Full report on NI Indoor Age Group Championships
Mon 10 February 2014--admin
Almost 40 young City of Lisburn athletes travelled to Magherafelt at the weekend to compete in the Indoor Championships. Between them they brought home 40 medals.
- 20 Gold plus another in the relay
- 14 Silver
- 5 Bronze
Under 12
In this youngest age group we were represented by Holly Winters who acquitted herself extremely well with great mid table finishes in both the 60m and 600m. Both events had huge fields and Holly did not look out of place at all in her first major championships.
Under 13 – 2 Medals
Two more Holly/Hollies contested in this age group and both earned medals. Holly Mulholland tackled the 60m finishing 3rd in her heat before hurdling her way to a silver medal in 11.15s. She also long jumped 3.66m for 4th.
Hollie Galbraith put the shot out to 7.98m for gold.
In the boys, Josh Ritchie finished well up another large field of 600m runners and Ben Gibson qualified for the final of the 60m where he finished a very creditable 5th in 8.88s.
Under 14 – 7 Medals
It was girls only for us in this age group but what performances they put in with one of the stars of the weekend, Anna McCauley, demonstrating her talents again! She high jumped to gold with a new PB of 1.43m before sprinting her way to another medal of the same colour with an impressive time of 8.29s. Then she managed to squeeze in a bronze in the long jump before anchoring the relay team to yet another gold!
Team mate Grace Hillman was only bested in the sprint by her flying team mate and added a second silver medal in the hurdles before leading the relay team off on their golden run. She was slightly off her best form in the long jump as was Shannon McCleery who also more than made up for her disappointment with a brilliant leg in the victorious relay team.
Amie Bradley was our other medallist in this age group with her fantastic run of 2.35.50s in the 600m time trial earning her an individual silver medal before she too joined that relay team for their golden run.
The youngest of our U14s, Erin Fisher bettered a lot of older girls to reach the final of the hurdles where she finished 6th in a time of 10.80s before long jumping to a PB of 3.80m for a very satisfying 8th place in a very large field.
Did I mention the relay team??? Grace, Shannon, Amie and Anna ran an amazing 1.53.11s in the 4x200m time trial beating their nearest rivals by over 5 seconds.
Under 15 – 5 Medals
Anna Stanfield once again showed her talents by jumping her way to 2 silver medals. She high jumped to a PB of 1.43m while her long jump of 4.43m left her in second ahead of team mates Lauren Kirkwood, Emilia Cutrona and Sarah Trevithick. She also sprinted her way into the 60m final where she finished 6th in a very close race with only 1 hundredth of a second separated 4th from 6th place. Sarah had earlier been very unfortunate to just miss out on a place in the 60m sprint final.
Olivia Nelson ran 2.30.65s for 5th in another huge field in the 800m time trials, just missing the bronze medal by 0.58s.
The boys in this age group acquitted themselves extremely well with another of our triple medallists, Bradley Mulholland performing exceptionally well across all his events. He started well with a great long jump PB of 4.95m for his first gold of the weekend. He also powered his way over the hurdles to another gold in 10.46s. It took a photo finish to keep him from lifting his third gold of the weekend in the 60m sprint where he was placed second with both him and the athlete placed first being credited with the same time of 7.85s. Still, 2 golds and a silver is a fantastic haul. Perhaps a thicker vest is required for the next race?
Ben Ritchie sprinted to 3rd in his heat of the 60m and Calum Morris ran a great 2.25.96s in the 800m time trials to finish an excellent 5th, both boys competing against yet more large fields in their events.
Under 16 – 8 Medals
Alix Galbraith had a tough act to follow to match her sister’s gold but she emerged as yet another star of the weekend with 3 medals. She started with a gold with a high jump of 1.58m, swiftly following that up with yet another gold in the shot putt. On Sunday she hurdled her way to silver ahead of team mates Therese Hillman who took bronze and Ellie McCartney in 4th. Ellie also tackled both jumps earning a new PB of 1.35m in high jump.
Rebekah Douglas ran in the 1500m and blew away all comers with her time of 5.08.20, 25 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, to lift the gold medal.
Sarah Higginson was very unlucky to just miss out on the final of the 200m with a time of 29.59s.
Robbie Marrs produced a PB of 12.12m in the shot putt to earn himself a silver medal before producing one of the moments of the weekend by clearing a massive 1.92m in the high jump to take gold. It was difficult to tell if he was more pleased with the medal, his elevation to 7th in the UK rankings or the fact that he had bettered his mother’s PB! Well, actually, it wasn’t difficult to tell at all!!
Josh Armstrong equalled his own PB in the same high jump before taking his own silver medal in the hurdles with a time of 9.67s.
Under 17 – 7 Medals
More high jump success here with Phoebe Tan equalling her 1.65m PB to take the gold. Sarah Woods finished 4th in the same event before earning her own brace of medals with a silver in the long jump and a bronze in the shot.
Kate Farrelly finished 4th in that long jump competition before also lifting a silver medal of her own in the hurdles. She also made the final of the 60m finishing just outside the medals again in 4th place. So close.
Sophie Higginson also came tantalisingly close to reaching the final of her 200m with a time of 29.32s.
Tom McVeigh (25.29s) and Ryan Keenan (26.56s) also both just missed the final in the boys 200m but produced times which can be built upon.
Ben Fisher was another of our triple medallists of the weekend earning golds with PBs in the 60m (7.47s) and long jump (6.23m), the latter boosting him to 7th in the UK rankings too. His hurdles race was one he will want to forget despite earning him his third gold of the weekend.
Under 18 – 9 Medals
We only had 2 girls in this age group but what stars they both are winning 4 golds and 1 bronze between them. Megan Marrs was once again invincible on the track finishing well clear of the field in both the 60m (7.77s) and hurdles (8.86s). Cara Burke earned her bronze behind Megan in the hurdles as well as lifting her own brace of golds in high jump (1.45m) and long jump (4.41m) to become our 5th triple medallist of the weekend.
The boys performed almost as well with Ikenna Nzewi taking gold in the 60m with a time of 7.24s, just ahead of Gareth Thompson who took silver with a time of.7.34s. Gareth then went on to win a gold for himself in the 200m with a PB of 23.37s. Andrew Barkley competed despite a recent hand injury and still managed to take silver in the shot with 10.45m, understandably below his best.
Under 19 – 2 Medals
Karl McClean was our only athlete in the oldest age group and he acquitted himself very well with a gold in the 60m in a PB time of 7.16s to go along with his bronze in the shot.
All medallists have qualified for the Irish Indoor Age Groups.
Congratulations to all our athletes whether medallists or not. You all represented the club extremely well.