Gold for Thomas Williams and Bronze for Kelly and Burke

by Perri Williams

It was a day to remember for Team Ireland in Banska Bystrica. A gold medal from Thomas Williams (Shercock AC) and bronze for Conor Kelly (Derry TC) and Joe Burke (Templemore AC). Add these to yesterday’s bronze in the discus for Cian Crampton, and Ireland’s tally is 4 placing them 6^th in the ranking list for the number of medals thus far.

Thomas Williams sent the Irish supporters wild with his top-class hammer throwing and resulting gold medal. The first gold medal ever for Ireland in a field event at a European u18 championships. Williams is currently the number one in the world for this event and came into this competition with the weight of that position resting on his shoulders. Showing a maturity and calmness beyond his years he managed he take four of his six throws out beyond the 70m mark. “The first throw I panicked as it nearly went out of the sector” said Williams with the memory of what may not have happened etched in his brain from the qualifying rounds. An elated crowd of Irish supporters were track side for the entire competition providing enormous support to the affable Cavan native. There too was his father and coach Neil Williams, the first-person Thomas came to after he realised victory was his. Dimo Andreev (Bulgaria) took silver with a throw of 72.49 and Magno Llopis (Spain) took bronze with 72.48.

The medals did not stop there. First came that magnificent run by Conor Kelly in the 400m. Kelly has had a successful path through the opening rounds into the semi-final, where he set a new personal best of 47.23. He finished 3^rd in the final setting a new national u18 record of 46.97, his first time under the magic 47 second barrier for 400m. His disappointment after the race was evident. “I am absolutely gutted. I wanted gold but it didn’t happen today,” said Kelly. Athletes can often be so hard on themselves, especially when they set their sites on something and get so focused nothing else will do. Kelly had a great performance, and you cannot ask anything more than a personal best – he went two steps further; he got two personal bests, a national u18 record and a bronze European medal. Gold in the 400m went to Stanisław Strzelecki (Poland) in 46.50 with silver to Frenchman Milann Klemenic in 46.78.

And then came another medal. Joe Burke delighted the crowd with his performance. Ranked about 8^th coming into the final on times he raced the perfect race. Coming off the bend he was battling with 3^rd to 5^th place. Burke gave it all coming down the home straight dipping in time for bronze and was actually very close to silver. He also broke the national u18 200m record with his time of 21.30. His qualification for these championships came on the nth hour as he managed to get the qualification standard in both the heat and finals of the National Seniors. The late qualification meant he was coming into his peak of fitness. This timing was perfect for priming him for medal position. The Templemore man ran one second off his personal best in the semi-final to qualify for todays final with a time of 21.43. He goes away from these championships with a bronze medal and a new national u18 record. Diego Nappi of Italy won gold in a new championship record of 20.81 with Ivano Bevanda of Sweden second in 21.17.

Two Irish girls made the high jump final, both performing with distinction. Overall, the competition for medals was very close. Gold went to Liliana Batorri (Italy) who cleared 1.84m. Behind the Italian the difference between 6^th and 2^nd place was just 3cm. Tara O’Connor (Dundalk St Gerards) cleared 1.78m on her third attempt to finish in 6^th place. It was the same height as the 4^th position. Behind her Suin Quinn (Bros. Pierce) cleared 1.74 on her third attempt to finish in 9^th place. Both girls have had a good championship, Tara equalling her personal best yesterday at 1.79 and Suin gaining a new personal best of 1.79.

Our 800m athletes are in top form. Saoirse Fitzgerlad (Lucan) finished 2^nd in the first semi-final to take an automatic qualifying stop. The second semi-final was a little slower. For Pia Langton (KCH) going into that third semi-final she knew she would either have to finish in the top two or run a personal best. Langton ran a superb race, staying close to the top two and while a gap did open up, she tracked them all the way to the line to finish 3^rd run a new personal best of 2.07.9, taking the fastest non-automatic spot and a place in the final. Similar to Langton, Bobby Moore (Bray) knew going into the final semi-final of the men’s 800m that it was going to take a personal best to qualify for the final. He did just that, running 1.51.92 to finish 3^rd and take a non-automatic qualifying spot for the final.

The effect of competing in seven events over the previous two days took its toll on Enya Silkena as she struggled to qualify for the final rounds of the Javelin. The Ratoath AC athlete threw 47.07 a long way from her personal best from June this year. She can however be very proud of her performance in these Europeans and goes away with four personal bests, including that of the heptathlon itself.

With the heptathlon over, the multi-events now focus on the men’s decathlon, a gruelling ten events over two days. Eoin O’Callaghan (Bandon) has been writing his own record books all day with a series of personal best in four out of the five events. He has moved to eleventh position overall but just 140 points off 5^th place – making a move upwards somewhat achievable. He had personal bests in the 100m (11.74), Long Jump (6.66m), Shot Putt (13.83) and 400m (50.23) with a high jump final jump of 1.84m. He can gain inspiration from clubmate Diarmuid O’Connor who has been performing well at the NCAA’s this year.

Elsewhere the 400m Hurdles semi-finals was the finishing point for both Ethan Dewhirst (Tir Connaill) and Stuart Tobin (Nenagh) with Dewhirst finishing 4^th in his semi-final in 52.70 just five hundredths of a second slower than the personal best he set in the heats yesterday. Tobin finished 7^th in his semi-final. Molly Daly (KCH) was another athlete to exit the championships with a good run in the 200m semi-final of 24.81 to finish 7^th. Daly has been consistently under 25 since the start of the year.

Clodagh Gill was a bit disappointed with her 3000m effort having “had a good race at the national seniors. Every gap that opened I tried to cover it” she said. “The race just fell away in the last 600/800m”. While the heat has impacted the Irish distance athletes, she humbly stated “I don’t want to blame the heat as it was me as well”. Taking ownership demonstrates maturity and we can expect to see more from Gill in the future.

Finally, our girls medley relay team secured a new national record of 2.11.24. The team of Elena O’Sullivan, Kate Doherty, Erin Friel and Maria Zakharenko were just marginally short of qualification for the final.

Tomorrow competition is the final day and starts off at 8am with Eoin O’Callaghan in action over the 110m hurdles. Conor Penney takes part in the high jump final, with Cillian Gleeson and Noah Harris in the 3000m. In the afternoon our three 800m finalists will be in action. Rounding off the day will be Seamus Clarke and Matthew Newell in the 5000m race walk. Eoin O’Callaghan will close the competitive action for Ireland with the final event of the decathlon the 1500m.