| First up were the Menapians u12 relay team who were crowned Indoor Leinster Champions smashing the championship record,setting a new time of 58.68 seconds. The team of Sam and Luke O Neill, David Macdonald and Conal Clancy are the current All Ireland 4x100m outdoor champions and also hold the record for that event. Conal ran the first leg and handed over the baton in the lead to Sam, he held the lead and passed on to David, who finally gave it to Luke. They were never headed in this one ,and won with plenty to spare. These four young athletes have being putting in a lot of effort in training over the last 2 years and are now reaping the rewards from the Menapians juvenile training program. Menapians are getting huge numbers at the sportshall athletics every Thursday which is held in the Presentation School Gym.
Shortly after the juvenile relays Menapians up and coming junior sprinters took to the track and Craig Maher impressed immediately with a 4th place finish in the men's long jump with a new best of 6.03. Craig is starting to show great form after a couple of months of hard training. Dave Tobin from Meath who is a training partner of Craig and also coached by Shane McCormack of Menapians won the senior men's long jump with a best of 6.41. Craig was later unfortunate to miss out on qualifying for the junior mens 60m final where he ran a new best of 7.50 aswell. Menapians were represented in the final by Connor Wilson and Aran Meyer who both ran new personal bests also of 7.47 and 7.42 in their heats. Connor just pipped Aran in the final to finish just outside the medals. This is very encouraging signs from the young Mulgannon man who is still only 15 years of age. Both these athletes will be representing Menapians in Scotland in two weeks as part of a Leinster team travelling to the Scottish National Juniors. Aran went on to finish 5th in the junior 200 with another new best of 24.02. Emma O' Gorman was another athlete setting personal bests running 8.31 to also finish just outside the medals in the womens junior 60m sprint. Chris Burke looked to be on course for a very fast 60m also in the junior heats but pulled up as a precaution with a tight hamstring. Congratulations to all these young and talented sprinters who are reaping the rewards for all their hard winter months training. Barry Upton took 3rd spot in the 400m after winning the tussle on the first lap to take first spot going into the last bend he just got pipped in last 50m for the top spot. All these athletes will be in action next week in Belast at the National Senior Indoors where they will be joined by David Hynes who will hope to win back his indoor 200m title from 2007.
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