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Province’s Top Athletes in NI Champs at Antrim
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Anna Boyle in Action |
Northern Ireland’s premier athletes will be competing in this Saturday’s Antrim Borough Council Senior Track and Field Championships at the Antrim Forum (Finals start at 2pm). The Championships are a joint venture between the Ulster Athletic Council and the NI Athletic Federation.
Main interest centres on the Ladies events with some athletes already selected for European Cup competition later this month.
The person probably under most pressure this weekend would by Ballymena’s Irish Indoor sprint record holder Anna Boyle who will take the start line against top international competition in the Bislett Games in Oslo on Friday night. Anna will then make a hectic dash to Antrim the next day hopefully in time to defend her 100 metres title. Last year she recorded the provinces fastest ever (albeit wind assisted) time of 11.30 seconds.
Main opposition will again feature North Down’s Amy Foster who will also be defending her 200 metres title- a race which she is unlikely to lose following her recent impressive victory in the All-Ireland Schools.
In the middle distance events Lisburn’s Kelly Reid may forego doubling up at 800m and 1500m particularly after sustaining a leg strain during her 4 minutes 18 seconds run over the longer distance in Manchester last weekend. Kelly is one of a select band of athletes striving to gain a qualifying time for the World Championships in Osaka in August.
A couple of athletes already selected for the European Cup honours are shot putter Eva Massey and Lagan Valley javelin thrower Laura Kerr. Massey who will represent GB & NI in the European Cup in Finland next week recently shattered Mary Peter’s 40 year old NI record at Loughborough with a throw of 16.60m. She is eager to perform well at Antrim following her enforced withdrawal from the Inter counties. Kerr who took the javelin silver medal in that competition has already been selected to represent Ireland in the Europeans. She will be hoping to match her impressive 48 metres win last year at Upper Malone.
On the Men’s side, athletic enthusiasts will miss the presence of middle distance star James McIlroy who will be racing in Germany following his 1.46.69 run over 800m in Manchester- his fastest in 2 years. The 100 metres promises to be an interesting contest between Jason Smyth- the fastest local runner this year at 10.87secs and Slovakian champion Anton Nouosad who has a PB of 10.59secs.
Beechmount’s Paul McKee drops to the 200m following his 47.17 secs time over 400m in Hengelo 2 weeks ago. He is still however over a second shy of the qualification mark for the World Championships.
Versatile Joe McAlister (St. Malachy’s) switches from his recent marathon exploits to defend his 5000m title.
Finally two current Slovakia high jump champions will be competing. Iveta Srnkova has a PB of 1.85 metres while World Youth finalist Martin Kalafus (2.16m) will give Ballymena’s Gary Coulter and, Campbell’s Jason Harvey an experience to savour.
Provisional Timetable available on the website: www.niathletics.org
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