Combined Events Podiums for McConville and O’Neill at Manchester

Over the weekend 9 NI & Ulster Athletes travelled to Manchester to compete in the Home Countries Combined Events International and England Age Group Championships.
Troy McConville (North Down AC) set a number of PBs on his way to a score of 6216 points which took 3rd place in the U20 Men’s competition. The 17 year old Decathlete, took almost a second off his 110m Hurdles PB with 14.96 and added 17cm to his Pole Vault (4.17m) before finishing with 4:40.97 in the 1500m. His 100m time was 11.70 and he threw 10.42m in the Shot Put and 38.05 in the Javelin. His Long Jump was 6.27m and in the High Jump he cleared 1.88m, while throwing 22.87m in the Discus.
 

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UK U13 Pentathlon record holder, Finn O’Neill also rewrote many of his PBs and undertook a number of new events when securing the Silver medal in the U15 Boys Octathlon with a score of 4064 points. As expected the City of Derry athlete dominated the running events with victories in the 400m (54.16) and 1000m (2:51.00) but also was very competitive in the 80m hurdles with (12.23), Javelin (32.54m), 100m (12.37), Pole Vault (2.37m), Discus (24.67m) and High Jump (1.65m).

Laura Frey (Lagan Valley AC) rounded up a remarkable season where she exceeded her pre-2019 Heptathlon PB in all four Heptathlons this year. Laura was 12th in the International Women’s competition with a score of 4428 points. Her times and distances were: 100m Hurdles (15.56); High Jump (1.56m); Shot (9.92m); 200m (26.15); Long Jump (4.78m); Javelin (20.48m) and the 800m (2:17.07).

Also in the Women’s International was North Down AC’s Sarah Connolly, who gained a new Javelin PB of 31.41m. Her times and distances were: 100m Hurdles (14.49); High Jump (1.65m) Shot Put (10.29m); 200m (26.11) and the Long Jump (5.33m), with an overall score of 4195 points.

Ethan Williamson (Lagan Valley AC) took part in the Men’s U20 Decathlon, gaining a new PB in the High Jump of 1.76m and in the 400m with a time of 55.63.

Carmen Runners’ Molly Curran had 3 new PBs in the U17 Heptathlon competition: in the 80m Hurdles she had a time of 12.90 and in her 200m her time was 26.81. She then threw 25.42m in the Javelin while Annalee AC’s Niamh McCorry also had a new Javelin PB of 32.99m.

In the Girls U15 Hexathlon, both Niamh Fenlon (North Down AC) and Veronica O’Neill (City of Derry Spartans) had solid performances and gained great competition experience. Veronica had a PB in the Long Jump of 4.54m and in the High Jump, clearing 1.46m while Niamh had a great run in the 800m, finishing in 2:32.35.

For other impressive results from the NI & Ulster Team, you can find the full results at: https://www.englandathletics.org/athletics-and-running/england-competitions/national-championships/2019-championships-calendar/

Athlete Development Lead, Tom Reynolds said “This weekend has been a great opportunity for many of the developing Combined Event athletes to learn about the demands of the two day competition format and learn some key performance behaviours from some of the more experienced members of the team. As always, there are highs and lows when covering 6 to 10 events and this was a great chance for this promising group to develop the mind-set needed to manage themselves over two intense days and pick themselves up after set-backs.”

For any queries on this article please contact: [email protected]

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