McGlone stands out as seriously bright prospect
JACK MCGLONE is a middle distance athlete from Greystones & District A.C. who also enjoys the challenge of other events such as 100m and long jump.
His indoor season in 2019 started at the Athletics Leinster Juvenile Indoors Championships in early February at the Athlone IT Arena. He won the U16 boys silver medal in the 800m in a time of 2:06.50 in a close competitive finish.
At the National Juvenile Indoors T&F Championships at the end of March, he qualified for the final from his heat in second place in 2:11.74. In the final the race was decided in the final 100m with a sprint finish. Jack took the bronze medal in a time of 2:07.71.
His outdoor season started at the beginning of May at the East Leinster Schools T&F Championships at Santry Stadium, running under the banner of Blackrock College.
He won the gold medal in the Junior 800m, qualifying for the Leinster Schools finals. He also took the bronze medal in the Junior 100 m.
At the Leinster Schools finals in mid-May, in a tactical race over the first 650m of the Junior 800 m, he won the gold medal with a commanding sprint finish in a time of 2:08.51.
In the Junior 100 m final he won the bronze medal in a time of 12.28 sec.
At the All-Ireland Schools T&F finals at Tullamore at the beginning of June, in a fast 800 m race with 13 competitors, he scored an impressive win to become Junior champion in a time of 2:03.47. He rates this as his performance of 2019.
In the middle of June at the Leinster Juvenile T&F Championships at Tullamore Stadium he became double U16 Leinster champion.
In the 800m in another tactical race for the podium places, he took the gold medal in a time of 2:07.47 when he turned on the after-burners in a sprint finish. He added a further gold medal to his collection in the U16 400m in a time of 55.52 (CBP), a commanding 2.7 sec ahead of the silver medallist.
At the National Juvenile Outdoors T&F Championships at Tullamore at the end of the first week in July in the U16 800m, he took the silver medal in a fast and keenly fought race, clocking 2:04.56.
Four seconds covered the top six finishers.