Irish Life Health Insurance Combined Event schools’ championships, Athlone 12/11/2016 – Report by Frank Stam
Congratulations to Diarmuid O’Connor who qualified for the Schools International Combined Events competition against England, Wales and Scotland on 10 December in Athlone IT International Arena. Diarmuid had a dream competition in the Junior Boys category in which he broke all his personal bests. It was a very close competition and before the final 800m, Diarmuid was coming 5th, but with a great win in the 800m (and new U15 Club Record) he managed to move up to 2nd place overall with only 19 points separating athletes 2 to 5. In 2007 Sipke O’Shaugnessy took part in the same competition, and while Diarmuid just missed out on Sipke’s club records in the 60 hurdles, long jump and 200m, he did manage to break Sipke’s pentathlon club record by over 100 points.
In the Intermediate girls Aoibhin O’Connor took part and she also showed a massive improvement from her Munster competition by over 300 points and 4 new PB’s. Unfortunately the field was very strong this year with 6 girls scoring over 3000 points which was too hard to reach. But like Diarmuid she managed to win the 800m and in a time that improved the U17 Club Record by an impressive 19 seconds. She also took Phil Healy’s long jump club record in her stride, but Ciara McKeon’s pentathlon club record just survived.
Well done both athletes, and Diarmuid good luck in your first international!