Longford athlete Andrew Fitzpatrick completes triple Gold medal success at National Juvenile Indoor Athletics Championships

Having won two Gold medals the previous weekend on Day 1 of the National Juvenile Indoor Athletics Championships, Longford’s Andrew Fitzpatrick returned to TUS Athlone on Saturday seeking to complete a clean sweep of All-Ireland titles.

With top spot on the podium already achieved in the Under-13 60m Hurdles and Shot Put, it was the turn of the High Jump on Saturday afternoon for the very talented Andrew. 

Once again, the Gold medal was achieved with a winning height of 1.52m ensuring the success. This completed back-to-back indoor high jump titles for the Melview National School pupil with Andrew having won the U-12 competition last year.

Barely five minutes after his final jump, Andrew joined teammates El’nathan Okoh, Paul Aigbogun and Adam Mulleady for the final of the U14 4 x 200m relay. 

El’nathan ran an exceptionally quick first leg before handing the baton over to Andrew who, despite having no proper warm up, kept Longford firmly in medal contention with a strong run. 

Paul and Adam also raced fast 200m legs and, in a high-quality age group, the quartet would go on to place fourth less than a second off a bronze medal. 

This superb collective effort saw the team clock a personal best time of 1:48.59 and they really mixed it with three of Ireland’s leading juvenile track clubs of Ratoath, Metro St. Brigids and Galway City Harriers. 

The earlier heat to qualify for the final had seen Alvin Prempeh Wiafe deputise for Andrew, due to the high jump competition ongoing, with Alvin running strongly in his first appearance in the Longford singlet.

It concluded a very successful National championships for local athletes. As well as Andrew Fitzpatrick’s trio of titles, Longford Athletics Club race walkers Robin Óg Murphy and Conor Brennan both claimed Gold medals on the opening weekend following strong performances. 

John Fitzpatrick won two medals with silver in the High Jump and bronze in the 60m Hurdles. El’nathan Okoh added to the Longford AC medal haul last weekend with a bronze medal in the Long Jump.

The opening weekend also saw Andrew Nolan, of Lough Ree AC, win the U-14 Shot Put (2.72kg) with a very impressive display throwing a longest effort of 14.36m to ensure the gold medal success.