Northern Ireland’s Megan Marrs won silver in the 100m hurdles at the British Championships in a time of 13.37 on Saturday (June 30).

A day later, Leon Reid took bronze in the men’s 200m in 20.31, that followed a fantastic personal best and Northern Ireland record of 20.27 in the heats.

“Happy to have ran a 200m PB in 20.27. Then 20.31 in the final for third again. Two Athletics NI records too,” said the Commonwealth bronze medalist on Twitter afterwards. Reid is part of the ‘Fast 10: class of 2018’ on Fast Running and you can follow his progress this season here.

At the Tribal Games held on a grass track in Galway on Saturday (June 30), Paul Robinson of St Coca’s won the men’s mile in 4:21. He was followed by Ennis TC brothers Rory and Kevin Chesser who finished in 4:22 and 4:34 respectively.

Former Irish 400m hurdles champion Christine McMahon of Ballymena and Antrim won the women’s mile in 5:54.

Thomas Bar was running at the P-T-S meeting in Samorin, Slovakia, on Friday (June 29), where he won the 400m hurdles in a season’s best time of 49.40 secs.

“Finally feeling that all-important rhythm coming back! Very happy it’s tonight’s race in a windy Samorin,” he tweeted after his run.

In La Roche-sur-Yon in France on the same day, Luke Lennon Ford, who runs in Clonliffe colours, finished third in the 400m in a time of 47.21.

Athletes heading for the forthcoming European U18 Championships in Gyo, Hungary and the World U20 Championships in Tampere Finland over the next few days were out in force at Saturday’s Irish National Junior U20 and U23 Championships (June 30) in

In the junior competition, Rhasidat Adeleke of Tallaght had the perfect send-off for Gyor when she won the 100m in 11.83 secs.

Sophie O’Sullivan of Ballymore Cobh, who will compete in the 800m at Gyor, finished second in the U20 800m behind Jo Keane of Ennis Track club and was presented with her medal by no less than Sonia O’Sullivan, who happens to be her mother.

Like mother, like daughter! Sophie O’Sullivan on her way to finishing second in the Junior Women’s 800m at the @irishlifehealth @irishathletics C’ships and with her mum Sonia and silver medal. pic.twitter.com/Q5Y9tJO1Lj

— Sportsfile (@sportsfile) June 30, 2018

Other young athletes heading for Gyor include Ruby Millett of St Abban’s who was a comfortable winner of the U20 long jump and Israel Olatunde of Dundealgan AC winner of the U20 men’s 100m in 10.73 secs.

Miriam Daly of Carrick-on-Suir AC, who will compete in her specialist 400m hurdles as well as the medley relay in Gyor, ran in the heats of the 400m but, like a number of other athletes who will pull on the green vest soon, she opted out of the final.

Another to run only a heat was Aaron Sexton of North Down who will run the 200m and the relay at the World U23 Championships starting in Tampere on Tuesday, July 10. His 21.31 secs in the heats was the fastest of the day.

Winning the 100m hurdles in 13.82 secs was Molly Scott of St LOT who also finished second in the 100m. Scott will run in the 100m hurdles and the relay in Tampere. Also named for the relay squad is Ciara Neville of Emerald AC. She’s elected to run both the 100m and 200m in Tampere and won the U23 200m comfortably in Tullamore. Winning the high jump comfortably at 1.70 was Finn Valley’s Sommer Lecky, another who will compete in Tampere.

Over the longer distances, Darragh McElhinney of Bantry AC, who will run the 5000m in Tampere, showed a welcome returned to form when he won a tactical U20 1500m in Tullamore, sprinting to the line ahead of Leevale’s Charlie O’Donovan.

Darragh McElhinney of Bantry a.c. wins the junior men’s 1500m in a sprint finish at the @irishlifehealth Junior & U23’s in Tullamore today pic.twitter.com/Vr688kH8ua

— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) June 30, 2018

An athlete who is likely to represent Ireland in the future is Efrem Gidey of Clonliffe Harriers, who was the class of the field in the U20 5000m which he won in 14:53.57.

Two busy U23 athletes were Michaela Walsh Swinford AC and Elizabeth Morland of Cushinstown. Walsh improved on her own Irish U23 record in the hammer, throwing 64.57 in the fourth round She also won the shot with 15.06 and was second in both the weight for distance and the javelin with a personal best 41.48m.

