European medallists and rising stars set to shine in Tullamore
Tullamore Harriers AC is set to host a thrilling day of athletics this Saturday, July 5 as Ireland’s top young athletes descend upon the Offaly venue for the 123.ie U20 and U23 National Championships.
Further spice will be added to proceedings with both the European U23 championships (Norway, July 17-20) and European U20 championships (Finland, August 7-10) looming large.
This year’s National U20 Championships will also be used as selection for the upcoming Dynamic New Athletics (DNA) U20 Club event in Portugal which takes place on the weekend of September 20-21.
Among the intriguing entries this weekend is Candour Track Club’s Nick Griggs who holds a sole entry in the 800m following his blistering 13:26.16 over 5000m in France last weekend. Griggs has shown a remarkable ability to get back up to speed following a six-month period out with injury on the back of his silver-medal-winning performance at the European Cross Country last December.
Olympian Nicola Tuthill may miss this weekend’s competition following last weekend’s exertions at the European Team Championships, but hammer throw fans will still be out in force to follow 2024 European U18 Champion Thomas Williams (Hammer) who continues to impress. He will look to go in search of another national title in the U20 hammer come Saturday morning.
Williams’ fellow European U18 medallists Seamus Clarke (5k Walk), Cian Crampton (Discus) of Edenderry AC and Joe Burke (200m) are also among the entries, as is Conor Kelly (400m) who has been blazing a trail over 400 meters this season, culminating with a national U20 record of 46.09 last weekend in Germany. This was an improvement on Kelly's previous record of 46.18 which was clocked last month at the IFAM Outdoor meeting in Brussels.
Kelly will be joined on track this weekend by his recent record-breaking U20 4x400 teammates, with Alex Cullen, Sean Doggett and David Davitt all set to take their places in a stacked U20 men’s 400m following their NU20R relay record of 3:08.31 at the weekend.
There is no shortage of star power in the jumps, with 2023 European U20 champion Elizabeth Ndudi (Long Jump) returning from duty with Team Ireland in Slovenia last weekend.