Brady, Hannon and Hanlon claim Irish Schools medals

The sun shone brightly on Tullamore Harriers stadium on Saturday last as athletes from all corners of Ireland converged on the stadium for what proved to be an excellent Irish Schools Track & Field Championships. Tullamore Harriers trio Liam Brady, Fearghus Hannon and Darragh Hanlon proved that they can compete with the best as they each took home a medal. Of the three, Liam Brady looked least likely to take as medal as he was only ranked seventh fastest on times going into the Intermediate Boys (U-17) 3,000m event. The pre-race favourite, Jake Byrne (Rochfortbridge), took out the pace hard and looked on course to break the record. Brady sat in the pack and after 1,200m was back in seventh place. Shortly after the halfway stage, he moved into fourth but was still thirty metres behind the third placed athlete with 800m to go. Encouraged by the cheers of his coach, family, friends, and the principal and teachers from his school, St. Brendan"s, Birr, he dug deep and flew into third place with 450 metres to go. He then chased hard after the athlete ahead of him and with 200m to go took the silver medal position, which he held all the way to the finish with a great new PB of 8:55.06, a whopping 37 seconds faster than his previous PB. Jake Byrne took the gold in 8:41.44 to add this title to his Irish Schools cross country title, and he was just 5 seconds shy of the record, but Brady captured the admiration of many with his hugely determined performance. An hour and a half later, Liam ran another great race in the Intermediate Boy"s 1,500m to take seventh place in a new PB of 4:22.76. The Senior Boys (U-20) 400m final was billed to be a cracker of a race and it did not disappoint. Fearghus Hannon (Pobalscoil Roscrea) was unlucky to be drawn in lane one and outside him he had three of the Irish Junior 4 x 400m relay team athletes (Jason Harvey, Billy Ryan and Alan Whelan) who competed in last year"s World Junior Championships. Fearghus was a little slower than expected in the first 200m and Ryan and Harvey had opened a substantial gap on him. He then opened up and gained significantly on them both as all three entered the finishing straight with only two metres between them. Fearghus passed Harvey with 50 metres to go but, despite looking like he may then overtake Billy Ryan, Ryan held on to his two-metre advantage to cross the line in 49.24 seconds with Hannon taking silver in 49.67 seconds and Harvey taking the bronze in 49.83 seconds. A better lane draw and a slightly faster first 200m may well have seen Fearghus take the gold but it was still a great performance and one that gives him hope of qualifying for this year"s European Junior Championships in Serbia. One athlete who has already achieved the qualifying standard for those championships is Paul Robinson (Kilcock) who is coached by Robert Denmead and he won the Senior Boy"s 1,500m title with ease. Fearghus Hannon"s training partner, Alan Whelan (Portlaoise CBS) who, along with Fearghus, is also coached by Nick Hannon and Frank Brennan, came fifth in the 400m in 50.87 seconds. Darragh Hanlon (Cistercian College, Roscrea) opened up with a fine throw of 42.51 metres in the Senior Boy"s (1.75 kg) Discus to take the lead in round one. Following his 46.50 metres winning throw in the South Leinster Schools it was hoped that Darragh would again come close to this distance but, try as he might, he just could not improve on his first round effort. In the end he was pipped for the silver medal by only four centimetres. The winning throw was 43.39 metres by E. O"Cathain from Carraroe Comprehensive. Darragh was a little below par on the day but he will no doubt go on to improve much more during the season. Fixtures Sat 6th June - Leinster Inter Club Relays (U-9 to U-19), Kilkenny. Sunday 7th June - Leinster Senior & Masters T & F Championships, Tullamore. Saturday 13th June - Leinster uU9-11 Pairs Competition and U/12-13 T & F Championships, Navan. Sunday 14th June - National League Round 1. Wed 17th June - Dublin Graded Meet, Santry. Saturday 20th June & Sunday 21st June - Leinster U-14 to U-19 Juvenile Track & Field Championships, Tullamore Harriers Stadium.