Sommer Lecky leaps to high jump gold at National Seniors

Sommer Lecky retained her national senior high jump title on Saturday.

The Finn Valley AC woman won the fourth senior outdoor crown of her career in testing conditions at Morton Stadium.

Lecky took gold with a best leap of 1.76m.

The former Commonwealth Youth gold and World U20 silver medal winner soared over to 1.73m.

Lecky arched over 1.76m on her third attempt. While her nearest challenger, Tara O'Connor from Dundalk St Gerard's AC, cleared 1.73m she was unable to go over at 1.76m.

Lecky gave 1.80m a go, but the unseasonal conditions hardly helped the endeavours of the Castlederg native, who is coming back from an injury sustained in the national indoors, where she won silver.

Lecky's fellow Finn Valley AC athletes James Kelly and Joseph Gillespie left day one of the 123.ie National Seniors with silver medals.

Kelly won shot put silver, the St Johnston man throwing out to 16.67m. Eric Favors retained his title with an 18.85m effort.

Gillespie won his first national senior medal in the triple jump. Gillespie hopped, skipped and jumped his way out to 13.94m, his best effort bettered only by Lagan Valley man Jai Benson, whose feet touched the sand at 14.34m.

Mark English, already qualified for the Olympic Games and having lowered the Irish record twice in the last month, breezed his way into Sunday's 800m final.

The Finn Valley AC maestro clocked a seemingly-effortless 1:51.90 to win his heat and will bid for an 18^th national senior crown on Sunday.

Kelly McGrory will line up in Sunday's 400m final.

The Tir Chonaill AC woman, who is hoping to make it to the Olympic Games as part of the women's 4x400m relay squad, opted not to go over the hurdles here in favour of the flat 400m and the Laghey native eased through her heat in 53.96 seconds.

McGrory and the likes of Sophie Becker, Cliodhna Manning and Lauren Cadden can expect to be vying for the podium places over one lap of the Santry track on Sunday.

Arlene Crossan of Finn Valley AC was edged into third in her 400m and a time of 55.53 seconds left her narrowly missing out on a final place.

Letterkenny AC's rising ace Erin Friel also had a neat taste of senior competition. While her 400m heat time of 58.02 seconds wasn't enough for advancement, going up alongside the likes of Cadden and Manning will surely go down as vital experience for the Loreto scholar.

Janine Boyle of Finn Valley AC finished sixth in the women's 200m final. Boyle moved into the final when going 25.02 seconds in her heat.

In the final, won by Phil Healy in 23.42 seconds, Boyle was sixth in 25.01 seconds.

The Dewhirst brothers, Fintan and Ethan, will both be in the men's 400m hurdles final on Sunday.

The Tir Chonaill AC siblings came through their heats on Saturday comfortably with Fintan winning his heat in 52.57 seconds and Ethan second only to Thomas Barr in 54.38 seconds.

In the women's shot put, Tir Chonaill AC's Geraldine Stewart placed sixth with a best throw of 11.22m while Fodhla Nic Phaidin from Rosses AC jumped to 10.76 for eighth in the triple jump.

In the men's 400m heats, Letterkenny AC duo Eoin Kelly (49.73) and Sheldon Romeo Nyoni (51.16) were fourth and sixth respectively and did not advance to the final.

Finn Valley's Eimear McCarroll was sixth in a 1500m heat in 4:34.74 while her club-mate Oisin Toye was sixth in a men's 1500m heat, going 3:58.37.

Joseph Aidoo of Letterkenny AC was third in a 200m heat in 22.58 seconds, but did not go through.

In the men's 800m, Cranford AC's Oisin Kelly (1:54.02) and Finn Valley pair Ciaran McCarroll (1:57.53) and Dermot Brennan (2:01.93) also competed in heats, but did not make it into Sunday's final.