Valley Athletes Return National Records.

Finn Valley had an enthusiastic and talented group of young athletes in a variety of events in the national underage T/F champs at Tulamore over the weekend and they did not disappoint returning 6 gold medal winning performances and 1 bronze and a host of near misses which all augers well for the future . Early Saturday John Kelly from St Johnstone continued where he left off in the indor season breaking records and this day was not going to change the trend . He whacked the shot out to a new Irish age group record of 15-63 adding a meter to the year old mark and he was to come out 3 hours later and win the javelin at 42-02m to unseat the young lad from Co. Down who had got the better of him in the Ulster Q event . John if he remains calm and focused will add the discus to that list in 3 weeks so no pressure . THe bottom line with this talented and dedicated young man is that he is throwing 16m plus in training and his javelin is also stronger so its exciting . It was Sunday lunch time when Dempsey Mc Guigan got his chance in the under 18 hammer and as they say listen to this remembering that Irish record stands at 66-22m . Its 3rd round the hammer marks 65-66m,4th round 66-14m ,5th round 67-07 and wait for it final throw 68-99m a pb by 4m a mark that tops the Irish and U K ranking at this point in the season .

Blaithnaid Patton has had an interesting season having trained hard and continously in a really focused way through the long days of winter . It all came together on this day after some jitters at 1.55m clear all the way to 1.63m and narrowly missing out on 3rd attempt 1.65 . A pb and gold medal performance . Well deserved. The other gold on this Sat. came in the ball throw for distance at 34.83m again a pb in difficult wind conditions to Castlefin girl Niamh Mc Granaghan a student at the local St Marys school where she got her first taste of athletics under teacher Liam Breen .

Sunday - the wind blew up but Denver Kelly from Tooban ,Burnfoot who had taken the national cross country title back some months ago in Coleraine was not going to hang around driving into the wind pushing the pace returning 1.44 for victory sure to shorten the road home.THe final medal came per Jade Leeper in the discus a bronze to a girl who would win a prize every day for her dedication .Just inches away from medals were Ryan Stewart vastly improved in the shot 4th ,Sasha Byrne an impressive 4.43 m long to take 4th and an encouraging return from Stephen Carr in 80m and long jump suggesting if he were to channel more into these events medals are there next time . Success with athletes at this level is attained with coaches that go that little bit extra and on this weekend take a bow ,Niall Wilkinson,John Kelly ,Brid Mc Laughlin,Bernie Alcorn Seamus Mc Granaghan,Carolyn Mc Guigan and Peader Mc Granaghan whose input made all the difference to these particular Valley successes.

Pictures.