Busy time for St Laurence O'Toole AC
Reuben McCarthy, Aaron Shorten, Arabella Adekoya, Sive O’Toole, Adam Nolan and Leila Colfer represented St Laurence O'Toole AC at the recent IUAA Indoor Championships.
St. Laurence O’Toole A.C. have been very busy in recent weekends, both home and abroad. Jack Mahon was part of the U17 Irish squad of athletes that delivered incredible performances against top competition from England, Scotland & Wales at last weekend's UK Cross Challenge, Home Countries International & Celtic Nations Cross Country in Temple Newsam, Leeds. Jack ran a great race in a time 12.15 to finish in a fantastic 15th place. and was the 5th Irish boy to cross the line. Jack and his team mates won themselves bronze in the Celtic competition Jack earned his first and well deserved Irish call up having competed at the recent All Ireland XC Championships were he finished in 6th place. Back on Irish soil there wasn’t much time to recover as Jack then competed at the Leinster Schools Championships and finished in 5th place which also qualifies him for the All Ireland Schools Cross Country Championships next month in Galway.
The Irish University Athletics Association (IUAA) Indoor Championships took place in Dublin. In her last year of competing at the University Championships Sive O’Toole (UCD) certainly finished off her College Indoors in style. After winning her 60m heat in 7.58, Sive smashed it again in the finals crossing the line in 7.51 to take the title. In the men’s 60mH Adam Nolan (SETU) won his heat in 8.03 and later claimed the gold in 8.00 just narrowly missing out on the record of 7.97. There was also success in the women’s 60mH with Arabella Adekoya (SETU) running a fantastic 8.81 to win her heat and also went on to win her final in 8.86. Arabella competed in the 4x200m finishing 5th overall in 109.58. First year student Leila Colfer (DCU) was in action in the 200m and ran great race of 25.56 in her heat to qualify for the final were she finished 7th in 25.91. With no time to rest it was on to the 4x200m relay, Leila and her team mates went on to claim the victory in 101.44. Also in his first year was Reuben McCarthy (SETU) who was in action in the men’s 60mH. This was Reuben’s first race at the senior heights which didn’t deter him. Reuben qualified for the final having finished 3rd in his heat in 8.84 and with another great performance went quicker again in 8.75 to finish 4th. Reuben also competed in the 60m finishing 5th (H) 7.57 and was part of the (SETU) 4x200m relay finishing 9th overall in 101.64. Jeremiah Duru (TCD) competed in the men’s 200m running 24.93 to finish 4th in his heat and was also part of (TCD) 4x200m relay were they placed 7th in 95.12. Our Paralympian Aaron Shorten (GST) was also in action on the day in a stacked 1500m. Aaron ran a brilliant 4.03.80 to finish 12th overall.
Well done to our Ladies Team who competed at the recent National Indoor League over two days finishing in fantastic 4th place overall.
On day one Sive O’Toole was first on the track Sive wasted no time getting out of the block’s running a superb 6.62 to win her heat and getting the ladies off to a great start with 17 points. Having won the recent County Cross Championships Leah Lawlor put another fine performance in on the track in the 1500m finishing 5th in her heat in 4.56.85 and earned 12 points. In the 400m Jennifer Sawyer was a fantastic 2nd in her heat and picked up 8 points with a time of 1.01.42 No stranger to the league is Clare Archbold who is always willing to step up on the day. After a brilliant performance Clare earned the team 14 points in the 1500m race walk placing 5th in 10.43.74 Chloe Ryan produced some excellent throws finishing in second place earning 17 points with a throw of 10.68m Michaela Subrtova was certainly kept busy on the day competing in a total of 3 events. In the high jump Michaela cleared the bar at 1.40m to earn 9 points finishing 10th and then headed for the long jump to gain another fantastic 15 points with a jump of 4.83 to finish 4th. Michaela was also part of the relay. In the 4 x 200m relay the girls had an impressive run. It was Leila Colfer out of the block’s getting the girls off to a great start and then passing the baton to Chloe Ryan who had a fine run. After another fantastic lap from Michaela, it was Jennifer who carried it home in time of 1.47.78 to win their heat and add another 14 points to the tally. With the points added up the ladies finished in an incredible 3rd place on the leader board.
Day two unfortunately was always going to be tough day with so so many of our athletes missing due to injury and prior commitments. Our ladies ploughed ahead and they must be applauded for their efforts. In the 60mH Arabella Adekoya picked up a 1st place and 19 points to give the team a good start to the day. Susie Mitchell who took on 3 events on the day, none of which are very familiar to her - WFD (10 points), Triple jump (7 points) and later in the day was part of the 4x400m relay. Thrower Chloe Ryan also stepped out of her comfort zone by taking on the 200m to earn another 7 points. Maria Dunne still recovering from a recent illness gave it her all in the 800m (7 points) and 4x400m relay. With her performances improving all the time Leah Lawler was in action in the 3000m (14 points) and 4x400m relay The ladies were still hanging onto 3rd place by just a few points going into the relay. The ladies gave it their best but with a depleted 400m squad due to many injuries unfortunately it wasn’t to be. A special word of thanks must go to Team manager Brid Long who had the difficult task of pulling the team together over the last few weeks, while also stepping into the 4x400m relay.
