It was another busy successful few weeks for the Letterkenny AC Juveniles competing in the NI Ulster Track & Field Championship which was held over two weekend 8th/15th in Mary Peter’s Track in Belfast.
Club notes:
During the course of the first weekend, several of our athletes ran the U14-17 1500m race, with some great individual performances starting with young Philip McGee who ran a real gutsy race, just missing out on the gold by seconds but took home a well earned silver medal and qualification for nationals.
Eoghan Farren also ran the 800m and ran with achieving a new PB finishing 8th position.
Our U15 Girls Gillian Reynolds(10th) and Aimee Bonar (12th ) both out of age, ran well. Chloe Shields put in a good strong performance in the U16’s girls event finishing 5th, just missing out on National Qualification.
Evan Keown ran in the U16 Boys, starting off well, and looking confident and in form for the first three laps, but fell back a little in the last lap finishing in 8th place. Ryan Canning also ran the same race, finished well.
In the U17 boys, Jack Holian got off to a great start, out in front with a competitive pack, running well over the course of 3 laps, but overlapped a few times coming down the home front finishing in 8th place.
Mollie Page ran In the U18 /19 Girls 800m Event. Mollie ran a good first lap, looking strong but found coming. Into the last lap, a little tougher but still managed to finish 4th with qualification for nationals.
David Smith had a busy day competing in both the 800 and 1500m.
David displayed superb running in both races, starting with the 800m where he led for over 600m, but it the battle was on towards the finish for a podium position but David just got tipped on the line by a fraction of a second takings creditable 4th place with qualification for nationals.
A few hours later, David was back in action for the 1500m, in amongst tough competition, he managed to hold his own but was again unfortunate to miss out on medaling finishing 4th.
Moving on to the second weekend of Ulsters, many of the Juveniles made a return trip back to Mary Peters Track competing in Wet and cold conditions.
Excellent Performances displayed throughout the day with LAC Highlight of the Day from Ryan Canning In the U17 300Hurdles Event. A fairly new event for him, Ryan competing in his usual manner with a smile and a natural came down the finish line in a time of 41.60 to take home Gold Medal and Ulster Champion title.
A superb Result and next stop are Nationals. Ryan also ran in the 800m and finished strong keeping his PB.
U17 Ronan Kelly challenged a new event, trying out the steeplechase and was delighted with his effort taking home a silver medal and national qualification.
Back in action was U14 Philip McGee, adding to his collection of medals from previous week, ran a gutsy race in the 800m winning a bronze medal and also achieving a PB of 2.23.
Elvis Okoh, a talented Track Athlete won the Gold and was crowned Ulster Champion in the U14 Boys Triple Jump, displaying an amazing Jump of 11.05
In the U16 boys, we saw Patrick Mcdaid battle it out for podium position in a very competitive race. Patrick started out strong in leader position holding his own but over the course of the last lap, got overlapped near the finish line to take 3rd position in a time of 2.07 winning a Bronze Medal and qualification for nationals.
Michaela Galvin, a talented all-rounder athlete in both Track & Field events earned herself three individual National Qualification s. First Medal for Michaela was from the triple jump where she performed a jump of 9.80, winning silver.
Michaela won bronze in the Long Jump with an amazing jump of 4.59, and qualified for finals of 100m sprints, finishing in 4th overall. Well Done Michaela.
Fantastic Performances On show from other individuals, Chloe Shields in the 800m, ran very strong in what was a fast race to finish in 7th position.
Both Gillian Reynolds and Aimee Bonar gave a repeat top performance Same as the previous week and both delighted with their finish.
Jack Holian ran in the U17 Boys 800m. Jack ran a very strong race, looking very confident throughout and finished 5th, just missed out on National qualification but delighted with new PB of 2.00.
Another new event for U16 Evan Keown was the 3k. Evan ran in a combined race with the older age. Evan showed real determination and good stride but was unfortunate to get studded but still managed to keep a good position to finish in fine 5th place.
Katie McGee ran for the first time in the U16 Girls 3 k. Katie ran a good race and held her position well-finishing 4th with National qualification.
Emma Price competed in U15 Girls 100m sprint. Emma came 2nd in her heat and qualified for finals find shiny 8th overall. Athan Doherty had a good race in the Boys U15 event, finished 3rd in his heat just missed out on finals.
