It was a golden weekend of athletics for Lifford Strabane AC and indeed a golden National Juvenile Track and Field Championships for the border club.
The red and white vests cemented the club’s position as top juvenile throws club in Ireland and incredibly surged to number 2 juvenile club nationally overall thanks to a fantastic total of 19 All Ireland medals over the 3 days of the Championships, 7 on Sunday alone.
The club’s u19 athletes really came to the fore in the Tullamore sunshine on Sunday winning 3 national titles between them in the space of 45 minutes.
Brendan O’Donnell won the u19 Boys Hammer with a distance of 58.31m, his 6th consecutive juvenile hammer title and a clean sweep of hammer titles from u14 to u19 level, an incredible achievement. O’Donnell won the title with an outrageous 18 metres to spare over his nearest challenger, Dublin athlete, Iain Darroch of Donore Harriers with a throw of 40.95m.
Shannon Craig followed suit in the u19 Girls High Jump with an excellent clearance of 1.63m to take the title from Katie Walsh of Carraig na bhFear AC with a leap of 1.60m. Craig went on to attempt 1.67m failing narrowly on her third attempt.
Alan McGinley showed a clean pair of heels in the u19 Boys 1500m running a great tactical race to take the National title from Diarmuid McKeown of Dunleer AC, McGinleys time a super fast 4:03.86, a 5 second personal best for the distance. This capped a great week for the Lifford Strabane AC athlete who had taken silver in the 800m the week before.
There were plenty of silver medals too for Lifford Strabane AC.
Darragh Kirk threw a big personal best of 48.28m in the u16 Boys Javelin to take second place behind Conor Cusack of Lake District Athletics who threw a Championship Best Performance of 63.04m. Kirk’s performance has gained him selection for the Irish Development Team at the Celtic Games International to be held in Dublin in August.
Adrienne Gallen fresh from her silver medal winning performance in the u14 Girls Hammer last weekend had another silver medal to take home to the north west courtesy of a 12.00m putt in the Girls u14 Shot Putt, losing out by just 20cm to Amy Callaghan of Cushinstown AC with a putt of 12.20m.
Ryan Henderson ended his season in fine style by throwing 36.99m to take an excellent silver medal in the Boys u17 Hammer behind Brian Naughton of Tipperary club, Nenagh Olympic.
There was an excellent bronze medal too for Stephen McCallion in the u18 Boys Triple Jump with a hop, step and jump of 12.00m in the final round,
pushing silver medallist, Thomas Thornton of Dunboyne AC (12.40m) all the way. There was no doubting the winner, however, Daniel Callanan Forde of Loughrea AC with a distance of 13.47m.
There were several other good performances from Lifford Strabane AC athletes finishing outside the medals. Una Cox placed 6th in the Girls u17 Javelin with a personal best throw of 27.05m as did Ross Henderson in the Boys u15 Shot with a putt of 12.10m. There were 7th place finishes for Jude McCrossan in the u15 Boys High Jump with a leap of 1.55m and Niall Elliot in the u19 Boys 1500m (4:22.60).
The 7 medals accumulated on Day 3 of the Championships added to the 12 won the previous weekend pushed the Lifford Strabane club to an unprecedented 2nd place in the overall medal table with 8 gold, 9 silver and 2 bronze medals, surpassed only by Leevale AC from Cork, a huge achievement for everyone involved in the border club.
The good news didn’t stop there, however, with Lifford Strabane AC emerging as top juvenile throws club in the country with an excellent 13 throws medals ahead of Liscarrol AC from Cork in second place.
The resurgence of Lifford Strabane AC has not happened overnight and has taken place against a backdrop of excellent coaching structures at all levels and a dedicated group of coaches, athletes and parents.
Club Coaching Development Officer, John O’Donnell paid tribute to all involved in the success story of Lifford Strabane AC and stated that the aim for 2017-2018 would be to ensure the club maintains its lofty position at juvenile level and to enable the older juvenile athletes make the successful transition to Junior and Senior athletics.
O’Donnell also paid tribute to athletes from the club who competed at the All Ireland Juvenile B Championships in Tullamore on Saturday where Rebecca Quinn (Long Jump u16), Emily Neeson (Shot Putt u14) and Jack Moore (Shot Putt u13) all returned with national medals and stated that it was evidence of the strength and depth of athletes now involved in Lifford Strabane AC.
