Leinster Schools Athletics Report, May 2022

A highly anticipated Leinster Schools Athletics Championships took place on Wednesday 18th and Saturday 21st of May in Santry’s, Morton Stadium. We were represented across 42 events after a strong effort at East Leinster’s.

Congratulations to our Senior Squad on winning the Team Shield, our first since 1997.

The senior team event started on Wednesday with Eoghan Walsh, Louis Dignam and David Crowley (all 5th Year) starting us off. Eoghan and Louis brought home silver in the 110m hurdles and walk while David added to the points total with a 4th place finish in the walk. This put the team in a strong position going into the Saturday events.

Our day started with Thomas Brigg taking bronze in the discus when Tom O’Riordan scored a valuable point. Philippe Le Roux (all 5th Year) showed his versatility in the Javelin, where the Irish u19 cricket international furthered his personal best by four meters and claimed bronze. The senior boys hammer followed with Tom O’Riordan and Charlie O’Brien (6th Year) taking 2nd and 3rd. At the same time as the Hammer, Ciaran Patchell (5th Year), added to our score with 2nd place in the senior shot.

The team were in a strong position heading into the final event and our 4×100 relay team consisted of Maxim Aschenbrenner, David Doyle, Conn Lucey and Eoghan Walsh (all 5th Year). The boys took second at East Leinsters two weeks priors and were therefore given the tough task of lane one for the Leinsters. The work put in by Dan Moore and the boys showed on the day with the teams shattered their personal best and claiming winning the coveted gold senior relay medals. The buzz of such a performance followed through with the 4x400m where a team of Maxim Aschenbrenner, Oliver Coffey, David Doyle and Jack McGlone (all 5th Year) competed for the final event of the day. Strong legs by Maxim and Oliver allowed for David to put the team in medal contention before handing to Jack who left it all on the track and only missed 1st place by the smallest of margins. A second place finish and a chance to battle for an Irish schools title in Tullamore at the end of the school year.

In the intermediate events the day began again with our hammer throwers. Sami Bishti and Brian Walsh (both 3rd Year) produced strong performances to take gold and silver in the inter age group. Their teammate Michael Walsh (3rd Year) followed this up with a massive eleven-meter pb, throwing 41m for silver in the inter discus. More points arrived in the discus with Robert Murphy producing a personal best performance with fourth place. Additional intermediate points came from Joe Reddan in the long jump and the relay team that consisted of Rory McNally, Harry Phelan, Johnny O’Sullivan and Cormac Sheahan (all 3rd Year). These performances led to a second place finish as team, a great result for an intermediate team that has another year at the age group next year.

Our junior boys took to the stage on the Wednesday with Geoffrey Wall and Bernard White starting us off with a brilliant first and second place in the hammer. This spurred on the other competitors with Matthew Wyse and Ben Guerin achieving personal bests in the shot put while Luke Coffey scored team points in the triple jump. The junior boys relay took to the stage again in a highly competitive final that saw David Mannix, Jack Mulsow, Luke Coffey and Gavin Laing (all 2nd Years) line up for the college. The boys lowered their personal best significantly to take 3rd place and a large amount of team points.

Congratulations to all the competitors over East Leinster and Leinster championships. Attention now shifts to one of the great days in the sporting calendar, the Irish Schools Athletics Championships in Tullamore on June 4th. We thank Mr Barry and his team of fellow coaches for their organisation and preparation of the boys.

Tremendous!