Upcoming National Indoor Championships: Key Athletes to Watch and Recent Performances

by FVAC 17 Feb

As we approach the major domestic indoor championships of the year this weekend in Dublin, we reflect this week on recent performances which continue to have a bearing on the performance level of a number of our top athletes.

Going into these championships, which will be held on both Saturday and Sunday at the National Indoor Arena, major attention will focus on Mark English ran his second fastest time ever 1.46.82 over the past weekend and he now approaches the Nationals with a view to defending his indoor title. It’s interesting to point out that right now, Mark is the third fastest European over 800m which gives him a strong ranking going into the European Championships in Appledorn, Holland next month. He is likely to have a fight on his hands come Sunday afternoon as Cian Philips from Longford ran a very good time in America over the last weekend so it will be ahead to head on Sunday as they both chase the title.

The other really good news over the weekend came from Gothenburg, Sweden where John Kelly was having his second outing of the indoor season, having just returned to competition after a long period out through injury. Just settling into a competitive mode at this point, John got out to 17.23m and no doubt will chase a National Senior Championship medal this Saturday. John is a 20m plus putter and to his credit has competed at World Championship level, one of the few out of Donegal that have ever done so. John’s standing in the sport is very strong and it’s really good news for him, his family and the club that he’s back in action.

At Boston University at the weekend two Finn Valley athletes were in competition. Liam McCay, now a student at Providence, competed over 5000m where he returned a notable pb for him at 14.16, having a week earlier ran a pb over 3k. All indications with respect to him are that he has settled in extremely well in the American varsity system and is coming to terms with the training environment. Also in Boston, at the same meet, Eimear McCarroll competed over 1m on Friday and returned to the track on Saturday to compete over 800m, where she returned a time of 2.14. This all adds up to a tremendous learning experience for the young Finn Valley girl which will come to fruition in a major way in the years ahead.

At University of Ulster Jordanstown Amy Timoney was competing in the open sprint meet there, finishing second in her heat and now will spend a week training in better weather conditions in Portugal.

The club had a womens team involved in the International Armagh 3k which is regarded highly in Ireland and the good news was a team victory with the Flanagan sisters Eilish and Roisin joined by Amy Greene, to just get ahead of the top Dublin club DSD. The race had an international calibre field and with 14 clubs closing in, it was a notable team victory for the Donegal girls.

Some 55 young club athletes traveled Saturday morning to Letterkenny to compete in the Annual Winter Classic and were fortunate to enjoy reasonable weather conditions and all reports indicate success and good support from both coaches and parents. It is now hoped to run two underage fun events for our young athletes at Finn Valley in the coming weeks to give them competition outlet prior to the Ulster indoor Championships in a few weeks time.

Our school athletes were in action in Belfast on Wednesday in the Ulster Schools Finals and we will report more extensively on this meeting next week.

This week, in addition to Mark English, John Kelly, Lauren Callaghan, Bridget McDyer, Arlene Crossan and Sommer Lecky, all attention will be on the National Championships over the weekend, an event that will be streamed live on Athletics Ireland TV. Arlene Crossan, back in action at at National Senior Championship event, took in the Connacht Championships in Athlone on Sunday over 400m, winning easily in a time of 55 seconds and must certainly target a place in the 400m final come Sunday next.

A new 6 week block of Little Athletics begins Wednesday 26th. With only a few slots remaining, booking is online and contact coach Ann Slevin on 086-8679169 for details.