IT was a lucrative third day for Irish athletes at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Slovakia. One gold and three bronze medals was the impressive haul for the nation’s budding track and field stars in Banska Bystrica.
Pride of place went to Cavan’s Thomas Williams, who had only scraped through to the hammer final on his third and last throw after his first two failed efforts. But he was a different thrower on Saturday evening, getting out to 73.95m as he claimed Ireland’s first gold of the meeting.
After the hiccups on Friday, the quality of Williams’s throws was exemplary, with four of his six efforts going over 70 metres. Bulgaria’s Dimo Andreev (72.49m) and the Spaniard Magno Llopis (72.48m) filled the minor podium places.
“It’s amazing, I’m so happy,” said the Shercock AC thrower, who is coached by his father.
“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”.
It was Ireland’s second throws medal of the week, following Cian Crampton’s bronze in Friday’s discus final, but that count was rapidly to move on to four, with Conor Kelly and Joe Burke both finishing third in their respective races.
Kelly stormed to a brilliant third place in what possibly was one of the races of the championships, setting a national U18 400m record of 46.97 seconds to become the first Irish athlete in the age group to break 47 seconds.
The gold and silver went to the Pole Stanisław Strzelecki (46.50) and pre-race favourite France’s Milann Klemenic (46.78).
Surprisingly the Derry Track Club athlete was not happy: “I’m gutted, 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”.
Joe Burke was third in the men’s 200m final despite drawing the unfavourable lane eight, although he had also qualified from the semi-final from there.
The Tipperary athlete recorded a time of 21.31 to break the Irish U18 200m record behind Italy’s Diego Nappi, who ran a championships record of 20.81, and Sweden’s Ivano Bevanda (21.17).
There was also relative success in the high jump, with Ireland finishing with two athletes inside the top 10 placings. Dundalk’s Tara O’Connor cleared 1.78m for joint sixth, while Meath’s Siún Quinn finished joint ninth with a best effort of 1.74m.
The medley relay team of Elena O’Sullivan, Katie Doherty, Letterkenny AC’s Erin Friel, and Maria Zakharenko were unlucky not to progress from their heat but did come away with a new Irish U18 record of 2:11.24.
Also eliminated was Donegal’s Ethan Dewhirst, who finished fourth in his 400m hurdles semi-final with a 52.70 second timing, marginally slower than his winning heat time.
Dewhirst’s brother Fintan took a silver medal in the event two years ago in Jerusalem and possibly maintains family bragging rights.
