Smyth’s semi-final heat tomorrow morning

THE big news from the weekend athletics action undoubtedly was Jason Smyth’s brilliant performance in Lyon on Sunday.
Team Irelands Jason Smyth, on his way to winning the Mens 200m  T13 final in a time of 21.05. 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, Stadium Parilly, Lyon, France.Team Irelands Jason Smyth, on his way to winning the Mens 200m  T13 final in a time of 21.05. 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, Stadium Parilly, Lyon, France.
Team Irelands Jason Smyth, on his way to winning the Mens 200m  T13 final in a time of 21.05. 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, Stadium Parilly, Lyon, France.

The Eglinton flyer regained his Paralympics World championship 200m title with an emphatic 20.05 seconds victory, equalling his own world record in the process.

Looking like he eased up in the final metres, the Spartan was majestic and heads for the 100m heats tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, as hot favourite to complete the sprint double.

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Incidentially his 100 metres semi-final starts at 10.50am, with the final taking place on Thursday evening at 6.05pm.

As track and field dominated the weekend action there were other significant, successful local performances, at the Aviva Schools International on Saturday in Dublin, and in Tullamore on both weekend days at the National Juvenile championships.

In Tullamore, Amy Jackson was a comfortable winner of the Girls U19 individual 1500m title on Sunday on the back of a valuable contribution to the winning Spartans U19 400m Relay squad the previous day; the Inter county 100m sprint Relay in the same age group also went to a Spartans quartet; Claire Dougherty took the U19 Triple jump gold; Naomi Morgan the U18 long Jump silver and Jack McCloskey was a close up third in the Boys U18 200m.

Michael McGeady meantime was in the Irish vest in Dublin on Saturday at the Aviva Schools International and clocked an impressive 50.70 seconds for fourth place in the 400m, an excellent performance against top class opposition.

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Amy Jackson had a busy weekend, she was an integral part of a classy City of Derry Spartans U19 relay squad on Saturday as the red vests cleaned the opposition in the 400m relay, clocking an impressive 4 minutes and 01.31 seconds to win by more than the length of the home straight.

With big runs from Emma McCay, Tamara Boyle and Jenny O’Brien the local quartet were a class apart and were deserving gold medallists. She had a five second winning margin in Sunday’s 1500m championship, clocking 4 minutes and 58.01 seconds.

After sitting in for most the race she sprinted clear in the closing stages for a morale boosting National title and looks like a genuine prospect for the future.

The equally busy Tamara Boyle and Jenny O’Brien linked up with Naomi Morgan and Ciara Armstrong to take the Inter County sprint relay gold with a swift 49.72 seconds, well clear of Galway and Louth.

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Naomi Morgan went so close to another gold on Sunday in the U18 Long Jump, her 5 metres and 26cms leap only a single centimetre off the winning 5 metres and 27cms jumper.

Claire Dougherty got out to 10 metres and 85cms for the U19 Triple jump gold, another consistent performance from the Spartan and in fourth place was the improving Fiona Mallett with 9 metres and 65cms. Jack McCloskey ran 23.12 seconds for U18 200m bronze.