Gold for Gillespie in Tullamore

Finn Valley AC was celebrating success at the National U23 and U20 Track and Field Championships in Tullamore at the weekend.
Joseph Gillespie leaped for gold in the U23 triple jump. Joseph went out to 13.79m, beating off competition from Limerick athlete Aaron O’Connor, who had a best of 13.35m, with Joseph’s winning attempt coming on his first visit to the board.
Finn Valley AC’s Sally McMenamin took silver in the U23 3000m steeplechase, crossing the line in 12:25.80, while Oisin Kelly of Cranford AC was second in the U23 800 in a time of 1:53.70.
There was silver, too, for Amy Greene in the U23 5000m. Amy clocked 17:10.16 and was beaten only by Heather Murphy, the St Michael’s AC woman winning in 16:59.13.
Finn Valley AC athlete Amy Timoney landed the bronze medal in the 100m hurdles. In the final, Amy crossed the line in 14.68 seconds, having set a new PB of 14.19 seconds in her heat – a time that would have grabbed the gold in the final.
Ciaran McCarroll of Finn Valley AC landed bronze in the U20 800m, finishing in 1:53.13 in a race won by Bray’s Bobby More in a championship best 1:50.49
Katie Louise McMonagle of Finn Valley was the U20 long jump bronze medal winner. She jumped to 5.31m to take a place on the podium.
The senior men’s and women’s 10,000m races were held alongside the U20 and U23 Championships.
Nuala Bose of Finn Valley AC grabbed silver in the women’s race. Nuala took second in 37:43.19 with Patricia Jackman from Waterford winning in 34:41.19.
Paraic McGettigan was fourth in the U20 3000m steeplechase, Stephen Slevin jumped 1.75m to go sixth in the U20 high jump and Dean Leeper was sixth in the U20 javelin.
Finn Valley AC athletes Tara Rose Smith and Leah O’Gara have been selected as part of the Irish squad for the European U18 Championships.  The Championships take place in Italy from July 16-19.
Tara Rose is selected for the 800m and Leah included for the 5000m race walk.
This is a great achievement for the athletes and their coaches and it is fantastic to see two FVAC athletes on the squad.
Arlene Crossan was in action in the 400m hurdles on Saturday in Leuven, Belgium.
Arlene clocked 58.50 seconds to come sixth in the race, won by Caroline Sauer from Germany in 57.53 seconds.
In Bedford on Sunday, Sommer Lecky got over 1.76m to finish fourth in the women’s high jump with British athlete Kate Anson winning with a 1.79m leap.
Finn Valley AC was well represented on Sunday morning at the 2026 Ballyare 10k.
Kieran Carlin led the FVAC charge when going 39:33 for eighth overall in a race won by Charlie ‘Postie’ O’Donnell from Rosses AC.
Kay Byrne was the second woman to finish, clocking 43:50 and coming 18th overall.
John Griffin (56:13), Liam McGinty (56:14), Martin Anderson (56:14), Edel Neely (64:51) and Mary Martin (64:52) were all in action today.