On a fine Saturday at Antrim Forum Finn Diver (Yr12) led every step of the way in the Inter Boys 1500m to claim a convincing victory. It was a sweet win for Finn as had also led the first 2900m of the 3000m on Friday evening, before being passed for the gold in the closing stages. He was rewarded for his front running in the 3000m with a personal best and sub 9 min clocking. There were no such troubles in the 1500m as he pulled away on the last lap for a strong win. He has now qualified for the All-Ireland Championships in both events. Finn Diver was presented his gold medal for the 1500m by Gerry Carson, President of Athletics NI and a past pupil of the College.
Ciaran Lopes (Yr10) claimed an excellent, but unexpected triumph in the Junior Boys Long Jump. Having finished 3rd in the Districts a couple of weeks previous, Ciaran added a massive 32 cm to his personal best to jump 5.38m for Gold. This was a fantastic achievement in only his second ever official competition. Ciaran needed every bit of the extra distance with the top 5 in the event only separated by 15cm.
Ben Neal (Yr10) was the next best of the College athletes. He ran a brave race in the Junior Boys 800m, leading through the first lap. The first 2 passed him early on the second lap, but the third placer only caught him with 100m to go and they fought a great battle down the home straight, with Ben losing out on the bronze medal and an All-Ireland berth by a mere 2 tenths of a second.
Jude McGann (Yr11) ran a pair of strong races, against athletes mostly a year older, in the Inter boys 800m and 1500m. In the 800m he equalled his personal best and then only one hour later came back to finish sixth behind Finn in the 1500m in a new personal best time.
On Friday evening Ronan McAree (Yr14) earned his highest finish in a provincial championship in 5th place. After a slow start to the race the top four pulled away and Ronan found himself in a race for 5th. He bided his time and struck on the last lap to finish his last race for the College in style. In the 3000m Eoin McConnell (Yr11) ran a big personal best of 9.50 to finish in the top 10, his first time under 10 minutes for the distance.
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