Cushinstown athlete for Europe
Cushinstown Athletic Club’s Elizabeth Morland celebrated her selection on the Irish squad for the European Youth Olympics Festival in Holland by claiming three gold medals at the All-Ireland Juvenile Championships in Tullamore last weekend.
The European Youth Olympics will take place in Utrecht, Holland from the 14th to the 19th July and Ireland are taking a team of 14 athletes.
There was also success in the boy’s u-17 high jump for Keith Marks who continued his recent good form by winning the gold medal with a personal best of 1.97m.
Morland showed excellent form to win the 80m hurdles (11.47 seconds), the high jump (1.63m) and set a new championship record of 5.86m in the long jump.
Other Cushintown athletes to make their mark in Tullamore included Shannon Sheehy who won gold in the girls u-15 80m hurdles (11.87 seconds), silver in the u-15 high jump (1.55m) and the u-15 250m hurdles (36.90 seconds).
Dominic McCabe (Cushinstown) took gold in the boy’s u-13 javelin with a throw of 31.73m while Shane Joyce took silver medal in the boy’s u-17 triple jump with a leap of 13.22m.
Bohermeen athletes performed impressively at Tullamore also. Kevin McGrath used his fast finishing pace to land the u-15 800m title in two minutes, four seconds.
Rose Finnegan made the podium for the first time when she took bronze in the girls u-16 800m after staying with the pace throughout the race.
Cian McBride was as close to gold as one can get in the u-13 high jump when all the top three cleared 1.50m and the medals were only decided on countback.
Trim AC’s Harry Purcell won the u-18 800m title in an excellent time of 1.53:18 and will now represent Ireland in the Celtic Games.
Fr Murphy athlete Mark Shelly put in a big performance to secure third place in the u-15 long jump.
The final day of the National Juvenile Track Championships will take place on Sunday 21st July, also at Tullamore where Bohermeen will have another 12 athletes in action along with athletes from other Meath clubs.
Conall Collier