It was another incredibly successful weekend for Galway athletes at the national U20 and U23 Championships in Tullamore. South Galway's Orlaith Mannion retained her u20 100m Hurdles All Ireland title in fine style, comfortably winning her heat, before pulling away from Abigail Farrell from Donore Harriers in Dublin, to emerge the clear winner in the final. The victory sealed her selection for the World U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon from August 5th to 9th.
Athenry Athletic Club's Sean Doggett produced a superb performance yesterday, claiming the Men's 200m title in 21.51 seconds for his first-ever National U23 Championship title. Earlier in the competition, Sean set a new personal best of 21.38 seconds to comfortably win his heat and he heads to the United States in August to attend South Plains College, where he will continue to develop both his academic studies and athletics career. Sean's Athenry clubmate Liam Shaw took silver in both the U23 Men's Shot Putt and Discus events.
Darragh Fahy from Loughrea AC (pictured above) claimed his third u20 title in a row and broke a 45 year old Triple Jump record that stood since 1981. In his last jump, Darragh cleared a massive 14.63 metres to claim the title much to the delight of his coaches Mary Barrett and Gareth Devlin.
It was a 1-2 for Craughwell Athletic Club in the U20 Women's 400 metres Hurdles, as Lauren Kildiff took the title in 60.25 seconds, ahead of clubmate Emma O'Donovan. Craughwell were also celebrating success in the U20 Men's High Jump, with Darragh Kelly clearing 1.93 metres to claim victory.
Galway City Harriers had a very successful championships, with Lucas Fadden & Shane McGovern (pictured below) outstanding when taking Gold & Bronze in their U23 100m and U20 400m finals respectively.
West Coast AC quartet of Leon Awere, Jayden Montes, Enoch Olaoye, and Joseph Connor claimed the 4 x 400m men’s relay title, taking Gold in a winning time of 3:34.35, with all four still eligible for the U23 grade for the next two years. The club were also celebrating a second gold medal when Caoimhe Phelan was crowned U20 Women's Race Walk champion, with Savannah O'Callaghan from Tuam third in the same race. West Coast AC's John McDermott also took bronze in the Men's 200 metres final.
There were also great performances from Matthew Newell from Castlegar AC, who finished second in the Men's U20 500m Race Walk behind Seamus Clarke from Moyvalley AC, despite beating his previous national U20 record in a time of 20 minutes 8.79 seconds, while Holly Shaughnessy from Tuam took third place in the Women's U23 3000m Race Walk.
