Medal possibilities for Carlow at National Senior Indoor Championships
There are national titles up for grabs at this weekend's 123.ie National Indoor Championships at the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown Photo: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
Molly Scott, Adam Nolan and Matthew Callinan Keenan give St Laurence O’Toole strong possibilities of gold medals at this weekend’s 123.ie National Senior Indoor Championships at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown.
The action gets underway from 12pm on Saturday, with a second helping also taking place on Sunday from 12pm.
As well as the contingent from St Laurennce O’Toole and St Abbans, there are a host of Olympic stars from Paris 2024 are scheduled to return to competition on home soil across the two days, including Sarah Lavin (60m hurdles), Sharlene Mawdsley (200m/400m), Cathal Doyle (1500m), and recent record-breakers Andrew Coscoran (1500m/3000m) and Sarah Healy (800m/1500m).
Saturday’s track action will be headlined by finals in the 200m and 60m hurdles, while attention in the field events will be firmly focused on competitive looking high jump and triple jump competitions.
Day 2 of these championships will see a flurry of finals which look set to include Ireland’s fastest man Israel Olatunde (60m) who will bid to make it FOUR senior indoor titles in a row. The highly anticipated men’s and women’s 400m boast entries from Sharlene Mawdsley, Phil Healy, Lauren Cadden, Kelly McGrory, Rachel McCann, Cillin Greene, and Jack Raftery to name but a few.
Further spice will be added to this weekend’s proceeding with selection for the upcoming European Indoor Championships, which take place in Apeldoorn from Mar 6th – 9th, also up for grabs.
The heats of the 400m and 1500m will get the track action underway on Saturday, with the first track final (200m) set to take place at 3.50pm (heats 1.30pm).
The men’s 200m race should make a compelling watch with defending champion Robert McDonnell (Galway City Harriers) likely to come up against a resurgent Marcus Lawler (Clonliffe Harriers). The Carlow sprinter has already been in flying form this season, clocking a season leading 20.80 earlier this month.
Molly Scott will likely be the main opposition to Sarah Lavin, who is looking for her seventh national indoor 60m hurdles title. The Emerald AC star picked up gold last year with a world class 7.91 which is sure to be in her sights once more with another major championships on the horizon. Scott’s St Laurence O’Toole team-mate Arabella Adekoya could also push for a place on the podium Adam Nolan will be hoping to take gold for St Laurence O’Toole in the men’s 60m hurdles. He is out to defend his 2024 title which marked the first senior indoor gold of his fledgling career. An 8.02 performance was enough to see him pick up gold last year and having gone faster this year already (8.00), another bold bid for top spot on the podium can be expected in the final.
FIELD FOCUS
In the field on Saturday, Saragh Buggy (St Abbans) will look to make it nine indoor triple jump titles in a row on Saturday. Buggy clinched the 2024 indoor title with a best leap of 12.67m and is capable of jumping out even further, albeit this will be her first outing of the season.
Tickets for Sunday are already sold out and the atmosphere is sure to be electric with a whole host of Ireland’s best athletes on display.
The women’s 60m final is set for a 3.55pm start where Molly Scott will look to defend her title. Sarah Leahy (Killarney Valley AC) looks the chief challenger with the 2023 champion posting the fastest 60m this season (7.35). Scott’s clubmate Sive O’Toole will have eyes on making the final, as will 2020 indoor champion Ciara Neville (Emerald AC) who continues her comeback.
FIELD FINALS
The men’s pole vault will headline the morning’s action in the field events with not much in the way of recent form to gauge how the field is coming into this weekend. Defending champion Matthew Callinan Keenan could very well be the one as he bids to keep up his winning run of national titles.
It could be a St Laurence O’Toole pole vault double with Kara Morrissey out to defend the title she won last year at the age of just 16. She won last year with a jump pf 3.15m but she is sure to be under this year from Meabh Corkery (Midleton AC) on the back of this season’s indoor PB of 3.35.
The women’s long jump looks another open affair with Lauren Callaghan (Finn Valley AC) providing stiff opposition to Saragh Buggy. Callaghan took home silver last year with a best of 6.02m but has already gone 6.16m this indoor season.
