Strathearn School

118 Belmont Road, Belfast, BT4 2AU, Northern Ireland | 028 9047 1595

Irish Junior Athletics Champions!!

Irish Junior Athletics Champions!!

Results of the Irish Schools’ Athletics Championships

 

From our athletes’ outstanding performances at District and Ulster level 10 individual girls and a relay teams qualified for the Irish Championships which took place in Tullamore, Co Offaly on Saturday 4th June.  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.  The athletes also had to contend with the 27 degrees and blistering sun that shone from 8am as they entered the arena.  It was also a very special occasion for Irish Schools’ Athletics as this was its Centenary year having first been held in Dublin on the 23rd September 1916 despite what went on at Easter in Dublin that year.  Athletes who have gone on to compete for Ireland on the world stage all look back at the Irish Schools’ Championships as a stepping stone to their International career and who knows who the next Olympic stars will be, but Strathearn’s athletes could be amongst them or certainly have rubbed shoulders with some of them this weekend, witnessing athletes attempting to run qualifying times for Rio this summer and inspiring many to do their best.

 

In the Senior Girls competition:

Lauren Brooker was the first of the Strathearn athletes to take to the stage and finished a commendable 8th place in the High Jump. 

Kate Farrelly in Triple Jump was next of the Seniors to compete and did so in style lying in 3rd after the first 3 jumps however, was pushed to 4th in the 4th round.  But Kate had her heart set on a medal having won Bronze in the Intermediate competition last year and she put everything into her last jump pulling out a Personal Best of 11.34m and jumped her way into Silver medal position (and only 4cm short of Gold!) – Never give up!!!

A quick medal ceremony and photo shoot before Kate was back in action alongside Megan Marrs in the 100m Hurdles.  Kate ran a good race and was content with 5th place equalling her last year’s hurdles performance.  Megan however had her mind made up that she would settle for nothing but Gold and despite a closely fought race at the front she was crowned Irish Champion in her last year in this competition – not a bad way to finish your school athletics career!

The points from these 3 athletes added together meant Strathearn were overall runners-up in the Senior competition, which is a fantastic result.

 

In the Intermediate Girls competition:

Olivia Nelson was first on the track and to the spectators looking on, the thought of 3000m in that heat was enough to make them lie down.  However Olivia had a job to do and despite setting off at a good pace had to fight her way into the lead group the hard way - around the outside of the pack.  As the race unfolded Olivia settled into her running and tried to stay in contact with the leaders running a solid race but was just out of the medals finishing in 4th position.  Olivia will have another year at Intermediate level so will be hoping to be able to compete again at this level next year.

Eve Truesdale was next up in the Intermediate Long Jump and had 3 well executed jumps but just missed out on the top 6 and 2 extra jumps finishing 7th.

Kerry Annett competed in the Intermediate Triple Jump and again performed well having moved up an age group from last year and after 5 rounds finished in 5th position.

 

In the Junior Girls competition:

This Strathearn team were returning to Tullamore as last year’s Overall Irish Minor Champions and so despite being our youngest representatives again this year they had much to live up to and worked extremely hard to qualify and now needed to focus on the task at hand.

 

Aimee Stitt and Murphy Miller both ran in the 800m at probably the hottest part of the day and so the race was even tougher than expected.  The girls did not get a great start and so had to battle hard to keep in touch with the lead group and as they took the bell the leaders injected more pace.  Aimee did what she could to keep with the group and came home a respectable 9th place.  Murphy didn’t have the glory run she had last year when she was Minor Irish 800m Champion but she didn’t give up and from the back of the lead group at 200m to go she gave it everything she had to get herself into a medal position.  The track judges thought she had just done enough to get a bronze however, the photo finish had to be called on and after much deliberation she unfortunately was given 4th.  Not necessarily the results they had hoped for but Aimee and Murphy were not finished for the day as you will hear in a minute.

 

Next up was Harriet Platt in the Triple Jump and to say she jumped out of her skin would be an understatement!!!  Harriet led the field from the start and never looked back, jumping Personal Bests in all but 1 of her 5 jumps and was easily the best jumper in the competition winning in style with a jump of 9.96m – Irish Champion on her first time at the Irish Championships!!!  So off she skipped with family in tow for the medal ceremony!!

 

While Harriet was beaming from ear to ear Amelia Kane was slogging it out on the track in the 1500m. Being a year young and a bit smaller than some of the others Amelia had her work cut out for her.  But showing her true colours – guts and determination she ran a tactically sound race and kept in the lead group throughout, when the top 2 injected some pace she was able to respond and get enough distance between her and the next athletes and ran home to pick up the bronze medal in her first outing to Tullamore.  Again with family in tow off she went to her medal ceremony.

 

Now Aimee and Murphy had recovered after their gruelling 800m and were joined for the relay by Leah McClements and Rhiannon Brady who had been waiting patiently all day trying to keep cool.  Having been unfortunate to miss out on a medal last year this relay team really wanted one this year.  Blood, sweat and tears had all been seen over the last few weeks in preparation and anything can happen in relays so only time would tell.  We got off to a good start and clean changeovers all round, running a hard race in lane 7 and no one outside us to gauge how we were doing.  As we rounded the last bend and into the straight we were in a good position and all to run for with the last runners for all teams giving it their all.  Gold and silver were just out of our reach but bronze was in our grasp…we awaited the photo finish again and this time it was in our favour, the girls had got their medal and were delighted.

 

Medal ceremony - cameras, hugs and smiles all round, then the Strathearn athletes, staff, parents and siblings began to pack up our base camp.  Now Mr Manning has taught us well and having done a few sums with the points and without feeling too confident we waited to hear the overall results.  Could the girls win their 2nd successive Overall Irish Title……...YES they could and as the commentator announced it you might have heard the screams back in Belfast!! –

Strathearn - Overall Irish Junior Champions 2016.

 

This is a phenomenal achievement to win an overall title 2 years in a row for this team and the third successive title for Strathearn setting the scene 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 athletes involved a super finish to another successful season!!

 

(See Gallery for photos of all the action)

08 June 2016

By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies. Click here to view Strathearn Privacy Policy.
We use www.surveymethods.com for our online survey projects. SurveyMethods.com Online Survey Software is a comprehensive survey creation, deployment, and analysis tool. Visit, www.surveymethods.com, to obtain more information for your educational institution or and non-profit organization.

By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies. Click here for further information.
We use www.surveymethods.com for our online survey projects. SurveyMethods.com Online Survey Software is a comprehensive survey creation, deployment, and analysis tool. Visit, www.surveymethods.com, to obtain more information for your educational institution or and non-profit organization.