Report by Siobhan Grant

The McVeigh Clan changed their recent Thursday night routine and swapped watching Daddy at Hill and Dale for the home of Athletics NI at Mary Peters Track for the Firmus Fab Five.

With U11 the youngest category on offer and numbers for the 600m event requiring 2 heats before the overall winners could be decided both Connaire Og and Harry toed the line representing Newcastle Juniors.

The race announcer declared to the spectators that young Harry, who is due to make his Holy Communion at the end of the month, was the youngest competitor in the line up.

Looking across the start line of the U11 race, Harry was head and shoulders smaller than many of the other athletes toeing the line. Yet his confidence soared above those other boys as he left the majority of the field in his dust, just being pipped to the post by hundreths of a second to take second place. Connaire Og showed his determined to not be upstaged to place 5th in his heat. Once the results where collated, it was clear that Harry, at the age of 8, had beaten over 25 competitors, 3 years his senior to take 3rd place overall and Connaire Og secured and impressive 9th place overall.

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, however I have a feeling that these particular apples will grow to be much more spectacular trees, overshadowing the already impressive tree that has grown before them.