Athletics success for CHS students

This event attracts the top 15 athletes from across the province in each event who have qualified through their District finals. They compete in events across five different age groups for both boys and girls. The weather was perfect and competition was fierce. Grace Carson competed in the senior girls 3000 metres on Friday night and she once again demonstrated that she is now the top middle distance runner in the province in her age group. Grace dominated the race from start to finish and was delighted with her gold medal. Her time was 10 mins 35.4 secs. Grace returned to the track less than 24 hours later to run in the senior girls 1500 metres. She stayed with the lead group until the last 150 metres but still managed to hang on for a very pleasing second place (4 mins 55.5). Winning two medals in quick succession is no mean feat and Grace will now go on to compete in the Irish Schools Championships at Tullamore on June 2. Andrew Shaw also competed on Friday night and he ran well to finish 9 th in the inter boys 3000 metres (10 mins 20.7). The rest of the CHS athletes competed on Saturday. Lucy McClenaghan is new to athletics and she leaped her way to a fantastic silver medal in the mini girls’ long jump with a jump of 4.36 metres. This was an excellent achievement in her first year of competition. Joseph Davidson finished ninth in mini boys’ high jump (1.25 metres), Elisha Hunter finished fifth in junior girl’s javelin (22.43 metres) and Jamie Donnell finished ninth in minor boys shot putt (9.60 metres) – all very commendable performances against the top athletes in Ulster. Nicholas Griggs was unfortunately unable to run in the minor boys 800 metres due to injury. Well done to all athletes who took part.