St. Leo's Girls Shine in Tullamore

The All-Ireland School’s track and Field Championships took place in the familiar setting of Tullamore over the weekend with both a Friday evening and Saturday programme. On Friday evening there were 3 athletes from the club competing; Zoe Dunne and Faye Brennan in the Minor Girls Long Jump while Lily O’Neill took on the Junior Girls Triple Jump. Both Zoe and Faye put in an outstanding series of jumps which saw Zoe reach a new PB of 4.77m while Faye was just a couple of centimetres back on 4.71m. Unfortunately, both girls finished just outside the medals and had to settle for 4th and 5th respectively. In the Triple Jump, Lily O’ Neill finished with a best of 9.54m which was good enough for 8th place. Fortunes changed on Day 2 with some brilliant performances and medals gathered across the day. It started with Zoe Dunne clinching gold in the Minor Girls 80m Hurdles. Zoe once again set a PB of 11.99s. The race itself was very tight all the way to the line with Zoe diving across the line to take gold. Next up was Lily O’Neill who was 3rd in the Junior Girls 100m in a PB running 12.88s. Lily also had to fight all the way to the line to take a podium position. The day was capped off by the St Leo's College Minor Girls 4x100m relay team, consisting of club members Sophie Dowling, Faye Brennan, Zoe Dunne and Ava Broderick (SLOT) who took gold in a new Championship Record of 51.26s. Sophie got out of the blocks strongly and a blistering back straight by Faye set Zoe up for a strong 2nd bend. A tidy changeover between Zoe and Ava allowed Ava storm home and seal victory for the girls. Additionally, St Leo’s were crowned best overall Minor Girls School across the Championships, aided greatly by the fantastic efforts of each of these young athletes. Aaliyah Troy was also in action on day 2 where her clearance of 1.40m saw her finish in 10th place in the Intermediate Girls High Jump. Well done to all of our athletes who represented their schools across regions, province and at National level. Hopefully this will give them great experience when the club season kicks off in the coming weeks.