Junior and U23 Teams Announced

hurdler2009

The European Junior and U23 teams have been announced and I must say they are our strongest teams in years with a huge amount of depth in both of them.
There are 21 named for our junior team:

Team Selection: European Junior Championships Serbia. July 23rd-26th

100m, 200m Niamh Whelan Ferrybank A.C
100m Eilish Fitzpatrick Gneeveguilla A.C
100m Hurdles Sandra Lawlor Celbridge A.C
800m Ciara Everard Kilkenny City Harriers
3000m Charlotte Ffrench O’Carroll Dundrum South Dublin A.C
Shot Putt Claire Fitzgerald Tralee Harriers A.C
Hammer Aoife Hickey Kilkenny City Harriers

4 x 100m
Niamh Whelan Ferrybank A.C
Eilish Fitzpatrick Gneeveguilla A.C
Sandra Lawlor Celbridge A.C
Catherine McManus Celtic DCH A.C
Stephaine Creaner Celtic DCH A.C

100m, 200m Chris Russell Ferrybank A.C
100m Steven Colvert Crusaders A.C
400m Billy Ryan Ferrybank A.C
800m Mark Patterson North Down A.C.
1500m Paul Robinson St. Coca’s A.C
High Jump Kourosh Foroughi Star of the Sea A.C
High Jump Barry Pender St. Abbans A.C
Shot Putt, Discus Colin Quirke Crusaders A.C

4 x 400m
Billy Ryan Ferrybank A.C
Jason Harvey Lagan Valley AC
Fearghus Hannon Tullamore Harriers AC
Eoin Mulhall Naas AC
Mark Patterson North Down A.C



There are 14 named on our U23 team:
Team Selection: European U23 Championships, Lithuania. July 16th-19th

100m Claire Brady Celbridge A.C
100m, 200m Louise Kiernan Fingallians A.C
100m, 200m Amy Foster North Down A.C
800m Laura Crowe Riocht A.C
1,500m Sara Treacy Moynalavey A.C
1500m, 5000m Rose Anne Galligan Newbridge A.C
Long Jump Kelly Proper Ferrybank A.C
Pole Vault Claire Wilkinson Ballymena & Antrim A.C
20k Walk Laura Reynolds Mohill AC

4 X 100m
Claire Brady Celbridge A.C
Kelly Proper Ferrybank A.C
Louise Kiernan Fingallians A.C
Amy Foster North Down A.C

100m Jason Smyth City of Derry A.C
400m Brian Gregan Tallaght A.C
1,500m David McCarty West Waterford A.C
1,500m Rory Chesser Ennis Track A.C
5,000m Brendan O’Neill Dundrum South Dublin A.C

thirtyfoot

Exciting times and this follows on from the big squad sent to World Juniors last year. The pipeline is strong too with many Youth Qualifiers. Great to see. 35 junior and U23 qualifiers.

Thoughts on medal hopes???

I must say I have been really impressed with Rose-Ann Galligan recently. For a middle distance athlete she has amazing body composition (maybe its the compression socks). She looks like a sprinter and was so classy when running 2:07 in the 800 in Tullamore on Sunday, sitting in and moving up a gear once on the last bend. She may have what it takes to run fast when its needed at a champs.

Gregan is playing it down but has to be a contender. I now think he could run low 46 and who knows 45. Proper will always be in with a shout. McCarthy also. What about the juniors?

dna_leri

Great to see 3 relay teams selected too. The experience and confidence these young sprinters will get from a major championship will stand to them.

Interesting that they are putting some overall targets out there too:

Team Manager Sarah Alcorn said that ‘This is a wonderfully talented squad and we are realistically targeting 8 finalists.’

Would like to see more of that, also for medals. Probably a chance or 2-3 in the u-23's, harder to come by in the more competitive juniors.