The 2020 Irish Universities Indoor Track & Field Championships took place on Saturday 15th February at Athlone Institute of Technology’s world class venue, where the team of 25 from Ulster University would take on the best-student athletes from all over Ireland.

At the start of the day, in the sprint events – Scholar and 400m hurdler Niamh Malone raced over the 400m flat and after battling though a competitive heat in 4th place (58.61) to make the final, unfortunately had to withdraw due to illness. Our 3 male athletes were spread across the 400m heats and each recorded a personal best including Justin Bloomer (54.24), Adam McClean (59.77) and Ajith Joy (61.84).

New Scholar Michael McAuley won his 200m heat easily (22.63) but unfortunately missed out on the final as only the top 6 fastest times advanced. Matt Flynn, in his first IUAA outing finished his heat in 3rd (24.40). Scholar Janine Boyle returned after missing last year’s Championships through injury to double up and have the busiest day, competing in both the 200m and 60m. After progressing through the heats in 2nd and 1st respectively, she gained valuable points for the team with a 5th place finish in both the 200m (25.51) and 60m (7.68), which should give her confidence leading into the outdoor season.

In the men’s 60m, first year Connor Potts, who has set 3 personal bests since the beginning of the year, continued his great form finishing 3rd in his heat with 7.20. Also, Dean Adams returned after winning this event at the IUAA Indoor Championships 10 years ago, to break Roger Sexton’s 28 year old 💥UU record💥 (6.85) in the heat, progressing with a 6.84 clocking. In the final, Dean pulled ahead of the field to cross the line in a new UU record of 6.73, which takes him to =4th on the Irish All-Time list and 2nd on the NI All-Time list, behind current record holder Leon Reid (6.72).

Anna McIlmoyle in her final year of IUAA competitions finished 5th in the 60m Hurdles with a time of 9.71. She followed this up with a 1.60m performance in the High Jump for 5th place. Elsewhere in the jumping events, Liam Martin, in his first IUAA outing placed 12th in the men’s High Jump with a clearance of 1.50m. In the women’s Long Jump, Emma Hutchinson stepped up as newly elected captain away from her preferred event to place 10th with a PB of 4.77m, and teammate Emily Forte in her first championships finished 11th (4.54m). The Triple Jump featured Liam Martin and Lance Baylon who finished 8th (11.37m) and 9th (10.34m) respectively.

New Scholar and one of Ireland’s best Javelin throwers, Gareth Crawford, proved to be an immense team player by showing his versatility in the men’s Long Jump. In the 4th round, Gareth leapt to a brilliant 6.82m to take the bronze medal and add more important points to the board for UU. Lance Baylon who put in a serious jumping shift having already done the Triple Jump, finished 15th with a best of 5.02m.

In the distance events, Matthew Robinson would also have a busy day, competing in both the 3000m earlier in the day followed by the 1500m finishing 17th (10:19.35) and 20th (4:50.04) respectively. Captain Emma Hutchinson showed her resilience in the 800m despite sustaining an ankle injury, finishing 5th in her heat (2:30.51). Having waited the majority of the day to race, Scholar Eimear Fitzpatrick in the 1500m, crossed the line in 5:02.20 for 9th place.

Our throwers took their place in the WFD (Weight For Distance) event with Lauren Hamilton recording a PB (7.25m) and taking 5th spot. Sarah Woods finished 10th with a distance of 4.50m. Newly elected Captain Conor McLoughlin produced a brilliant series of throws recording 3 new PBs along the way and ending up with 7.30m for 8th – a throw which would have placed 2nd in 2019. Teammate Jack MacNeill threw out to 6.33m to take 14th place. In the Shot Putt, Sarah and Lauren would return with bests of 7.72m (9th) and 7.29m (10th) respectively. Jack MacNeill was joined by new UUAC member Robert Matuezlis in the men’s Shot Putt where Jack produced a distance of 9.72m to claim 10th spot with Robert close behind with 8.93m in 14th.

The event concluded as always with the 4×200m relays. Eimear Fitzpatrick stepped up to replace the unfortunate Niamh Malone and the team of Anna McIlmoyle, Emma Hutchinson, Eimear and Janine Boyle (in her 5th race of the day) finished 5th in 108.59s. Our men’s team of Connor Potts, Gareth Crawford (Athletics Swiss Army Knife), Matt Flynn and Michael McAuley battled hard to finish off with a 7th place and a new 💥UU Record💥 of 93.56 to beat the previous record of 95.11 set in 2018!

Minus some key athletes, the team finished 10th overall at these Championships and the incredible team atmosphere inspired 2 new UU Records. The team are very focused on improving on last year’s results at the IUAA Outdoor Championships on 3rd and 4th April in Santry!

Thanks must go to all of the officials and everyone who is part of the IUAA for making these Championships happen 💙

Special thanks to our Physio – Andrew Creaney who returned this year by popular demand to provide invaluable support to the athletes throughout! Many thanks!👌🏼

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Location

Athlone Institute of Technology