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Cian Crampton (Edenderry AC) has won Ireland’s first ever field event medal at the European U18 Athletics Championships in Banska Bystrica this evening (July 19th). The Edenderry AC athlete threw an Irish U18 record of 60.55m in the discus to seal a brilliant bronze medal to sign off another hugely positive day for the Irish in Slovakia.
Crampton came into today’s discus final in superb form following his season’s best throw of 58.59m in qualifying. Today’s bronze adds to the European Youth Olympics bronze Crampton won last year and sees him join an illustrious list of past Irish medal winners at these championships, including the Paris bound trio of Rhasidat Adeleke (200m gold, 2018), Sophie O’Sullivan (800m silver, 2018), and Sarah Healy (1500m gold & 800m gold, 2018).
The gold and silver discus medals went the way of Jakub Rodziak (POL) 64.21m and Yaroslav Lystopad (UKR) 60.93m.
Ben Sykes (Orangegrove AC) signed off an outstanding championships of his own in the 100m, finishing 7th in the final in a time of 10.75. Sykes enjoyed a remarkable journey to the final, clocking lifetime bests in both the heats (10.71) and semi-final (10.65).
Conor Kelly (Derry Track Club) booked his place in tomorrow’s 400m final with a controlled 47.62 Q which saw him win his semi-final. His time ranked as the seventh fastest of those qualified for tomorrow’s medal decider, but the Derry Track athlete looks capable of going even faster come tomorrow evening.
Molly Daly (Kilkenny City Harriers) and Joe Burke (Templemore AC) safely booked places in their respective 200 meter semi-finals, with Daly picking up an non-auto qualifying place with 24.61q, while Burke ran into one of the auto qualifying places with 21.51Q.
The 800m trio also progressed to tomorrow’s semi-finals. Saoirse Fitzgerald (Lucan Harriers) was third in her heat in 2:10.14, with Pia Langton (Kilkenny City Harries) clocking 2:11.00 Q to also finish third in her heat.
Daire O’Donnell unfortunately didn’t take his place on the start-line of the men’s 800m heats, while teammate Bobby More (Bray Runners) left nothing to chance to safely advance to his 800m semi-final with a 1:52.15 PB.
The hurdlers were on fire during this morning’s heats with both Ethan Dewhirst 52.65 Q (1st in heat 1) and Stuart Tobin 53.89 q (4th in heat 2) easily securing passage through to tomorrow’s semi-final.
Enya Silkena (Ratoath AC) ended her busy two-day schedule to finish 11th overall in the women’s heptathlon with a new personal best of 5408 points. Silkena’s competition saw her secure lifetime bests in the high jump (1.63m), 200m (25.50), and 100m hurdles (14.58). The Ratoath athlete will be back in action in tomorrow’s javelin competition where she will look to better today’s best throw of 45.96m.
15-year-old Conor Penney (Craughwell AC) looked one of the calmest athletes in the stadium today, booking his place in Sunday’s high jump final with minimum of fuss on his way to clearing 2.05m.
There was also more valuable championship experience gained by a host of up-and-coming stars including Matei Ursachi who was 13th in heat 1 of 2000m SC, Maria Zakharenko who placed 7th in semi-final of 400m, Orlaith Mannion who finished 7th in semi-final of 100mH, and Savanagh O’Callaghan who was 16th overall in the 5000m race walk.
Day three promises to be another exciting day for the Irish in Slovakia with several athletes taking to European final action including; Thomas Williams (hammer), Clodagh Gill (3000m), Conor Kelly (400m), Tara O’Connor (high jump), and Siun Quinn (high jump).
Schedule & Live Results can be found HERE
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