It was a sell out at the National Indoor Arena in Abbottstown for the National Senior Track and Field Championships which were held over the weekend.
From a St Abban’s perspective, the weekend once again belonged to Saragh Buggy who claimed her ninth consecutive National Senior Indoor Triple Jump Title.
It took a Season’s Best and National Lead of 12.85m to land her latest national title.
Her victory at the weekend adds to her previous 21 national titles making it 22 national titles for Saragh.
In the competition, Saragh registered five jumps but didn’t completely seal victory until her 5th jump.
She opened with a mark of 12.44, increased this to 12.47 on her second round, before increasing it again in Round 3 with a mark of 12.55m.
Round 4 saw a 12.20m jump before a huge leap in Round 5 of 12.85 to take the gold medal.
On what was already a fantastic day for the club, it was made even more special when her coach Eoin Kelly was presenting the Triple Jump medals, a previous winner of the Men’s event himself.
Saragh’s brother Eoghan was in action in the 400m where he finished just outside the qualifying placings running 50.37.
John Delaney also missed out on qualification for the final when he placed 6th in the semi-final in 51.07.
Ger Kelly was also in action in the Men’s Weight For Distance where his best of 5.42m was good enough for 6th place.
Maisy O’ Sullivan also safely navigated her way through to Sunday’s final of the Women’s 800m when she finished in 2nd place in heat 2.
On Day 2 of the Championships St Abban’s had a host of athletes in action but unfortunately they just missed out on podium positions.
Maisy O’ Sullivan came closest, when she finished in 4th place in the Women’s 800m. Maisy was positioned well throughout but was overtaken on the final lap. Maisy’s time of 2:10 was just seconds outside the medals.
Ger Kelly was back in action in the Men’s Shot Putt where his throw of 9.86m saw him finish in 7th place.
Grace Fitzgerald was in action in the Women’s Long Jump where her best of 5.35m also saw her finish in 7th place. Amazingly just 1cm separated the athletes from 4th place back to 7th showing the fine margins involved in the Long Jump pit.
Elsewhere, Oughaval AC were represented in the Men’s 400 metres by Canice Whearty.
He qualified out of the heat but was eliminated in the semi final stage of the competition with a time of 52.24.
Whearty also competed in the 400 metres but failed to advance from the semi finals.
In the Men’s 200 metres, Portlaoise AC had Reuben Plunkett who recorded a time of 23.39 but that was not enough to get out of the heat.
