Laois Today: Laois athletes perform well at National Track and Field Championships

Laois athletes enjoyed great success at the recent National Track and Feld championship.

St Abban’s AC had a range of athletes competing at a number of events across the three days last weekend.

While Portlaoise AC, Ballyroan, Abbeyleix and District AC and Oughaval AC also fielded competitors.

The National Senior Championships took place in Morton Stadium Santry from June 25-27.

The event also marked a return to athletics events for spectators with 400 allowed in to witness Ireland’s best athletes compete.

The standout performances of the weekend came in the Long and Triple Jump events where St Abban’s Saragh Buggy won gold in both.

Buggy recorded 6.12m in the Long jump while 13.28m was good enough for the gold medal in the Triple Jump. Her recent success in the events see Buggy bring her haul of National Titles to 15.

Ruby Millet took the silver medal with a jump of 5.92m to complete a St Abban’s one-two in the Long Jump.

Ruby Millet has also been selected for the European U-23 Championships which will take place in Tallin, Estonia from July 8-11.

Ruby’s jumping has been very consistent this year, which saw
her achieve the standard on two occasions in Belfast and Santry respectively.

In the Women’s Discus, Sarah Graham finished fourth with a throw of 35.32m – just missing out on a medal.

Jack Fenlon finished 10th in the Junior Men’s 3k in 8:51.79. The Men’s Pole Vault saw Matthew Rossiter clear 4.00m.

Nessa Millet opted to run the 400m rather than her preferred 400m hurdles where she finished in fourth 54.89s.

Portlaoise Athletics Club’s Mary Mulhare competed in the 5km final and ran a time of 16.40 to place 7th overall.

St Abban’s Cheryl Nolan continued her return from injury in the same race where she finished in 11th with a run of 16:54.04.

While Ballyroan, Abbeyleix and District’s Avril Deegan came home in 15th place.

Maisy O Sullivan of St Abban’s also continued her return from injury finishing in 11th in the 1500m in 4:29.21. In the Men’s 1500m final, Brian Kelly finished 10th in 3:53.59.

On Sunday, Keith Gilligan finished 11th with a throw of 9.41m. Eoghan Buggy, in a time of 22.55s, finished 3rd in his 200m heat and 3rd in his 400m heat in 50.12.

Canice Whearty of Oughaval AC also went in the 400m sprint and finished sixth in his heat.

Also competing over the weekend were Cian Kelly in the 800m heats and Naoise Kettle in the 1500m heats.

Cian narrowly missed out on qualification to the final, but once again shaved some time off his personal best running. Naoise ran 4.05m in his senior debut in the 1500m.

Elsewhere, St Abban’s duo Stephen Hunter and Colin Coyne travelled to Kilcock last Friday evening for the St Cocas 5km Road race. Stephen finished 17th in 15:30 with Colin Coyne 57th in 16:42.

Portlaoise’s Colm Fitzgerald was just ahead of Coyne in a time of 16.37.