the javelin an amazing PB of 15.02m adding nearly 2metres to his previous PB
James also jumped out to a new PB of 2.67m in the Long Jump.
Under 12 Girls
Grace Doherty finished 5th in her heat of the 60m in a new PB time of 10.81secs.
Ellen O’ Donnell and Aine Carlin competed admirably in the 600m.
Aoibhin Doherty, Grace Doherty, Ellen O’ Donnell and Aine Carlin all competed in the Long Jump Girls relay race finishing up 8th overall.
Ellen O’ Donnell and Aine Carlin competed together again in their favourite event the U12 Girls Turbo Javelin. Ellen threw the javelin out to a brilliant 11.30m finishing 6th overall and Aine throwing the javelin out to 10.55m finishing 10th overall.
Under 12 Boys
Finlay Bose competed in the 600m finishing 12th in a very competitive 2nd heat in a fast time matching his PB time of 2.14.87mins
Both Eoghan O’ Donnell and James Russell moved up an age group to compete with Boyd Russell and Finlay Bose in the Under 12 Boys relay team and had a brilliant run getting through to the Final and finishing up 8th overall this was a brilliant achievement for the young team.
On Saturday 10th June seen a small group of Olympian Youth & Athletics club athletes travelling up and competing in the Ulster/ ANI Age Group Track & Field Championships at Mary Peters Track, Belfast.
First up was young Sean Mc Ginley hot from his 5th place at the All Ireland Schools keeps going from strength to strength and put in a fantastic performance in the Under 15 Boys 1500m race the young Glenswilly lad ran a very tactical race to win a brilliant bronze medal in a time of 4.30.53mins. The race was neck and neck and it all came down to the final straight with all three finishing within 1 second of each other and a rare photo finish in a 1500m race with only 0.02secs between 1st and 2nd. This now gains Sean another spot at the All Ireland Championships in Tullamore, Co Offaly in July. 2 other members of the team also go through to the All Ireland Championships with Conor Faul getting through in the U18 Boys 400m and Long Jump and Tiernan Boyle also getting through in the Under 19 Men’s 1500m.
Again every single one of our Olympians competed with such great heart and certainly gave it their best, which you couldn’t ask for any more. We are so proud of every single one you! Keep up the great training
Next up for Olympian Youth & Athletic Club is the Ulster/ ANI U14 – U17 Track & Field Championships on Saturday 17th June in Mary Peters Track, Belfast and for the older members the County Donegal Masters Track & Field Championships on Sunday 18th June at the Aura Leisure Centre, Letterkenny.
TRAINING
Training will continue every Tuesday night at 7:00 – 8:15pm and Saturday mornings from 11am till 12.15pm at the Glenswilly pitch.
We are insured to cater for any and all abilities from 7 years of age right up to senior and master’s level who wishes to train, keep fit, have fun, and/or compete at a local to national/ international standard. New members as always are more than welcome. For further details, please do not hesitate to contact Martin O’ Donnell on 0863838240 or message us via Facebook (Olympian AC) or feel free to come down and have a chat on any of our club training times.
