The first weekend of this year’s Woodies age group track and field finals were held in Tullamore on July 3rd – 4th.
Conditions were very testing over the two days particularly on Sunday when the wind was at its strongest.
Medals are very hard to come by but five athletes from St. Laurence O’Toole’s club managed to do so last weekend. The most impressive performance was surely Conor Brennan who removed a 21 year old record when winning the U12 long Jump with a winning jump of 4.83m.
This was Conor’s first taste of this level of competition and after last Saturday’s performance he is surely a name to watch out for in the future.
Molly Scott, making her first appearance in the blue and white colours, also had a very productive weekend bringing home two silver medals. She as a very close second in the 60m sprint in a time of 8.49 seconds on Saturday and jumped a new PB of 4.47m for second in the long jump having led most of the way.
Paul Byrne took two medals, gold in the pole vault and silver in the 400m hurdles behind Paul Gill, an athlete he had beaten on the last two outings.
Clair Murphy continued her fine season taking silver in the 300m hurdles.
Adam Dowling is improving as the season progresses and took a fine bronze in the U18 100m in a time of 11.1 seconds.
Three athletes who put in impressive performances just outside the medals were Laura Ward U12 600m, Keith Noctor U16 250m hurdles and Danny Lawler U16 800m.