No joy for Jake in World test as Shane dons green vest

The first weekend of the National Juvenile Athletics championships took place in Tullamore on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th July and as we"ve come to expect, Mullingar athletes featured among the medalists with two silver and two bronze.First into action on Sunday was Ciara Fogarty in the Girls Under 16 Shot Putt. Ciara once again proved herself once again to be one of the top young talents in the country in this technical event and was rewarded with a silver medal. This was the culmination of a very successful season for Ciara and gives her encouragement to progress even further over the coming months and into the indoor season.Mullingar has built quite a reputation in middle distance athletics and Cormac Dalton was keen to show that the future is in safe hands. Despite finding himself boxed in during the first half of the race, Cormac stuck diligently to his task and battled his way through to take a well deserved bronze medal. He was steadily gaining on the two athletes in front but the finish line came just in time to deny Cormac victory. However he can be well satisfied with a great season and look forward to the cross country season with relish!In the Girls Under14 800m Linda Conroy was considered a real medal prospect and didn"t disappoint. She was always in the leading group and took the lead with 200m to go. Despite looking like the likely winner at that point, she had to give way to two opponents and settle for the bronze medal. Linda is already looking forward to the 1500m next Sunday and where she can end a very successful season on a high note.Shane Fitzsimons was pre race favourite in the Boys U15 800m and was always at the forefront of the race. However on this occasion Shane had to settle for second place in the closing stages of a hard fought tactical race. Like Linda, he can now focus on these weekends" 1500m.The real breakthrough of the weekend was the performance of Robert Yorke in the Boys U17 800m. Having comfortably qualified through his heats earlier in the day Robert adopted aggressive tactics in the final and stayed right with the leaders. He went into second place late in the race but was passed by two competitors in the final straight and was fourth in an agonizingly close finish. Robert can be very pleased with his performance secure in the knowledge that his first All Ireland medal is not far away. For an athlete who has returned to the sport less than a year ago, we can expect to hear a lot more about Robert in the future.Also in action in the U13 boys 600m was Oisin Quinn where he ran a brave race but was just outside the medals on this occasion. Ciara Hewson and Lorraine Daly were also in action in the U15 girls and both ran well in a very competitive race. Rachel Yorke was also competing in the Girls U18 800m and will benefit greatly from the experience of reaching an All Ireland final. Liam Reilly comfortably qualified for the U14 800m final and was in the leading group for the first half of the race but unfortunately he was out of the medals.In the 3000m Thomas Fagan and Stephen Nea both raced well and can build on this for the forthcoming cross country season. Philipp Giles raced well in the U15 Boys hurdles on Saturday and narrowly missed out on advancing to the final.Jake Byrne competes at World YouthsCongratulations to Jake Byrne on representing Ireland in the World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy. It was a wonderful experience to race against the best young athletes in the World and Jake gave a good account of himself in his heat and just failed to progress to the final. This was the highlight of a very successful season for Jake and hopefully it will be his first of many appearances at major International championships. Selection for the Irish team for the World Youth championships was a fitting reward for Jake"s dedication to the sport and a measure of his rapid progress over the past two years since returning to the sport. It was a very successful championships from an Irish perspective with Ciara Mageen from Co Down securing a silver medal in the Girls 800m in a new Irish Junior record. Interestingly, the previous holder of this record was Sonia O"Sullivan.Shane Fitzsimons runs for IrelandBest of luck to Shane Fitzsimons, who represents Ireland in the Schools Track and Field International in Antrim on Saturday. Shane will be racing against athletes from England, Scotland and Wales and we know that being the youngest athlete in the race will further motivate him to race to his usual high standard. It is his second time this year to represent Ireland and this, along with the All Ireland 1500m on Sunday, provides him with the opportunity to end a very successful track season in style.Te clubs growing reputation on the road race scene was further enhanced at the Mount Bolus road race where Vinny Connolly and Lorraine Daly were convincing winners of the 5KM races.Martin Lyons also had a fine run in the 10km race and we will have further details of these results at a later date. In the Achill half marathon there were very good runs from Maurice Looby who finished an excellent 6th place and Eddie Newman. Great credit is due to the both as this was an exceptionally tough course.Welcome homeWelcome home to Martin Fagan. It was also great to see Martin back home and provided club members the opportunity to train with Ireland"s leading long distance athlete.We look forward to seeing Martin in action in the National Championships in August.Next weekend is another action packed weekend for club members. We have several athletes in action in the All Ireland Juvenile Championships in Tullamore on Sunday.Further details are available at training on Tuesday and Thursday.