The National Juvenile Track and field Championships took place in Tullamore in Mediterranean type weather last Saturday. These very warm conditions didn’t prevent Club members putting in some fantastic performances. In the Boys under 15 walk Sam O Sullivan went with the early pace as it was a shootout with all the top contenders giving it holly as they each put in fast surges to try and gain an advantage. Then as they approached the bell, Sam, true to his race plan, took the initiative and upped the pace that saw him make every stride a winning one. There was to be another twist with Sam incurring a 30 second time penalty that demoted him to Silver, still a brilliant performance. The next event on the track was the Girls under 16 2km walk and here Grainne O Conner was carrying the Club colours and no doubt she was inspired by her training partner’s fine performance when winning the Silver medal. Grainne who has been in flying form of late positioned herself well after the initial charge at the start of the race. She tracked every moved throughout the 5-lap race and was well positioned going out on the final lap. She powered down the finishing straight to win the Silver medal in a new PB of 10 mins 52 secs, brilliant performance. In the girls under 16 3000m we had Laura Cooney competing in her first National Track Championships and she ran very well when finishing 9th in 11 mins 32.67 secs and she will have learned a lot from this experience. In the girls under 18 3000m race Siobhan Whelan ran a brilliant race when finishing a close 6th in 10 mins 39.59 secs, not far off the Bronze medal. Congrats to all our athletes who competed for the Club over the last couple of months and to all our Coaches for all their hard but rewarding work, the club is taking a short break before resuming again in September for the upcoming Cross Country season, thanks also to all the parents for their help over the past couple of months, such help is always appreciated.