Tullamore, Co. Offaly played host to the All Ireland Juvenile Track and Field Championships last weekend with the cream of young Irish athletes fighting it out for honours.
Lifford AC athletes surpassed all expectations with a magnificent return of seven national medals, the club’s highest total in many years.
Stephen McCallion took gold in the Boys u16 Triple Jump with a new personal best hop, step and jump of 12.06m. The young Strabane lad led the competition from beginning to end with his first round leap enough to take victory from Thomas Thornton of Dunboyne AC (11.87m).
Brendan O’Donnell launched the hammer to 61.32m to take his fourth consecutive national juvenile title, this time at u17 level. O’Donnell’s winning margin of 16 metres from Ian Taylor of Dunboyne AC (45.40m) capped a marvellous seven days for the young Letterkenny lad having earlier in the week being selected to represent Ireland in the Hammer Throw at the upcoming European Youth Olympics in Tbilisi, Georgia.
O’Donnell’s victory put the icing on the cake on a brilliant national championships for Lifford AC hammer throwers with Olivia Cuskelly having earlier won a silver medal in the Girls u14 event with a throw of 30.38m while Conor Breslin took a hard earned but well deserved  bronze medal in the u16 Boys Hammer with a new personal best throw of 45.35m.
Shannon Craig jumped 1.55m to take a silver medal in the Girls u17 High Jump behind Shannon Sheehy of Cushinstown AC. The young Raphoe lass has had her best year to date having won a national medal in the same event at the All Ireland Indoor Championships back in March in the same event.
There were two bronze medals for the red and white vests in the Hurdles with Tom Mullen fighting off the fast finishing Louis Lalor of Greystones & District AC to take 3rd in the Boys u16 250m Hurdles (33.94 seconds) while Alan McGinley fought off a flu virus to take 3rd in the Boys u17 300m Hurdles in 41.71 seconds behind the winner Cathal Locke of Dooneen AC (40.41 seconds).
There were several other encouraging performances from Lifford AC athletes over the course of the weekend.
Brandon Connolly ran gallantly to come home in 6th place in the Boys u17 300m Hurdles (44.83 seconds) while Kathleen Craig got out to 8.64m in the Girls u19 Triple Jump for 5th place.
Karen Gallagher ran a fine first 300m in the Girls u19 400m but found the strong headwind in the home straight not to her liking before eventually crossing the line in 7th position in a time of 63.81 seconds. Gallagher had earlier in the championships recorded an excellent  5th place in the Girls u19 800m (2mins 21.92secs).
Adrienne Gallen, in her first All Ireland Championships, had an excellent new personal best throw of 7.38m to take 9th in the Girls u12 Shot Putt.
Lifford AC had two athletes in action in the Boys u12 High Jump final. Andrew Crawford cleared 1.25m to take 9th place while Peter Donnell got over 1.20m to finish in 12th position. Both of these young lads will gain greatly from the experience of competing at this level.
With numerous top 6 positions over the course of the championships to complement the seven national medals, the Lifford club can look back on its most successful All Ireland’s to date with a huge amount of pride and an even greater sense of optimism towards the year ahead.
This weekend Brendan O’Donnell wins his second Irish vest when he represents the Irish Schools team in the Hammer in the SIAB Schools International against England, Scotland and Wales in Grangemouth, Scotland. On current form, O’Donnell is well capable of medalling with the English duo of George Marvell and Edwards Jeans providing his biggest opposition.
