Thomas Williams, Conor Kelly, and Joe Burke delievered Ireland's second, third, and fourth medals of the week at the European U18 Athletics Championships in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia on Saturday.
Williams came into the championships with the pressure of being one of the likely contenders in the men's hammer competition. He showed experience beyond his years to throw a huge 73.95m best to claim a superb gold.
It's Ireland’s second throws medal of the week following Cian Crampton’s bronze in Friday's discus final.
The Edenderry AC athlete (below) threw an Irish U18 record of 60.55m.
Four of the Shercock athlete’s six throws were over 70 metres.
Speaking afterwards, Williams said: "It’s amazing, I’m so happy. I was a bit nervous with the first throw but once it stayed in the sector I settled. The gold was all that mattered, and the Irish crowd were phenomenal."
Kelly picked up Ireland’s second medal of the day, storming to a brilliant bronze in the 400m in an Irish U18 record time of 46.97.
"I’m gutted," he admitted. "I came out here for gold, but it didn’t happen today. It’s nice to go sub-47, but I’ve been looking at that gold all winter. It’s a great result to get a European medal but the plan was to get a little bit more."
Burke secured a brilliant bronze medal from lane eight in the men’s 200m final, having booked his place in the medal decider thanks to a brilliant 21.43 from lane eight in the earlier semi-finals. The Templemore AC athlete crossed in a time of 21.31 to break the Irish U18 200m record.
There was also success in the jumps with Ireland finishing with two athletes inside the top ten placings. Tara O'Connor signed off her appearance in the final with a best clearance of 1.78m for joint sixth, while Siún Quinn finished joint ninth thanks her best clearance of 1.74m.
Saoirse Fitzgerald and Pia Langton booked their places in tomorrow’s 800m final in impressive fashion, while fellow 800m runner Bobby More was not to be outdone as he too booked his place in the men’s 800m final with a personal best performance of 1:51.92PB.
The medley relay team of Elena O'Sullivan, Katie Doherty, Erin Friel, and Maria Zakharenko were unlucky not to progress from their heat but did walk away with a new Irish U18 record of 2:11.24.
Molly Daly was seventh in the semi-final of the 200m in 24.81, while Clodagh Gill (Moy Valley AC) battled the hot conditions to finish 15th in the 3,000m final in 10:00.83.
Ethan Dewhirst left it all out on the track to finish fourth in the first of the 400m hurdles semi-finals (52.70), while teammate Stuart Tobin also bowed out of the 400m hurdles competition at the semi-final stage with 56.58.
Decathlete Eoin O’Callaghan (Bandon AC) enjoyed a superb opening day, setting personal bests in the 100m (11.74), long jump (6.66m), shot put (13.83), and 400m (50.23) on his way to placing 17th after the first day of events.
