Results from the Irish Schools’ Athletics Championships
Previous posts have reported on the outstanding performances our athletes at District and Ulster level. From these 13 individual girls and 2 relay teams qualified for the Irish Championships which took place in Tullamore, Co Offaly on Saturday. The Strathearn athletes stepped out against the best in Ireland and while not all of them won medals or got personal bests they all did our school proud and did their utmost to compete at this very high level.
In the Senior Girls competition:
Lauren Brooker was 5th in the 100m Hurdles and 7th in the High Jump.
Unfortunately our other 3 Senior athletes were unable to travel to Tullamore due to exam preparation.
In the Intermediate Girls competition:
Kate Farrelly was 3rd in the Triple Jump and 5th in the 80m Hurdles
Beth Crosbie was 9th in the Hammer and Eve Truesdale was 10th in the Long Jump.
The relay team of Bonnie Ramsay, Eve Truesdale, Ellen Meredith and Kate Farrelly finished 7th.
In the Junior Girls competition Strathearn were 6th overall out of over 70 schools in this age group:
Kerry Annett was 3rd in the Triple Jump
Olivia Nelson was 4th in the 1500m
Hannah McCann was 6th in the Javelin
Zara Wilson was 6th in the Hammer and 8th in the Discus
The highlight of the Strathearn performances came from our youngest athletes in the Minor Girls competition. This is the first year this age group has had an opportunity to compete at the All-Ireland Schools’ Athletics competition and Strathearn made sure it will be one to remember.
Murphy Miller and Aimee Stitt took to the track first in the 800m. We had high hopes as both girls had shown excellent form at the Ulster Schools’ but with a long journey to Tullamore and exposure to their first national track event the girls did have a few butterflies in their tummies! With 3 false starts – unheard of usually in middle distance, these butterflies fluttered a bit more but when the race finally started they were soon in the past. Murphy in her usual fashion took the lead from the start and showed everyone she was there to do a job. Aimee tucked in behind her at the front of the pack. Unfortunately for Aimee this meant a bit of jostling for places but she did her best to stay in contention. Murphy stormed away and left the stadium in no doubt that she was determined to be crowned the first ever Irish Minor 800m Champion and crossed the line in 1st place. Aimee put up a good fight and finished a very respectable 5th place.
These two girls along with Leah McClements and Rhiannon Brady, were in action again at the end of the day in the Minor girls relay. As the skies got darker and the rain got heavier the girls got ready to start. Another difficult start for Murphy as first runner when there was a late call on a false start and she had run 50m before they were recalled by the starter. However the race got off properly the second time and the girls ran well with clean baton changes but were up against tough opposition and narrowly missed out on a medal finishing 4th.
Overall points are added up in each age group and in the inaugural year of the Minor competition these Strathearn athletes have made history being crowned Overall Minor Irish Champions.
This is a phenomenal achievement and comes on the back of winning the Irish Intermediate title last year so bodes well for the success of Strathearn athletes at national level in the future. It is also a very good example that every competitor’s place counts and contributes to the overall points not just those that win medals.
Well done to all the girls!!!!
(See Gallery for photos)