Personal bests at National Indoor

Although we did not win any medals, three of our athletes achieved personal bests at the final weekend of the National Juvenile Indoor Championships in Magherafelt recently. Daragh McNamara has been improving with every race and he once again set a PB when finishing 4th in the final of the Boys U-16 200m. Daragh ran a great new PB of 24.83 seconds on the flat 300m indoor track, just missing a medal by 3 hundreds of a second. Mark Nolan took 2 seconds off his previous best when finishing a highly creditable 7th in the Boys U-17 800m final in 2.11.21. Harry Flynn also ran a new PB of 2.18.33 to finish 8th in the Boys U-15 800m final. Nicole Cuskelly came 11th ( 2:46.76) in the girls U-14 800m final, having been ill on the way to the race. The boys U-14 4 x 200m relay team of Dean Power, David Whittaker, Glen Cunningham and Kevin Beirne finished 7th in their event. The girls U-12 4 x 100m relay team of Keelin Guilfoyle, Cara Todd, Alison Mooney and Ciara Galvin (with travelling reserve Muireann McDaid) came 2nd in their heat but did not progress to the final as they finished 8th overall on time. ell done to all who made the long journey to Magherafelt and gave of their best over the weekend. The Offaly Co Championships will take place on Sunday 26th April and all club athletes are expected to compete. Full details on the Juvenile notice board. AAI Training Camp Twenty five of Ireland"s top U-23, Junior and Youth athletes travelled to Alfa Mar, Portugal recently for a week long training camp organised by Athletics Ireland. Amongst them were Fearghus Hannon and Darragh Hanlon. Robert Denmead also attended the camp as the AAI middle distance coach. The aim of the camp was to provide the athletes with an excellent training venue as well as expert coaching, strength and conditioning advice, medical screening, nutritional advice, video analysis and physiotherapy screening. Fearghus and Darragh felt the camp was of huge benefit to them and they really enjoyed mixing with the other athletes and personal on the camp. Many of the athletes who attended the camp will no doubt be competing in this year"s World Youths, European Youths, European U-23 and European Junior Championships. Alfa Mar is a popular training venue with athletes from all over the world and amongst those training there this year was the Olympic High Jump champion, Andrey Silnov of Russia, who was happy to pose for photos with the Irish athletes and coaches. Fixtures Friday 24th April (11.00 am) - All-Ireland CBS Track & Field Championships, Santry Sunday 26th April (1.30 pm) - Co Offaly Juvenile Track & Field Championships, Tullamore Sunday 26th April (2.00 pm) - Woodie"s DIY AAI 10k Road Championships, Navan Wed 29th April (10.00 am) - South Leinster Schools T & F Championships, Kilkenny (Day 1) Saturday 2nd May - Connaught Schools - East Region T&F, Athlone IT Sunday 3rd May - Boston Scientic 4 mile Road Race, Tullamore.