Finn Valley AC golden girls Lauren Callaghan, Sommer Lecky and Roisin Flanagan won gold at the National Senior Indoor Championships at the weekend.
Callaghan grabbed the long jump gold with Lecky taking the high jump honours and Flanagan winning the 3,000m.
There was silver for Finn Valley AC’s John Kelly in the men’s shot.
Callaghan, the silver medalist 12 months ago, went one better when she grabbed gold on Sunday at the National Indoor Arena.
Callaghan jumped to a best of 5.94m to see off the nearest competitor, Laura Frawley of Nenagh Olympic, who jumped to 5.70m.
The Killygordon native put her heels in the sand at 5.94m on her second attempt to take a glorious gold.
Callaghan was also the silver medal winner in the outdoors last year, but a recent 6.16m jump in Loughborough offered real optimism.
Although short of her 6.19m best, Callaghan was still top of the charts this time.
The young Callaghan began her athletics journey at Dromore National School.
As a juvenile, she won an U9 gold alongside Daniella Jansen in 2010 and followed up with an U11 gold with Jessica Quigley in 2012.
She won four long jump titles at underage level – but this represents her big breakthrough.
Flanagan was an impressive winner of the women’s 3000m as she cruised to gold in 9:14.03.
The 27-year-old had some injury troubles of late, but this marked an excellent return to the national stage.
Having run a 9:03.46 in Valencia recently, she helped Finn Valley AC to a team victory at the Armagh International Road Race.
Over the last 600m here, Flanagan opened up the margins and had seven seconds to spare by the end even if she was a little off her 8:53.02 PB, set last year in Glasgow.
Ide Nic Dhomhnaill of West Limerick was second in 9:21.45 with Raheny Shamrocks’ Niamh Kearney third in 9:27.95
Lecky regained the Irish senior indoor high jump title after a cracking contest.
Lecky won on countback after an absorbing battle with Dundalk’s Tara O’Connor, landing the eighth Irish senior gold of her career and her first indoor crown since 2020.
The 24-year-old had a best leap of 1.81m and was in front when gold medal rival O’Connor knocked the 1.84m height for a third time.
Feeling the effects of a niggle, Lecky was content to pass on another go on the runway.
Lecky cleared 1.78m at the second attempt and the Castlederg native soared over a season’s best height of 1.81m to move into pole position.
Dundalk St Gerard’s AC’s O’Connor arched over 1.81m on her third go, but Lecky was onto the familiar top step of the podium.
Lecky was the Irish indoor silver medal winner last year and previously left with golds in 2018, 2019 and 2020 while she has topped the charts four times outdoors.
Kelly took silver in the shot, throwing out to 17.85m to take the second spot behind winner Eric Favors, who took gold thanks to a 19.40m effort.
Arlene Crossan clocked a new Donegal record to reach the 400m final, where she finished fifth.
Crossan, out of lane 1 in Sunday’s 400m final, clocked 55.20 seconds.
Crossan dipped below 55 seconds for the first time in Saturday’s semi-final when going 54.98 seconds – a new county best.
Sharlene Mawdsley took the gold in 51.91 with Phil Healy (53.25), Rachel McCann (53.37) and Cliodhna Manning (53.87) following.
An indoor personal best of 6.77m saw Oisin Thompson of Finn Valley AC finish fourth in the men’s long jump, just missing out on a podium spot.
In the weight for distance, Bridget McDyer of Finn Valley AC reached out to a best of 6.58m for fourth.
Finn Valley AC’s Amy Greene was seventh in the 3,000m, crossing the line in 9:51.79.
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