Focus on Ratoath and Dunboyne athletes

Ratoath’s Sophie Quinn and Aimee Doherty were in medal-winning form at the Leinster Indoor Juvenile Championships at Athlone on Saturday and Sunday

Ratoath athletes picked up five medals in the relays on Saturday with the girls u-14 and the boys u-15 teams claiming gold in the 4x200m relay.

The girls u-16 team took silver while the boys u-19 team also claimed second with the girls u-12 team taking bronze in the 4x100m.

Quinn and Doherty won the u-12 and u-13 girls 600m respectively, Lili O’Connor finished second in the u-14 60m hurdles, Laura Kelly took bronze in the u-12 girls 60m hurdles and Aisling Stratford finished third in the u-12 girls 600m.

Ratoath also had great performances from Fionn Drummond, Amelia Campbell and Oisin Kelly who all made finals in the 600m and 800m events.

CONOR DUNCAN
Ratoath’s Conor Duncan, running in the colours of DCU, won the Irish inter-varsity 800m indoor title with a blistering surge over the last lap of a tactical race.

The 800m final was less than three hours after the qualifying heats, so the first half of the race was covered in a modest 61 seconds with Duncan content to bide his time.

When the Ratoath runner made his move at the 600m mark nobody could respond and he won convincingly in a time of one minute, 59.7 seconds.

DUNBOYNE
Dunboyne’s Doireann Ni Fhlatharta and Conor Leane were in sensational form at the Leinster Indoor Juvenile Championships

Ni Fhlatharta and Leane both qualified comfortably for the u-14 800m final where they ran identical races taking to the front from 200 metres and pulling clear in times that were quicker than some of the finals at higher age groups.

Dunboyne’s Thomas Thornton claimed silver in the u-17 triple jump while his colleague Niall Bermingham finished fourth in the u-18 equivalent. Bermingham was also in action in the high jump.