Championship Preview The GloHealth Combined Event Championships takes place this Saturday, 17th of January in AIT International Arena, Athlone. Many of Ireland’s top multi-event athletes will take to the boards in Athlone with competition on offer for juvenile, youth, junior, senior and master athletes. All categories will complete a Pentathlon (60m hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Shot Putt & 800m) except for the 50+ category who will contest the Quadrathlon (60m hurdles, Long Jump, Shot Putt & 800m).
Senior
Reigning champion Michael Bowler (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) is back to defend his title having scored an impressive victory last year accumulating 3,528 points. With two of his main rivals Kourosh Foroughi (Star of the Sea AC) and Shane Aston (Trim AC) not competing Bowler will start as the favourite to claim the national title. The senior women’s competition is set to be a battle between Roisin Howard (Bandon AC) and Catriona Twomey (Kilkenny City Harriers AC).
Junior/Youth
The junior men’s competition is shaping up to be an exciting contest with athletes of the calibre of Keith Marks (Cushinstown AC), Mark Rogers (St. Peter’s AC), Tim Bowler (Enniscorthy AC), Rolus Olusa (Donore Harriers AC) and Garbhan McKenna (Shercock AC) all likely to be in the mix. Grace McKenzie (Belgooly AC) placed second in the junior women’s event last year will have aspirations of climbing to the top of the podium in 2015.
The standout names in the youth competition are Elizabeth Morland (Cushinstown AC) and Daniel Ryan (Moycarkey Coolcroo AC). Both athletes excelled at the Schools International Combined Event Championships last December scoring impressive victories in the U18 events. Morland dominated the girls’ competition yielding a massive score of 4,045 points while Ryan amassed a total of 3,645 points to win the boy’s event.
Juvenile
At U16 level the girl’s U16 event is likely to be one of the closest of the day with Katherine O’Connor (St Gerards AC), Ciara Deely (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) and Vickie Cusack (Liscarroll AC) all set to battle it out. David Ryan (Moycarkey Coolcroo AC), younger brother to Daniel will stake his claim for the national title in the boy’s U16 event. There are also titles on offer in the U14 and U15 age categories with action getting underway at 10am with the 60m hurdles and long jump.
For Further Information please contact:
Sinéad Galvin (Marketing and Communications Manager) [email protected] 087 9748052
Kenneth Kiernan (Marketing Executive) [email protected] 087 2854616
For more on GloHealth please visit GloHealth.ie
Source – Athletics Ireland
