Seven Leinster Records and an EYOF Qualification Standard

by Perri Williams

Today’s Leinster u20, Senior and Masters Championships were exactly what we need provincial championships to be; open, competitive and an opportunity for all levels. On the back of a successful National Indoors last weekend, several Irish stars were in action again in Abbottstown for the Leinster Indoors. The star performance of the day went to young Conor Penney (Craughwell AC) who bettered his own indoor personal best with a leap of 2.06m in the u20 high jump. In doing so he achieved the qualifying standard for the European Youth Olympics to be held in Macedonia later this summer. The 16-year-old Galway athlete burst onto the scene last year with his ubiquitous sequence of personal best performances, the most notable was at the Tailteann Games where he achieve his outdoor personal best of 2.09m. A total of seven new championship records were set during the day’s events, with the overall standard of competition up on previous years in many events.

The National Senior 60m champion Sarah Leahy (Killarney Valley) ran her third fastest 60m this season as she set a guest record in the 60m. In the same final, Sive O’Toole (SLOT) set a new Leinster record recording 7.54 as she finished in third place, shaving .06 off the ten-year-old record. 

While O’Toole may have recorded the first record breaking performance of the day, six more followed.  In the men’s u20 60m Cillian Doherty (Crusaders) ran 6.96 surpassing the 2022 record of 7.00 set by Runo Ayavoro (Newbridge). Juan Ignacio Pena (Raheny) obliterated the 11-year-old 1500m record as he ran a rather rapid 3.49.32 1500m to take the Leinster Senior men’s title. Evan Walsh (St Joseph’s AC) surpassed the 2018 u20 racewalking record by 4 seconds to set the new mark at 14.13.23 minutes. Walsh has another three years at this age group. Fresh from her silver medal at the national seniors last weekend, Tara O’Connor (Dundalk St Gerards) recorded 1.75m to take down the old championship record in the u20 high jump by 1cm. There was a moment on her second attempt at 1.78m that it looked like she could go higher. Andrew Cooper (Gowran AC) won the u20 shot putt. The Emo, Co. Laois man obliterated his own championship record with his final throw of 18.20 by a staggering 1meter 14cm with a much-improved rotational technique.

There were some very close performances too. Sean Aigborboh was just two hundredths of a second off the senior men’s record set by Mark Smith to record 6.87 as he won a competitive men’s 60m race where the top two record the same time. Other notable performances came from Adam Murphy (Tinryland). Murphy got his clubs first national medal in quiet a while when finishing second to Marcus Lawler in the National Senior 200m. Today along with his gold medal he set a new personal best over the 200m with a time of 21.54 indicating we have yet more to see of this talented sprinter. Arlene Crossan recorded a new personal best in the 200m with a time of 24.44 as she gets another race in ahead of her European Indoor relay debut next week. Enya Silkena (Ratoath) set a new personal best for the 60m hurdles as she starts to test her winter training ahead of first 2025 heptathlon attempt. She subsequently finished 3rd in the 60m. Once again there were large fields in the ladies walk, making racewalking one of the up-and-coming events in the country.

Several masters athletes were in action with Graham Bourne (Kilkenny City Harriers) continuing his approach of mastering several athletic events as continues to persue an athletics career is started as a senior. Michelle Cox (Newbridge) who was part of the World Record breaking over 40 4x800m quartet continued to seek improvements on her 800m time. Werner Oliver (St Coca's) set yet another championship record, this time with a 1.68m in the over 50 High Jump.

Overall, there has been great support for the indoor competitions this season, indicating that on home soil we can provide the much-needed competition for athletes to thrive and achieve. With some careful planning and targeting, there is ample opportunity for athletes to achieve standards, personal bests and competitive races without going abroad this summer, if enough gather at the same location to push each other into the zones of competitiveness. Mitigating the effect of time zone changes, plane journeys and the hassle associated with overseas travel.