There were a number of excellent performances from the Lifford Strabane AC hammer squad on Sunday morning at the annual Tír Chonaill AC Open Meet in Donegal Town.
There were several competition personal bests on a day when Lifford Strabane AC alone had 4 throwers over the 40m mark in the one competition for the very first time in what was most likely the highest quality hammer competition ever held in the county in terms of distances thrown by participating athletes.
Last year’s European Youth Hammer Throw finalist, Brendan O’Donnell had the furthest throw of the morning going over 63m for the first time in competition with the 6kg implement with a competition pb of 63.48m.
This is on the back of a midweek throw of well over 64m in training and a competition win in Santry Stadium, Dublin of 62.05m. The European Junior standard of 66m edges ever closer for the Lifford Strabane AC athlete.
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Jude McCrossan meanwhile also had a new competition pb with the 3kg hammer getting out to 48.25m. Jude is another thrower who had a pb in training recently when throwing 51.33m – outstanding throwing at this stage of the season and becoming only the third Lifford Strabane AC thrower ever to go over 50m.
Adrienne Gallen had a huge throw of 42.29m in Belfast last week and in Donegal Town she consolidated that performance with another huge throw with the 2.5kg hammer of 41.74m, fantastic throwing for a 12 year old.
Olivia Cuskelly made up for not getting the opportunity to compete at the Loreto Secondary Schools Championships in Dublin this week by throwing over 40m for the first time today with the 3kg implement with a huge new personal best of 41.07m, adding almost 2m onto her previous best throw.
Áine Marie McBride was another to hit a competition personal best at the Donegal Town venue when throwing 35.05m with the 2.5kg hammer. McBride is starting to hit form at the right stage of the season and should go close to 40m by the time the business end of the season comes around.
Cormac O’Donnell was another to hit a competition personal best throwing 33.18m with the 2.5kg hammer. O’Donnell got out to 35.32m in training just last week and is another to start hitting form at just the right time.
Lifford Strabane AC’s Hammer Throw coach, John O’Donnell, told Donegal Sport Hub that the upcoming Ulster Schools Athletics Championships would be the immediate focus for his athletes over the next few weeks and acknowledged the huge commitment and dedication to training shown by the throwers over the past number of months in contributing to yesterday’s excellent performances.
