Amy takes step up to U23 in her stride
BOYNE AC’s Amy McTeggart tested herself against some fierce competition at the GloHealth Junior and U23 Track and Field Championships last Saturday.
Making a huge step up from junior to U23 category, Amy proved her worth with a super win in the High Jump, leaping 1.65m and taking the National title. She then followed this up with a great bronze medal win in the Javelin.
Sunday then saw the Glo Health All Ireland Track & Field pairs championships take place, with Tullamore harriers once again hosting this prestigious event.
Having qualified through their Leinster Championships recently, 6 young Boyne A.C. athletes made the journey inland to compete amongst the top athletes in the country at this age level.
The pairs event is the National Championship for ages u9 to u11, where two athletes team up to contest an event, and their combined placings dictate the final result.
First to compete for Boyne was the u9 boys pairing of Oliver Carolan and Lorcan Forde Dunne, with the Long Jump their first event. Olivers first jump of 3.29m, remained the highest jump overall in the competition, and when added to Lorcans impressive 2.91, gave the boys an overall result of 6.20, enough to claim the silver medal, just a mere 9 cm behind the first place finishers.
Next to grace the National podium, a huge throw from Aaron Fennell in the u11 Turbo Javelin, combined with a super throw by Paddy price was enough to earn the boys the silver medal, while in a very competitive 60m sprint event, both Alex Devine and Killian Ekhator gave great performances and took home the bronze medal.
Attention then turned to the longer distance events, with Oliver and Lorcan back in action, in the first heat, Lorcan took almost half a second off his Leinster time to run a super 56.84, added to Olivers amazing 51.58, left the boys just shy of a medal in 4th place overall.
Both Paddy Price and Amitesh Bala gave great performances in their 600m race, but were unlucky to miss out on medal on this occasion.
The final event of the day saw the u11 dynamic relay quartet of Alex, Paddy, Killian and Amitesh take to the track to defend their national medal from 2015.
An outstanding heat saw Alex cross the finish line almost 40m ahead of second place after some impressive sprinting from the whole team, and the mood was confident going into the final.
Again, the boys excelled, and were within reach of the silver medal when an untimely fall mere metres from the finish line put paid to their campaign and saw the boys overtaken by two other teams, down, but certainly not out, the quartet will be back in action in no time, ready to rise to the challenge again soon.