Gallen sisters lead the way at All-Ireland Juveniles

LIFFORD Strabane AC athletes mounted the podium seven times at the All Ireland Juvenile Track and Field Championships held in Tullamore. Two gold and four silver and one bronze was the return from the second weekend of national juvenile action in the Co. Offaly town.

The Gallen sisters, Adrienne and Caoimhe led the way taking three medals home – two gold and a bronze between them. Adrienne won the Girls u19 Hammer on Saturday with a throw of 50.02m and followed up on Sunday by taking a bronze in the Girls u19 Discus with a 32.69m throw. Younger sister, Caoimhe, meanwhile, took the Girls u16 Hammer title with a throw of 52.07m. Indeed, it was a double celebration for Lifford Strabane AC in the Girls u16 Hammer with Muireann McBride taking silver with 43.00m.

Elsa Moore had arguably Lifford Strabane AC’s most outstanding performance of the championships when taking silver in the Girls u18 3000m. Moore smashed the old Championship Best Performance of 10:36.16 by over 27 seconds when running 10:09.08 only to see her run for gold thwarted by Annabel Morrison of Enniskillen RC (10:05.49).

Cormac O’Donnell led the Boys u19 Hammer up to the very last throw when his 6th round throw of 52.15m was surpassed by Coil O Muiri of Father Murphy AC with 53.44m, O’Donnell settling for silver on this occasion.

Ellie McCurdy took silver in the Girls u18 Javelin with a second round effort of 39.56m, Lara Prendergast of Suncroft AC taking gold with 42.95m.

There were several Lifford Strabane AC athletes finishing just outside the medals where on another day, some could easily have made top three.

Ella Costello took 4th in the Girls u17 300m Hurdles (46.54 seconds); Caoimhe Gallen was 4th in the Girls u16 Discus (27.80m); Cora Burns took 4th in the Girls u18 Hammer (40.85m); Una O’Donnell 5th in the Girls u18 Hammer (39.36m); Kayla Russell 6th in the Girls u14 Long Jump (4.94m); Emer McFadden 6th in the Girls u16 Javelin (28.08m); Una O’Donnell 6th in the Girls u18 Shot (10.31m); Elsa Moore 7th in the Girls u17 1500m (4:54.53); Chloe Costello 9th in the Girls u16 Triple Jump (9.57m); Harvey Mullen 6th in his heat of the Boys u18 400m (59.84 secs) and Emer McFadden 8th in her heat of the Girls u16 250m Hurdles (41.79 secs).

Finn O’Neill saw his hopes of a top ten finish in the Decathlon at the European Youth Athletics Championships in Israel dashed when a calf strain in his fourth event, the High Jump (1.72m), forced his retirement from the competition. O’Neill had earlier set a massive new personal best in the Shot Put of 14.47m which was the fourth best throw of the 26 competitors. O’Neill had impressed also when running 11.29 seconds in the first event of the day, the 100m, and followed up with a 6.17m Long Jump. Despite having had to retire from the competition, the Limavady youngster will have gained a huge amount of experience from competing against Europe’s best in this age group.