A number of athletes travelled to Tullamore today for the finals of the Irish Schools track & field. This is the preeminent track and field competition in juvenile athletes and you can see from a report on the AAI website that it was one of the best and toughest competitions ever with numerous records been broken.

Craughwell had many fine performances but a few to single out were Maeve Curley's breathtaking finish in the 2k race walk to take the bronze medal on the line, Cathriona Farrell's superb attempt at a new PB of 1.78m in the Senior Girls high jump, and Tomás Keehan's bronze with a new PB of 1.75m in the Intermediate Boys high jump.

Read on for details of these and other performances. I know I am missing some performances and will add them later when I get details.

 In the Junior Boy’s long jump, Cormac Dillon (St Raphael’s Loughrea) had a huge PB, breaking 5m for the first time with a super 5.24m and finishing in 7th place. Niall Rooney (Athenry VS) added 3cm to his PB when leaping 11.70m in the Intermediate Boys triple jump, finishing in 5th place and just shy of his PB. Niall leaped 1.65m in the high jump, almost getting a new PB of 1.70m where club-mate Tomás Keehan (Gort CS) soared to a new PB of 1.75m to take joint 3rd place in the same event and almost cleared 1.80m!

In the Junior Girls triple jump, Debbie Kenny was in super form claiming a new PB of 9.22m to finish in 6th place and but for a slight break on one of her final jumps would have been even further up the placing. Debbie, Orla McDaid, Katie O’Donoghue and Siobhan Gardiner made up the Pres Athenry’s 4x100m relay team in this age group which finished in 7th place in a time of 55.38. 

Maeve Curley took 3rd place in the Intermediate Girls 2km Walk in a fantastic race to the line to nick the bronze in a time of 9.24.31, by the tiniest of tiny margins – one-hundredth of a second!!! This was a PB of over 50 seconds for Maeve – well done Maeve!! Maeve of course immigrated to bandit country down in Tipperary but is still a staunch member of Craughwell AC and a Galway girl at heart! Rachel Finnegan (Loughrea VS) took 6th place in the 300m hurdles in a PB time of 47.91 and also finished 6th in the 80m hurdles in a time of 13.09. Kelly O’Donoghue (Pres Athenry) jumped well in the Intermediate Girls triple jump but was behind her recent PB.

One of the last events of the day proved the highlight for the club where Cathriona Farrell (Athenry VS) soared to a new outdoor PB of 1.75m, equalling her indoor best to take the gold medal in the Senior Girls high jump. Having won the event at that height, Cathriona then attempted 1.78m – getting over it on her first attempt but clipping it with her heel as she sped past. On her 2nd attempt, Cathriona soared over it but brushed it somewhere along the way. As she rose to her feet, the bar was still in place and as she took one step towards the edge of the mat, the bar dropped to the ground to Cathriona’s and the on-looking crowd’s dismay. So close to an incredible jump!!! Cathriona's 1.75m leap was a pressure jump as it is the qualification mark for the World Youth Championships and also demonstrates strong current form to the selectors of the Irish team both for the European Youth Olympics and the World Youths. Well done Cathriona!!

A report and the results of the day can be found on the AAI website.