Caoimhe Gallen strikes gold in Birmingham

Caoimhe Gallen won gold at the AAA Championships in Birmingham at the weekend.

The Lifford-Strabane AC athlete won the under-17 hammer while Tir Chonaill AC’s Ethan Dewhirst took bronze in the under-17 400 hurdles at the Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr.

A 50.14m throw earned Gallen gold in the under-17 hammer (3kg).

Gallen was a double gold medallist at the recent National Juvenile Championships, taking both hammer and shot put golds in Tullamore.

Her 50.14m was enough to beat Phoebe Milburn of Great Britain into second. Milburn threw a season’s best 48.61m for silver.

On Saturday, he sister Adrienne won the women’s hammer at the Welsh Under-20 International.

Dewhirst came through his heat in a 58.36-second season’s best, with Cheyne West winning the heat in 56.61.

In the final, Dewhirst clocked 56.31 for bronze as West took gold in 53.80 and a PB of 54.16 giving Rayhan Mourtada the silver.

Dewhirst also completed a fine weekend in the household after his brother Fintan set a new meeting record of 52.16 to win the 400m hurdles in Wales on Saturday.

A 4:07.38 heat saw Caolan McFadden through to the 1500m final in Birmingham where the Cranford AC man finished 12th in 4:19.67.

Letterkenny AC’s Emma Bonar was fourth in her under-17 800m heat, finishing in 2:17.83, but missing out on a final berth.

Eva Logue of Rosses AC went over at 1.43m in the under-15 high jump.

Finn Valley AC member Tom Thompson was the Ireland team lead for the AAA Championships.