The indoor season is underway and with a young Finn Valley squad bound for Magerafelt to qualify for the nationals, all 94 of them at the weekend, a strong message was put out.
Sommer Lecky, in her opening competition of the year, cleared 1.78m for a new Irish youth record to win at The Emirates Stadium, Glasgow.
This is a big year for Sommer and her coach Niall Wilkinson as she, in addition to confirming herself as the best jumper nationally, but targets Youth Commonwealth Games in Bahamas as does another young youth James Kelly as he also chases a spot on that team important as Ireland aren’t sending athletes to the World Youth Championships.
One hopes Athletics Ireland will provide an alternative opportunity for these talented athletes in Europe in the Summer months.
James was in Athlone winning the under-20 national shot with 15.08m and older brother was in great form in the under-23 championship winning with 16.78m – he needs 17.30m to gain qualification for the European under-23 championships, which he can hit. Both these lads are dedicated motivated and work seriously hard.
Another good news story was Janine Boyle, 5.55 m in long jump, leading round on round to strike gold and was also fourth in 60m.
Bridget McDyre from Annagry, who has travelled consistently to link with her coach at Valley Tom Thompson over the last 12 months, got out a pb 1079m and a bronze which was no more than she deserves but on examination silver is within her grasp.
Arlene Crossan, late in the day, at Athlone under-20 400m came 2nd in 57.27 and can improve on that into low 56 as she chases county record indoors.
Shane Irwin and Danny Brown both reached their respective finals while Caolan O’Callaghan a gold in the triple, Fodla Mc Fadden silver in the triple and Shannon Craig silver in the high at 1.65 were other notable performances .
