IN PICTURES: Laois Athletics Club shines at Leinster Track and Field Championships

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St Abban’s AC athletes enjoyed a hugely successful outing at the Leinster Junior, Senior, and Masters Track and Field Championships, which took place over two days at SETU Carlow last weekend. Following a busy Bank Holiday weekend of juvenile competition, it was the club’s older athletes who took centre stage, and they delivered in style, claiming an impressive haul of medals across a wide range of events. READ MORE BELOW PICTURE.

On Saturday’s opening day, the club secured eight medals. Aoibhin McDonald led the charge with gold in the Senior Women’s Pole Vault, clearing 2.80m. Peter Condron followed with victory in the M40 400m, clocking 54.59 to take gold.

There was a strong showing in the middle-distance events as John Delaney earned silver in the U20 400m (51.20), while Brian Kelly also took silver in the Senior Men’s 1500m. His brother, Ger Kelly, secured second place in the Senior Men’s Weight for Distance with a 5.55m throw. Tomas Kenny also took silver in the M35 1500m, running 4:32, and Tom O’Connor continued the silver streak with second in the M70 100m. Niall Harvey rounded off the day’s medal haul with bronze in the Senior Men’s 1500m, finishing just behind Brian in 4:11.

Katie Baldwin competed in two events on Saturday, finishing sixth in both the U20 Long Jump (4.63m) and Javelin (19.28m).

Day two brought even more success. Katie Baldwin bounced back to take gold in the U20 Triple Jump with a new personal best of 10.84m. John Delaney added another gold to his collection, winning the U20 Men’s 800m to complete a fine weekend.

In the throws heptathlon events, Bernie Lawless came out on top in the W40 category, scoring 2,487 points across seven events. John Territ claimed gold in the M60 version with a total of 4,543 points. Patsy Baldwin took silver in the M50 throws heptathlon (3,329 points) and added a bronze in the M55 High Jump with a clearance of 1.30m. Michael Kelly also secured silver in the M70 throws heptathlon with 3,968 points.

Saragh Buggy narrowly missed out on gold in the Senior Women’s Triple Jump, taking silver with a leap of 12.79m – just two centimetres behind the winner.

Ger Kelly produced a personal best and new club record in the Senior Men’s Hammer (44.17m) but was unlucky to finish just outside the medals in fourth place.

St Abban’s AC praised all their athletes for representing the club with pride and determination throughout a memorable championship weekend.