Walsh was helping make a small piece of sporting history by competing in the first-ever women’s weight (28 lbs) for distance competition at a national championships.

Multi-eventer Morland beat Walsh to win the javelin with 44.25m. She also won 100m hurdles in 13.70 secs and the long jump with a leap of 6.07m

North Westmeath athletes took three of the four discus titles on offer. Niamh Fogarty took the junior women’s title with 46.57m., while Darragh Gaffney was best of the junior men with 50.40 (1.75kg discus) and Eoin Sheridan took the U23 title with 50.85 (2kg discus). A clear winner of the junior men’s shot (6kg) was James Kelly of Finn Valley with 16.83m.

Meanwhile, Carlow sprinter Marcus Lawler ran a season’s best 20.71 to win the 200m at the Brussels Grand Prix on Saturday (June 30). He also won the 100m in 10.54.

In the elite heat of the 400m, Chris O’Donnell of North Sligo finished fifth in 47.11 secs and Brandon Arrey of Blarney-Inniscarra AC sixth in 47.88. In the B race, Dara Kerwick of Clonliffe Harriers was third in 48.35.

Ger O’Donnell of Carrick-on-Suir ran a time of 13.97 secs for fifth in the 110m hurdles., while in the 400m hurdles, Jason Harvey of Crusaders AC ran 51.84 and Paul Byrne of St Abban’s 51.96.

Sophie Becker of St Joseph’s ran a time of 54.98 for 400m, with Sinead Denny of DSD clocking 54.62 in the elite race. Over 800m, Amy O’Donoghue of Emerald AC ran 2:06.61.

Elsewhere this weekend, Stephen Scullion, Freddy Sittuk, Emma Mitchell and Lizzie Lee all won on the roads, while Irish athletes impressed on the European mountains. A round-up of all the road and mountain action can be found here.

The post NI record for Leon Reid as young athletes star in Tullamore appeared first on Fast Running.

Marrs from Belfast competes in the 60 metres hurdles on Friday (March 2) evening at Arena Birmingham, just a fortnight after claiming the UK title at the same venue in a personal best of 8.16 seconds.

There have been huge strides forward this winter for the Loughborough-based prospect who came through the ranks at Lisburn AC before heading to UK Athletics performance base.

But it’s all been following in the footsteps of her Mum Debbie McDowell who was one of Northern Ireland’s top high jumpers during her illustrious career.

“I found out the other day that the last (Northern Irish) woman to make a British team was my Mum,” Marrs said. “She was the last one to make a European indoor team. She was British champion 30 years ago in 1988 so to carry on and be the next one is quite nice. To be able to carry on in the family tradition is great.

“I was that child in the buggy being wheeled around. I’ve grown up on the track. But my parents never really pushed me into athletics until I chose to do it until the age of 14. They were unbelievably supportive. The whole family is flying over to Birmingham and it’s going to make it a big family event.”

With four automatically making it through to the next-round, Marrs goes in the second of five heats at 6:13pm on Friday.

The 20-year-old lines up in lane six and among those she will face is USA’s Christina Manning, who finished fifth over the longer 100m at the World Championships in London last summer.

She will be one of two Lisburn products making their world indoor entrances with Amy Foster running for Ireland in the 60 metres, fresh from setting a Northern Irish indoor best of 7.27 secs at the recent Irish National Championships.

Marrs plans to use the global stage as a platform for the years ahead after figuring out the changes needed to push herself upwards.

“It’s just been my attitude I think,” she said. “It’s been about turning up for every session – giving it 110 percent – making a lot more sacrifices this year. Last year was the first year at university. I had to get all of that out of my system. This year I’ve really been able to sit down and concentrate.

“This makes me want to work harder. I never considered myself an indoor runner until now. So now if I can be selected for a world indoors, hopefully, I can come out and do that again at the Europeans.”

The semi-finals and final in Birmingham are on Saturday night. The latter is Marrs goal.

But she said: “My main target is to really enjoy the experience and learn. I’ll be surrounded by amazing athletes so if I can watch them and learn, hopefully it will be good for the future.”

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