Lavin and Veale shine at Schools’ International
Sarah Lavin with a sprint double and Kate Veale taking a full minute off the 3,000m Walk record were the stars of the Schools’ International stages at the Antrim Forum today. In reasonable weather conditions a weakened Irish team performed admirably with some gutsy performances and many personal bests.
The track started well for the Irish when Kate Veale set off at a blistering pace to not only destroy the field but also to take a minute off Serena O’Keefe’s 1998 record when recording 13.09.02. Emma Prindibhil gave good support to Kate by coming home in 2nd place. Not to be outdone the boys produced the same result with James Treanor and Oisin Oliver taking the gold and silver.
Although she has been around for a few years Sarah Lavin came of age at these championships. Sarah won an astonishing three gold medals against the best in these islands when winning the 100m, 200m and anchoring the Irish Girls’ team to victory in the 4 x 100 Relay at the end of the day.
The only other Irish winner was in the Boys’ 800m where Mark English dominated the race throughout to take gold in 1.58.90. In fact it looked at one stage as if Ireland might fill the first two places but Dean Cronin could not sustain the challenge through the line and had to be satisfied with 4th place.
Marco Pons was another to exceed expectations when finishing second in the Discus with a throw of 48.45m and third in the Shot with 14.77m. Third places were achieved by Ailish Sheehan in the Javelin with 34.30m, Zoe Scanlon in the Discus 36.75m, Joseph Dowling in the 400m in 49.84, Patrick Coleman in the Steeplechase in a new personal best of 4.35.42, Ben McGillian in the Triple Jump with 12.78m, James McCabe in the Hammer with 57.72m and the Boys’ 4 x 100 Relay team.
There were two other records on the day when the cream of the talent in these islands came to Antrim. The first was in the second event of the day when Toni Wells of Wales threw 51.53m in the Girls’ Hammer to break Rachel Akers record of 49.70m. Shortly afterwards Freya Jones of England threw the Javelin 46.61m to add over 3m to the existing record.
At the end the match was won comfortably by the English Schools’ with the Irish in Second place. All in all a super day of athletics in a lovely venue.
John Shields