NI Multi-Events Day 2
Sat 27 August 2011--admin
It was great to see a better turn-out on day two of the multi-event champs at Antrim on Sunday, thanks to good numbers of U13 and U15 girls from City of Lisburn and some welcome competition from our friends and rivals from Lagan Valley who brought a similar-sized squad to support the event.
In the U13 girls’ pentathlon Therese Hillman got off to the perfect start with a PB in the hurdles, pulling Alix Galbraith to a great time in the same heat. Phoebe Tan showed she meant business with a PB with Sarah Woods next best of the Lisburn gang. Alix’s day got even better as she threw a 7.92m shot PB to take the overall lead after two events. Sarah Woods had the second best throw of the day with her 7.13m effort and the remaining four Lisburn girls all threw PBs. In the high jump Phoebe Tan was best with 1.39m, followed by Alix with 1.33m plus a huge 1.33m PB by Madison Bowyer to keep her in touch with the leaders. Phoebe regained the overall lead after the long jump with her 4.18m effort the best jump overall.
With just the 800m to go, the leaders were well aware that there were two exceptional middle-distance athletes who had never been too far off the lead throughout day in the shape of Lagan Valley’s Amy Montgomery and our own Madison Bowyer. Phoebe Tan held a 7 second lead over Alix Galbraith but in the end Amy Montgomery’s excellent run over the two laps gave her the title. Brave runs by Phoebe and Alix gave them the silver and bronze medals respectively with Madison fourth. There also good overall performances from Therese Hillman, Sarah Woods and Lucy Smyth who finished in that order.
The U15 girls’ event also saw 6 Lisburn girls competing, with all except Caitlin Rose eligible as U15s again next year. Megan Marrs started well with a 12.8 hurdles with Katie Larmour also very impressive when going under 13 seconds. Jessica McMaster and Caitlin Rose also had good runs. In the high jump Megan excelled herself with a 1.54m jump to put her in the overall lead. Caitlin Rose was just 1cm below her PB with 1.42m to keep her in overall contention. Jessica and Katie scored more good points in the long jump, with both going over 4.70m, which was new territory for Katie.
Every one of the Lisburn squad threw well in the shot, with numerous PBs and all six comfortably exceeding their 7 metre target. Top all-round U15 thrower Natalja Ritchie led the way with a huge 8.50m PB. Next best was Megan Marrs who surprised a few people with her great 7.65m final round effort. Jessica McMaster’s 7.44m kept her right in the mix and there were lifetime bests from Aoife Doherty and Caitlin. With just the 800m to go City of Derry’s Naomi Morgan had a lead equivalent to just over two seconds over Megan, although Megan was making her debut over the distance, having previously never raced more than 200m! Megan ran well for well over a lap, before the distance got the better of her at around 600m when she lost touch with the pack. However she bravely finished to a great round of applause in recognition of a good all-round performance.
So the title headed to City of Derry, but Jessica and Katie had a good battle for the silver. Katie’s power in the closing stages gave her the verdict in the 800m race but it wasn’t enough to close the gap on Jessica so it finished as Jessica 2nd overall with Katie 3rd. Caitlin confirmed her status as a very good all-rounder with 4th place with Megan, Natalja and Aoife also giving good accounts of themselves.
In the U17 Heptathlon, Aoibhin McManus duly collected her gold after a solid second day, which saw her back to her usual form in the long jump plus a strong run in the 800m. Congratulations to Karyn Dumigan who defended her NI U20 heptathlon title with another solid second day score.
Our lone medallist from the boys on day 2 was Cameron Powell who finished 2nd in the U17 octathlon. Second day highlights included a 5 metre long jump PB and a javelin best of 29 metres.
Congratulations to all ten Lisburn medallists and thanks to all the officials for their hard work once again over an enjoyble two days.
