ATHLETICS | Blackrock AC coach plays a starring role at Championships

Mary wins a hat-trick of gold medals

Club coach Mary Scanlon took the plaudits once again for Blackrock AC with a series of superb performances at the Leinster Masters Track and Field Championships held in Tullamore over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

A hat-trick of gold medals was achieved in dominant fashion with things getting off to the best possible start in the 100m with a winning time clocked at 14.03 seconds, some seven-tenths of a second inside the championship record.

It got even better later on in the day when Mary posted another championship best time of 28.62 seconds for the 200m and if that wasn’t enough she blew the completion away in the very first round of the shot put to complete a memorable day and continue to inspire the next generation of Blackrock AC athletes.

Leinster Team Championships

The Leinster Team Championships provided the interest for the juvenile members on Bank Holiday Monday with the club being represented by the U11 girls team made up of Jessica Scanlon, Emmy Jeytoo, Grace Reilly and Megan McEvoy and the boys U12 team made up of Sean Reilly, Pádraic Fennessy, Oisín O’Rourke Curran and Ethan Doherty.

Even though this is considered to be more of a fun event than the regular individual championships, the competition was still intense as each team member battled to keep their overall points total as low as possible with the lowest scoring teams taking home the medals.

Ethan Doherty and Sean Reilly kicked proceedings off for the boys in the high jump with both lads jumping well. In the meantime, Grace Reilly and Megan McEvoy got the girls off to a great start in the turbo javelin and soon afterwards Grace was back on track, this time with Jessica Scanlon for the 60m. Both girls did brilliantly finishing fourth and second respectively in their heats.

Oisín O’Rourke Curran and Pádraic Fennessy lined up next for their 60m sprints and both performed well against some very strong competition. The same duo were back in business in the first field event of the afternoon, the shot put, and despite having very limited experience in this technical event both performed brilliantly and finished in a combined second place.

Megan McEvoy and Emmy Jeytoo were next up for Blackrock AC, this time in the 600m. As usual the girls gave 100% with both coming home well placed in a hard run race. Sean Reilly and Ethan Doherty were back on track for the boys in their 600m and like the girls before them both gave their all against stiff competition.

Emmy and Jessica were soon back in action in the long jump and once again they didn’t let the side down particularly Jessica who jumped out to a personal best.

The 4x100m relays that closed the day’s proceedings with the girls blasting home in second place in their heat and the boys coming home in fourth.

Despite some good performance all round neither team made the podium however a good day out was enjoyed by all involved.