Thursday 13th April was the first meeting of the Firmus Super 6 Series at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast and there was an encouraging turnout from the Newcastle AC Juniors, with athletes competing in the Minis, U13, U15 & U17 age categories. First event was the Boys Minis 80m sprint and Charlie Easton was the fastest NAC athlete home in 13.18, an impressive 6th place overall, Callum Cope was next in 13.44, good enough for 10th. The placings were reversed in the Long Jump with Callum producing a tremendous leap of 3.04m to win the Long Jump Gold, Charlie was unfortunate not to come back with a bronze, missing out on 3rd place on a countback with 2.93m.
The U13 Boys had 4 NAC competitors in the 100m, first home in 14th overall was Cormac McAlinden with a time of 15.95, followed by Cathaoir King in 24th place with 16.83 just ahead of Yasin Brannigan with 17.06 and Finlay Easton with 17.10. All four also took part in the Long Jump with Finlay finishing in 11th place with a jump of 3.32, Cathaoir with 3.16, Cormac with 2.40 and Yasin with 2.40. As the night got late only Finlay and Yasin stayed on for the delayed 1500m and both were rewarded with great runs, Finlay with a time of 5.51.02 and Yasin with 6.54.75.
In the U13 Girls 100m Aoibheann O’Gorman finished in 20.92 and Orlaith King recorded a time of 16.91 on their track debuts and Orlaith followed that up with a jump of 2.86m in the Long Jump. Ciara Savage also took part in the Long Jump with a leap of 3.05 good enough for 14th place overall. Ciara stayed late for the delayed 1500m and ran a PB of 6.11.77.
The U15 Girls 100m saw Hannah Carson just outside her best with a time of 15.16, followed by Alea Brannigan in 17.11 and Molly-Anne Priestley in 17.60. Hannah then jumped a PB of 1.15 in the High Jump, whilst Alea and Molly-Anne stayed on for the 1500m, running 6.47.24 and 6.48.85 respectively.
Finally in the U17 Boys 100m Jerome Belanger ran an impressive time of 12.72 on his track debut to finish 6th overall. Next meeting in the series is on Thursday 27th April and we hope to see everyone back again and a few new faces as well.