Finn O'Neill shatters 20-year-old Championship record to win U20 pentathlon

Texas-bound Finn O’Neill smashed a 20-year-old Championship record to take gold in the All-Ireland Indoor Combined Events Championships at Abbotstown on Sunday.

The Lifford-Strabane AC man, just days after it was confirmed that he is to take up a scholarship at University of Texas at San Antonio in the autumn, won the Under-20 men’s heptathlon.

In clocking up 4,908 points, O’Neill shattered Brendan Callinan’s 4,602 tally that has stood since 2004.

O’Neill’s scored was just shy of the national record, the 5,101 set by Daniel Ryan in 2018.

O’Neill was on song at the National Indoor Area, winning well from Noah Gilmore, the Kilkenny City Harrier who tallied 4,107 points.

O’Neill won the long jump when going out to 6.35m and got over the bar at 1.78m to win the high jump.

Gilmore edged the 60m sprint with O’Neill second in 7.52 seconds and Gilmore crossing in 7.11 seconds. In the 60m hurdles, O’Neill won in a new personal best time of 8.62 seconds with victory also in the shot put (13.07m), pole vault (4m) and 1,000m (2:46.10).

His marks in the long jump, 60m hurdles, pole vault and his overall heptathlon score were all new personal bests.

In 2022, the County Derry native will go to UTSA later this year.

UTSA Director of Track & Field/Cross Country, Aaron Fox, announced on Thursday announced that the program has signed talented multi-eventer O’Neill.

“He’s a talented and skilled athlete who has only scratched the surface of what he can accomplish in the multis,” Fox said.

In the Under-20 women’s pentathlon, Lifford-Strabane AC’s Ashleigh McArdle was second overall. McArdle amassed 3,403 points - a new PB - and was beaten only by Brynja Brynjarsdottir from City of Lisburn, who scored 3,560 points.

McArdle won over the 60m hurdles (9.08 seconds) and the shot put (11.29m) while her 5.27m leap in the long jump was also a PB. McArdle recorded a 1.56m high jump and a 2:39.97 800m.

In the Under-15 pentathlon Lifford-Strabane AC pair Cabrini Pyne (2,145) and Danielle Doherty (1,829) were 10th and 15th while Rosses AC’s Aileen Logue was 11th in the Under-14 pentathlon, her score of 2,120 including a win in her high jump when clearing 1.48m.