New Faces Shine For Tullamore Harriers At Leinster Championships

Tullamore Harriers athletes enjoyed a highly successful weekend at the recent Leinster Juvenile Track & Field Championships in Tullamore. While the old reliables continued to do the business, it was great to see recent additions to the club, Merv Saloko and Liam Brady, take their first titles in these championships. Merv won his Boys U-17 100m heat in a fast time of 11.76 seconds without getting a good start from the blocks. He is still learning the starting technique and once again was slow away in the final but he tore past his rivals to win comfortably in 11.73 seconds. The next day he added a second Leinster title to his resumé when he won the 200m final by the proverbial mile in 23.98 seconds, having run even faster in the heat, which he won in 23.50 seconds. Liam Brady stayed on the heels of the leaders for the first half of the Boys U-18 3,000m before going to the front and gradually winding up the pace. With a lap to go Liam still had two athletes on his heels but he increased the pace further and increased his lead in the last 200m to win by ten metres in 9:11.75 minutes. The next day he ran a superb race in the U-18 1,500m against Mullingar"s Jake Byrne, who has been selected to represent Ireland at the World Youths Championships next week. Approaching 600m to go Brady tore past Byrne and there followed a ding dong battle over the next lap as the lead changed hands four times before Byrne got the upper hand in the last 200m. Brady was rewarded with an 8 second PB of 4:14.14 and the silver medal. James Mulligan had a great weekend as he won the Boys U-15 Discus with 34.56 metres on the Saturday and then won the Boys U-15 (3.25 kg) Hammer with a fine throw of 39.52 metres despite a slippery circle on the Sunday. For good measure he took second in the Shot Putt with 11.74 metres. Darragh Hanlon won two titles, winning the Boys U-18 Shot Putt with a great new PB of 13.41 metres. He then caused hearts to stop as he fouled his first three throws in the discus. Due to the fact that there were less than eight competitors in his event, he was allowed a further three throws and he made no mistake in the fourth round with a winning throw of 47.75 metres. Fearghus Hannon decided to contest just one event, the Boys U-19 100m which he duly won in 11.55 seconds. Fearghus then travelled to Italy and ran a great new PB of 48.96 seconds when third in a 400m race in Cell Liguire on Tuesday last. Darragh McNamara has shown massive improvement over the past year and he stepped up to a new level at these championships. Darragh started the weekend by taking third place in Boys U-16 Long Jump with a fine leap of 5.62 metres. He then won his heat of the 200m in 24.55 seconds before racing to a superb new PB of 24.10 seconds when he took the silver medal in a close race in the final. The next day he continued his fine form with a bronze medal in the U-16 100m final. Kelly Cunningham has been trying to win a medal at the Leinster Championships for the past five years, so she was a very happy camper when she finally made the podium when taking a well deserved bronze medal in the Girls U-17 Discus. Kelly had a fine throw of 26.87 metres in the discus and after having been sixth in the Shot Putt final the day before. Nicole Cuskelly ran her best race for some time when she took the bronze medal in the Girls" U-14 1,500m in 5:14.62 and she then came sixth in the 800m the next day in 2:34.44. Anna Redmond was another athlete who was delighted to make the podium when she came third in the Girl"s U-15 Long Jump with a fine leap of 4.43 metres. Other athletes who qualified for sprint finals but were out of the medals were Lauren Dunne, Aaron O"Leary Doyle, Dylan Cleary, Ciara Murray and Niamh McNamara. Top six finishes in the middle distance races were achieved by Sinead Rigney, Aoife Dempsey and Mark Grennan. Other creditable performances came from Harry Flynn, Ciara Izuchukwu, Stephen Flynn, Siofra McNamara, Emma Cunningham, Richard Coffee, James Spollen and James Shanahan.