21 and counting as Laois athlete secures another long jump national title

Huge crowds descended on Morton Stadium Santry for the pinnacle of the track season;The  National Senior Track and Field Championships which were held over the weekend. Interest in athletics has really peaked around the country in recent weeks with the exploits of Rhisadat Adeleke, Ciara Mageean and the Relay Teams at the European Athletics Championships held in Rome.

Away from the global stars, St Abban's had 12 athletes in action throughout the weekend across distance, jumps and throws. Once again Saragh Buggy was the standout performer claiming her 21st National Senior title on Saturday afternoon. In very testing conditions, Saragh claimed her 9th consecutive Triple Jump title with a best jump of 12.72m. Saragh’s amazing consistency sees her boast a collection of 9 Outdoor Triple Jump titles, 3 Long Jump Outdoor titles, 8 Triple Jump Indoor wins and 1 Long Jump Indoor title. Also in action in the Triple Jump on Day 1 of the championships was Katie Baldwin who gained great experience from competing at the National Championships. More below picture.

On the track, Emily O Shea finished in 9th place in heat 2 of the 800m. The Women's 1500m had two athletes from the club in action, Maisy O Sullivan continued her return to racing in qualifying for Sunday’s final while Rachel Ayers had her first taste of National Senior action when she finished 8th in heat 3.In the Senior Men’s events, John Delaney finished in 9th place in his first National Senior 800m. Training partners Cian Kelly and Niall Harvey competed in the 1500m. Niall was 13th in his heat while Cian was very unlucky in heat 4 just missing out on a qualifying place for the final on Sunday. His time of 3:55 saw him finish in 5th place with 4 to qualify. More below picture.

On Sunday, Ger Kelly threw a season’s best in the Senior Men Hammer competition with a throw of 41.46 which was good enough for 10th place. In the Pole Vault Aoibhinn McDonald cleared 3.05m which was good enough for 5th place. Maisy O’Sullivan finished strongly in the 1500m final to take 6th place in 4:29. Saragh returned in the Long Jump where her jump of 5.96m was just 10cm short of a medal, meaning she had to settle for 4th place. The final athlete in action was Cheryl Nolan in the senior women’s 5k. Cheryl positioned herself well throughout and came home in 16:15 which was good enough for 7th place. More below picture.

The club would like to say well done to each of these athletes, their coaches and families who put in plenty of unseen hours in preparation for big weekends like this.