Temperatures soared on Saturday as Craughwell AC Athletes once again made their way to Tullamore to take on the best in the country in the second weekend of the Nationals.  

The story of Saturday was Kai Watters who got the day off to a fantastic start with a superb Bronze in the u14 boys long jump.  Kai cleared a lifetime best of 5.09m to win Bronze in a hotly contested final.  

In the u15s, Joshua Whyte leaped to a massive personal best of 5.37m to finish 4th, while Dean McNally came 11th with a fine 4.77m.

Jade Moorhead made her debut in the Long Jump at Nationals and struggled with her mark on the board to place 13th overall, taking off from 30 or 40cm before the break-line but it will be a strong event for Jade in the future once she gets on the takeoff board.

In the U15 100m Sprints, Lauren Kilduff qualified for the final with a cracking 12.98s clocking and was very unlucky not to medal in the final, coming 4th with a 12.94s personal best in the final.  U15 Donnacha Lawless came 6th in his 100m heat with a fine 12.65s.  U18 Allison Corrigan made her national debut with a strong 14.12 clocking for 6th place in her heat.

U14 Rachel Warde cruised through to the finals in 2nd with a 10.73 clocking.  As Rachel’s time was 7th overall we knew she would be up against it but she performed brilliantly to finish 5th in a competitive final.  Lauren Morgan came 5th in her 80m heat in 11.03s.  Tom Malone finished 4th in his heat of the 80m Sprint in 10.63s.  Darragh Simpson was 5th in his heat in 10.8s.  

In the high Jump, u16 Darragh Kelly leaped to a fantastic 1.65m to claim 4th.  Darragh leaped the same height as the 3rd placed jumper but lost the medal on countback.  U17 Sean Liston also cleared 1.65m to finish 9th, just 1 height short of the podium with 1.70m taking Bronze.  

U17 Holly Shaughnessy came 5th in the 3000m walk in 17:25.7. 

Back to Tullamore tomorrow for another round!!!