Laois athletes had a fantastic showing at the National Senior Indoor Championships held at the National Indoor Arena over the weekend.
With plenty of warm up competitions over the last number of weeks this marked the pinnacle of the Indoor calendar with National honours on the line.
The ever consistent Saragh Buggy of St Abban’s won yet another National title, taking victory in Triple Jump – that’s 18 National titles for her now
. Saragh’s winning jump of 13.25m was a Championship Record and agonisingly close to the National Indoor Record just 3cm off the record of 13:28m.
Saragh’s 18 National Senior Titles to date include 14 Triple Jumps (seven indoor and seven outdoor) and four Long Jumps (three outdoor and one indoor).
Jack Fenlon made his Senior Championships debut and had an amazing run to finish 5th in the Men’s 3000m in a PB of 8:20.72, a very promising start to his senior career.
The race was won by Darragh McElhinney. Fellow clubman, Will Fox had a nice run in the first heat finishing 10th in 8:53.06.
Day 2 continued with the same success as Day 1 with St Abban’s once again on the podium on numerous occasions.
However, it was Cheryl Nolan who was the star of the day taking her first ever senior track title winning the Women’s 3000m in a time on 9:22.33.
Cheryl paced her race to perfection, tucking in just behind Olympian Michelle Finn and she pounced with 60 metres to go, just taking the victory on the line, much to the delight of the large crowd gathered.
After a difficult year with illness and injury last year this will give Cheryl great confidence ahead of the upcoming track season.
In the Long Jump Ruby Millet finished 2nd jumping 6.28m. Remarkably, both Ruby and the DSD athlete Elizabeth NDudi jumped the same distance, with the DSD athlete taking the victory on her next best jump of 6.25m, meaning Ruby had to settle for silver.
Maisy O’Sullivan rounded out the St Abbans athletes in action when she finished 5th in a tactical 1500m final.
