The Irish Flag is Flying High at the u18 Europeans in Slovakia

by Perri Williams

Day 1 and the morning of Day 2 of the u18 European Championships has already taken place in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, where a large Irish team of 35 athletes are taking part. Accompanied by an equally large number of supporters, our u18s can feel as confident as any other nation for success. With some taste of that success already happening.

Thomas Williams (Shercock) has the world u18 hammer lead and was the focus of European Athletics top ten athletes to look out for in these championships. There was, however, a scary moment for Williams as he fouled his first two throws and had to rely on a conservative throw of 67.18 to gain qualification for tomorrow final. "I went over to my Dad, who's my coach, and he told me you've done this millions of times before, just pretend it's another throw” Williams did just that and secured his qualification for the final.

All eyes were on Enya Silkenya (Ratoath) today as she competes in the remainder of her heptathlon events. The heptathlon is the most grueling and challenging of all the female events. This was made more difficult for Enya as an infringement in the hurdles saw her take part in a solo re-run of her hurdles event. The result proved worth it as she record a new personal best of 14.58. There was another personal best in the 200m and the high jump. Unfortunately, her shot putt was not what she expected. A throw of 45.96 in the javelin saw Silkena finish fourth in her group, moving her up seven places to her current number 11. Her personal best for the heptathlon is 5,218 points and she is already on target to beat this with just the 800m to go later tonight.

Conor Kelly (Derry TC) is having a storming championship. He easily won his first round of the 400m in 48.01 and came back this morning and won his semi-final in 47.62. Kelly has a PB of 47.23, can he go faster in the final? He is currently the second fastest going into that final tomorrow. . Also making the semi-final in the 400m was Maria Zacherenko (Kilcool) who finished 3^rd in her heat. Unfortunately for Maria her progression halted in the semi-final this morning with a 7^th place finish.

Ethan Dewhirst (Tir Connaill) ran a strategic race to finish top of heat 1 with a time of 52.63. “The idea was out hard for the first six hurdles and that is what I did and then hold on for dear life”, said the Donegal man. Right behind him in heat 2 Stuart Tobin () finished 4^th also with a new PB (53.89) and secured one of the non-automatic qualifying spots for the semi-final. Another hurdler to make it through the preliminary rounds was Orla Mannion (South Galway) who gained one of the non-automatic qualifying spots for the semi-final of the 100m hurdles.

There was plenty of excitement in the High Jump as the Irish duo of Tara O’Connor (Dundalk St Gerards) and Suin Quinn (Brothers Pierce) both qualified for the final round. In group 1 O’Connor equaled her PB to finish second with a leap of 1.79m. In group 2 Quinn surpassed all expectations with a new PB of 1.79m, by three centimeters. Her fourth place sees her also go through to the final round.

Ben Sykes (Orangegrove) won his heat easily with a new personal best of 10.71. Skyes indicated that he was “a lot more confident than he thought he would be” going into the semi-finals. He had every right to be as Sykes won his semi-final in yet another personal best, this time in 10.65. We can look forward to the final later tonight.

Another finalist is Cian Crampton (Edenderry). Crampton threw a season best of 58.59 in the discus qualification rounds to sit at number three on the starting list for tomorrows final. Elsewhere those who have already competed are Michael Kent (DMP) who finished 15^th overall in the Long Jump with a decent jump of 6.90m. Caoimhe Gallen (Lifford Strabane) was just 20cm and one place short of qualifying for the final of the hammer. With plenty of inspiration to be got from elder sister Adrienne and Olympic bound Nicola Tuthill, this lady can go far. Our 1500m and steeplechase runners unfortunately did not make it through to their respective finals. The boys 1500m saw Shea O’Donnell (Ace) and Caolan McFaddan (Cranford) perhaps go out a little too hard for the first 700m. O’Donnell in 1^st place after 700m to fade over the latter half of the race, finishing in 10^th place in his heat. McFaddan recorded 4.03 to finish 9^th in his heat. Jennifer O’Leary (Nenagh) and Emily Bolton (Donore) conversely ran the opening stages of their races in a conservative manner and maintained their positions throughout. Matei Ursachi (Clonliffe) finished 13^th in his 2000m steeplechase. The intense heat that the athletes are experiencing in Slovakia does no favours for Irish distance runners and should be taken into account when looking at their performances.

The athletes will resume competitions this evening with the 800m, 5000m race walking and 100m finals to look forward to.