Sparta pair secure national titles

National Juvenile Indoor championship medals for City of Derry Spartans duo, Naomi Morgan and Martin McGeady were the local highlights from the Athlone Arena over the weekend.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Mar 2014, 16:03 BST
Niamh Watson, City of Derry AC Spartans, during the Girls U17 High Jump final, at the Woodies DIY Juvenile Indoor Track and Field Championships. Athlone Institute of Technology International Arena, Athlone. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILENiamh Watson, City of Derry AC Spartans, during the Girls U17 High Jump final, at the Woodies DIY Juvenile Indoor Track and Field Championships. Athlone Institute of Technology International Arena, Athlone. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE
Niamh Watson, City of Derry AC Spartans, during the Girls U17 High Jump final, at the Woodies DIY Juvenile Indoor Track and Field Championships. Athlone Institute of Technology International Arena, Athlone. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE

Naomi claimed Under-19 Long Jump gold and 60m Hurdles silver as Martin sped to U19 400m bronze.

Meanwhile Marina Campbell ran 88 minutes and 04 second for a fourth place finish in Saturday’s Larne Half Marathon, Stephen Connor and Kieron Hurley made the top six at the final Finn Valley 5K series race on Sunday while Declan Reed, Scott Rankin and Amy Jackson helped their respective Northern Ireland squads to sixth place finishes at the Home Countries Cross Country in Woolaton Park, Nottingham on Saturday.

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Naomi Morgan confirmed her position among the best Juvenile talents in the country with a terrific double podium performance in Athlone as she battled Grace McKenzie of Belgooly AC for supremacy in both the U19 Long Jump and 60m Hurdles finals. Battled was indeed the operative word as both events were desperately close. Both jumped 5m 30cm in the Long Jump with the Belgooly athlete taking the gold on countback and the bronze medallist, in fact, was also too close for comfort with her 5m 29cm leap.

The 60m Hurdles final again paired the duo and both were locked together at the line, sharing the 9.34 seconds clocking but the photo finish camera gave the gold to the Spartan. A terrific weekend for Naomi as she added to her national medals haul and also to her growing reputation.

Martin McGeady too was involved in a tight finish in his U19 400 final, his excellent 50.17 seconds clocking good enough for bronze, just ahead of the fourth placer’s 50.19 seconds.

The impressive winner of this race from the Ferrybank club set a new championship best of 48.96 seconds to take gold, but this was a good early season performance from the local boy.

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Fintan Stewart in the U16 1,500m final ran 4 minutes and 25.62 seconds only to miss a medal by 0.30s, inches in fact, but he will learn from his Athlone experience and will be worth watching outdoors over the summer.