Leinster schools titles for Harriers trio

The Leinster Schools Championships took place in Santry on Wednesday and Saturday last and Tullamore Harriers athletes performed well to take several titles. Wet and windy conditions made for poor track times and slippery throwing surfaces. Darragh Hanlon had been very ill during the week but he still managed to win the Senior Boys Discus (1.75 kg) with a throw of 43.08 metres. He set an excellent PB with a threw of 46.50 meters with the 1.75 kg discus in the South Leinster Schools. Over the past three weeks Darragh has been competing a lot in order to secure his place on the Irish team for the European Youth Olympics in Finland in July. He needed to throw in excess of 48 meters with the 1.5 kg discus to qualify and this he duly achieved with a fine throw of 48.41 metres at a recent Dublin Graded Meet in Irishtown. A week prior to that he threw 47.60 meters in Cork, so all is well on track for the season. Darragh also won the AAI Games in Athlone on Sunday last with a fine throw of 45.69 meters with the 1.5 kg discus. Liam Brady surprised everyone with an excellent win in the Intermediate Boys 3,000m at the Leinster Schools Championships. He stayed in the pack for the first half of the race before bursting clear to come home strongly in 9:32.91, a new PB. Forty minutes later he ran a really gutsy race to take the silver medal in the 1,500m in another PB of 4.25 and he has qualified for his first Irish Schools T & F Championships. James Mulligan won both the Minor Boys Shot Putt and Discus at the South Leinster Schools recently. He set a record of 31.90 metres in the discus. He improved to 33.44 meters when winning the Leinster Schools discus title and also took the bronze medal in the Minor Boys Shot Putt with 11.55 meters, an excellent days work. Unfortunately for James the minor age group is not included in the Irish Schools Championships, so he will have to wait until he moves up to the Junior Boys grade next year. Kelly Cunningham was unlucky not to gain a medal and a qualifying spot for the Irish Schools Championships when she finished fourth in the Intermediate Girls discus (1kg) with a fine throw of 26.24 meters. She had won the South Leinster"s with a better throw of 27.70 meters. Earlier in the day Kelly threw a new PB of 7.91 meters in the (4kg) Shot Putt, where she was fifth, having also won the South Leinsters in this event. Dean Power took the silver medal in the Minor Boys 500m at the South Leinster Schools Championships and then ran a great race to finish third in the Leinster Schools. David McElligott won the South Leinster Intermediate Boys javelin title recently and he threw a fine new PB of 36.17 meters on Saturday last to finish just out of the medals in fifth place. Harry Flynn ran an excellent race to finish second in the South Leinster Schools Junior Boys 1,500m recently before going on to finish fourth in a close run Leinster final, just losing out on the bronze medal in the last 60 meters. Sinead Rigney took victory in the South Leinster Minor Girls 1,500m before narrowly missing out on a medal in the Leinster Schools, where she was fourth. Aoife Dempsey won a medal in the Minor Girls Long Jump and went on to finish ninth at the Leinster Championships. Lizzie Flint ran a fine race to take the bronze medal in the Intermediate Girls 200m. Fearghus Hannon was also in action on Saturday last in the Munster Schools Championships. He ran a great new PB of 49.49 seconds in the Senior Boys 400m where he was narrowly pipped on the line for gold by international Billy Ryan (Ferrybank). Fearghus also ran a great 200m race in the AAI Games in Athlone the following day to clock 22.65 seconds for fourth place. Anna Redmond had a fine run to win the silver medal in the Minor Girls 800m in the Connaught Schools Championships. She was also fifth in the 80m final. Mark Nolan ran a fine race to finish fourth in the Connaught Schools Intermediate Boys 800m final, with an unofficial time of 2:08 and he then went on to finish fifth in the 1,500m in 4:38. Great Performances at Inter-County Match There were some great performances in the Juvenile Inter County match between Laois, Westmeath and Offaly on Friday last. Eoin Mulligan looked a class act as he took four victories in the Boys U-11 events. Conor Mulligan, Ciara Galvin and Keelin Guilfoyle also scored impressive doubles. Sarah Bracken ran a superb race to win the Girls U-11 600m and Dean Power was equally impressive in the U-14 100m. Muireann McDaid, Noelle Cocoman, Ryan Crampton, Decoda Goin, Darlene Goin, Cormac Izuchukwu, Eileen Rafter (Edenderry) and Niamh Rafter (Edenderry) all performed brilliantly to take gold medals. Other medal winning performances came from Gerard Godley, Zoe Murray, Glenn Cunningham, Michelle Keegan, Ciaran Mulligan, Ben Dunne, Siofra McNamara and Ciara Izuchuku.