St Peter’s trio have early start

ST PETER’S AC had four representatives at the National Indoor Juvenile Championships on Sunday - three of whom had a very early start due to the clocks going forward the night before.

Athlone IT was the venue for the competition, and while most people struggled with losing an hour in bed three of the St Peter’s contingent travelled to the midlands and were in action in the field events by 10am.

Niamh Brady took her place in the Under-13 Girls high jump competition and had a best of 1.25m. At the same time Ronan Deerey and Dean Murtagh were in action in the Under-13 Boys shot putt and threw 9.31 and 7.61m respectively.

All three represented the club with pride, and although not in the medals on the day they have bright futures in athletics.

In the afternoon the club’s brightest talent Gabriel Bell was in action in the Boys Under-17 long jump, but unfortunately it was just one of those days where nothing went right and he registered a below-par jump of 4.84m.

Gabriel knows that if he had performed to his capabilities he would have won gold, but this fine athlete will now concentrate on regaining his jumping form for the outdoor season.

Elsewhere on Sunday, three St Peter’s athletes headed to Carrickmacross for the Carrick Aces juvenile races which preceded their 5k run. Mark Litchfield performed brilliantly in both the 100m sprint and the 800m middle distance races by landing gold medals, while Jack McLaughlin won the Boys Under-12 500m and was joined on the podium by his clubmate Conor Litchfield who ran very well to finish second.

On Saturday club veteran Andrew Rogers took part in the inaugural 5k run in aid of St Oliver’s Hospital which was a very well organised event in aid of a very good cause. Andrew finished well up the field with a time of of 22:18.