Medal hopes aplenty for Donegal athletes at National Senior Indoors

The absence of Mark English from this weekend's National Senior Indoor Championships might represent a disappointment for athletics fans, but Donegal has no shortage of medal hopes across the two days at the National Indoor Area.

Finn Valley AC's 800m star, English has elected to skip both the National Senior Indoors and the World Indoors next month in order to focus on his attempts to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games

English has started 2024 encouragingly, his lot including a new Irish indoor 600m record, set in Boston two weeks ago.

Without English, where then for podium hopes?

Sommer Lecky, the Finn Valley AC woman who is a former World U20 silver and Commonwealth Youth gold medalist, has had a consistent start to 2024 and is a good place to start.

Lecky did not compete at last year’s National Indoors, but was the outdoor gold medal winner in the summer.

There are some potentially big obstacles for the Castlederg woman, coached by Niall Wilkinson.

Daena Kealy , Ciara Kennelly, Tara O’Connor, Sium Quinn, Aoife O’Sullivan and Anna McCauley have all cleared 1.75m or better this indoor season so far.

Three-time Olympian Brendan Boyce has entered the 5000m walk.

The Finn Valley AC man is a regular at the nationals and, though he favours the long distances, is adjusting to life over shorter races.

Boyce was the 5000m walk gold winner in 2016 and his PB over the distance is 19:39.11.

Eimear McCarroll of Finn Valley AC and Finn O’Neill of Lifford-Strabane AC have recently accepted scholarships in the United States and will tackle senior competition this weekend.

Last month, O’Neill smashed a 20-year-old Championship record to take gold in the All-Ireland Indoor Combined Events Championships at Abbotstown, registering 4,908 points to break the 4,602 tally set by Brendan Callinan in 2004.

O’Neill is readying himself for a place at University of Texas at San Antonio in the autumn and competes in the pole vault McPhillips.

McCarroll will take to the line in the 1500m and is also preparing to go across the Atlantic later this year, having been snapped up by Bradley University, where she will compete for the Bradley University Braves, who are in Division 1 of the NCAA.

McCarroll’s brother Ciaran is listed for the 400m, Oisin Thompson will give the long jump a rattle and Sinead McConnell will use the National Senior Indoors as part of her schedule leading into the European Masters.

Tir Chonaill AC’s Conall Mahon was the 2023 triple jump silver medallist in these Championships. Mahon’s PB of 14.70 was recorded in Athlone last January and the Belleek native will take to the board this time.

Lagan Valley’s Jai Benson is back again to defend his crown.

Tir Chonaill AC’s Geraldine Stewart goes in the shot put, some 22 years after the first of her three gold medal wins in the event.

Fintan Dewhirst, the 2022 European U18 400m hurdles silver medalist, is in the 200m and brother Ethan will go under starter’s orders in the 400m.

Lauren Callaghan defended her Irish Universities long jump crown on Saturday and the Finn Valley AC woman will aim to get back on the senior podium in Dublin this week. Callaghan took bronze last year with a 6.07m leap.

Bridget McDyer was a place off a medal last time out, finishing fourth and just 0.06m from a weight for distance nugget and the Finn Valley AC woman is among those vying for a prize once more, as are Finn Valley sprinters Janine Boyle (200m and 60m) and Arlene Crossan (400m).

Letterkenny AC youngsters Eoin Kelly (400m) and Sheldon Nyoni (long jump) and Sophie Parlour of Olympian YAC (200m and 60m) step into the senior arena in the capital while the 800m will include Cranford AC's Oisin Kelly and Oisin Toye of Finn Valley.

Rosses AC’s Fodhla Nic Phaidin has entered the triple and long jumps with Leah McGarvey also among the long jump participants.