High jumper sets her sights on senior titles
EMILY Rogers’ pursuit of major titles in the colours of St Peter’s AC continues after the Togher native earned long jump silver at the National Senior Indoor Championships at Abbotstown.
Three St Peter’s athletes were in action at the new state-of-the-art facility and Emily continued her fine start to the season with an impressive effort of 1.75m, just 2cm short of her personal best.
She will be confident that her existing PB will soon be broken as her training is going really well, and hopefully National Senior titles will soon follow.
Her brother Mark was also in action in the 400m and he was unlucky to just miss out on a place in the final, having won a bronze national medal the previous week in the combined events competition.
Veteran thrower Tom McGrane was also in action in the shot putt, and although Tom would be eligible to compete as a master athlete he opts to compete as a senior and on Sunday he threw 8.95m for a ninth-place finish.
On Thursday last the younger athletes of the club made their now annual trip to the Armagh Road Races.
The Under-9 Girls event had two of the club’s athletes compete and both came home with trophies as Emily finished in fourth place and Hannah in sixth.
The Boys Under-11 race had two St Peter’s athletes, with Harry O’Reilly finishing in third place in a very competitive race and Ben McKeown just outside the top 10.
The Girls Under-11 race produced the performance of the night from a St Peter’s perspective when Dearbhla Allen finished in a very impressive third place. Mia Finnegan and Catherine Carey also completed the 1,400m course despite being a step up in distance for the two girls, who are eligible for the same race next year.
St Peter’s largest contingent were entered in the Girls Under-13 event, with Lucy Smith leading home the charge, closely followed by Ellie Smyth, Judith Bell, Julie McLaughlin, Niamh Brady and Isabeal Fitzpatrick.
The equivalent boys race was also keenly contested and here the in-form Mark Litchfield had an impressive run and deservedly got his reward with a ninth-place finish. Jack McLaughlin was unlucky not to make the 10 but had a good run, as did Padraic Tinnelly, Conor Litchfield and Cormac McKeown. Sean Allen had to withdraw after 500m with a recurrence of a knee injury sustained the previous week.
Rory McLaughlin had a very strong run out of age in the high-standard Boys Under-15 race, his best performance to date.
The last race of the night concerning the club was the Girls Under-15 where Dearbhla Tinnelly performed really well in her first road race against her more experienced opponents.