St Laurence O'Toole AC looking to better last year's fourth place in National League finals

After ending a wait since 2006 by competing in last year's National League Premier Division final St Laurence O Tooles AC ladies team head to the finals day for the second year in a row in Tullamore on Sunday.

The league entails each athletic club having one competitor in up to 21 events across a full days completion schedule. 

On 6 July, the O'Tooles ladies finished second out of 15 clubs entered from across the whole country placing them in a prime spot in the Premier Division for the Final. 

They had representation in 18 of the 21 events, and that in itself is something that many clubs struggle to achieve. Scoring consisted of taking points from your best 15 events which left them with a score of 174 points and finishing second behind previous winners Dundrum South Dublin Scoring starts again in the final with 17 events to count in the Premier Division and they face tough competition against seven larger clubs from Dublin, Cork and Belfast.

Manager Bríd Long commends the whole team and the dedication these athletes put in year round to their sport. 

"We will be missing a few of our squad for the Final due to injury, international commitments and holidays but other clubs will face that same challenge. I have no doubt if we had our full squad available we would be hard to beat but those competing on Sunday will be chasing a place on the podium having being a tough fourth place in last years final and fourth again in the Indoor League in February."

There were some notable individual performances on Day 1 giving the team some high scores and we hope to repeat that on Sunday.

The league comes in the middle of an already busy competition season with some the younger athletes having competed in their individual All Irelands the day before Round 1 and our masters athletes face the same challenge for Day 2.

This is a whole team effort over two days and couldn’t be achieved without the support of our long standing club coaches including James O'Rourke, Billy Delaney, Mick Hyland and Ken Archbold and families of the athletes who give them the support necessary for their training and competitions.

Results from Round 1 

Jenny Sawyer got things off to a great start with winning the 400m hurdles.

Always willing to do her part for the team and had a brilliant 6th place finish in the 1500m walk was Clare Archbold.

Some more valuable points came from an amazing second place in the hammer for Susie Mitchell.

There was a sixth place finish for the 4x100m relay team Mia Cullen, Chloe Ryan, Michaela Šubrtová and Emily Lawlor.

Multi tasking on the day was Maria Dunne, who besides her manager duties also finished ninth in the 1500m.

Having competed the previous day at nationals, Chloe Ryan had a super performance with a third place finish in the shot put.

Molly Travers finished fifth in the pole vault, having recently just returned to training and first competition in a long time.

It was a busy day for Michaela who also competed at nationals the previous day, she gained some more valuable points placing 7th in the long jump.

A brilliant run from Cassie O’Byrne in the 400m saw her finish in fourth.

A great performance from Melissa Broderick in a very fast paced 3000m saw her finish seventh.

There was a superb run from Sofia Granjo crossing the line in second in the 200m.

Another fine performance from Chloe as she finished third in the discus.

The points kept on coming with seconnd in the 800m with a great run from Bronwen McDonald.

Another lady that was busy was Susie with sixth in the WFD and there was a third place finish for Michaela in the triple jump with international athletes competing in the event.

Not long back from injury Emily Lawlor was in action in the 100m placing 6th Isabelle McCormack another of the U20 athletes who competed the previous day, was back to throw the senior weight in the javelin and finished in a brilliant 3rd place.

And finally there was an amazing performance from the 4x400m relay team to finish in first place, great running from Cassie O’Byrne, Jenny Sawyer, Sofia Granjo and Emily Lawlor.