ATHLETICS | Gabriel hits gold for his school

St Peter’s AC’s best juvenile jumper, Gabriel Bell, travelled to Morton Stadium in Santry to represent his school, De La Salle College, Dundalk, in the Leinster School Championship on Saturday last.

Gabriel is enjoying another fine season and has a good habit of producing his best performances on the big occasion.

Saturday was no different as this fine young athlete, competing in the intermediate section, produced an outstanding leap to register 6.08m and win gold.

Having already won gold in the North Leinster section earlier in the month, he will now go forward to the national schools final.

Leinster Combined Events Championship

The club also had three young athletes in Navan on Saturday where the Leinster Combined Events championship were taking place.

Seán Allen, Niamh Brady and Judith Bell took part in the tri-event which consisted of long jump, 200m and shot putt.

As none of the three would be known for their shot putting ability, it was a journey made for experience.

The trio gave their all and are looking forward to competing in combined events next year when the different disciplines will be more suited to their skillset. All three acquitted themselves well with Seán finishing fourth, Niamh sixth and Judith seventh.

Leinster Juvenile Relays

On Sunday, the Leinster Juvenile Relays took place in Leixlip and the club had three teams competing in what was a very high standard of competition.

Both the boys and girls U13 teams came through their heats to book a place in their respective finals but just finished outside the medal placings.

The girls team consisted of Judith Bell, Niamh Brady, Lucy Smyth and Julie McLoughlin while the the boys team was made up of Cian Loy, Mark Litchfield, Jack McLaughlin and Sean Allen.

The girls U12 team were drawn in a very tough heat and were unlucky not to make the final. The team consisted of Isabel Fitzpatrick, Ellie Smyth, Katie Mulligan and Lucy Brennan.

Season’s best for McGrane

Elsewhere, veteran shot putter Tom McGrane was in action twice during the week along with taking part in the Drogheda and District graded meet on Thursday.

Tom also traveled north on Sunday to compete in the NI Jumps and Throws Fest in Belfast where he finished second in the shot putt with a throw of 9.23m — a season’s best.

However, the most pleasing performance for Tom was his discus performance where he threw his second best ever throw of 22.23m to finish in third place.

Blackrock Beach Races

This week, the annual beach races hosted by neighbouring club Blackrock AC, take place and as usual the club will have a large contingent taking part.