National bronze medal for Alisha in indoor championships
The juvenile indoor season concluded with the All-Ireland finals held last weekend at TUS, Athlone. Six juvenile track and field athletes from Tullamore Harriers qualified from the provincial finals, with Alisha Maher emerging as a standout performer over the two days, while her clubmates also delivered exceptional performances in a highly competitive environment.
In the U18 60m sprint on Saturday, four Harriers girls lined up over three heats. Alisha and Katie Deverell secured spots in the final with Alisha winning her heat in 7.89 seconds and Katie 2nd in her heat (7.97).
Lucy Champ also performed well, matching her personal best of 8.13 but narrowly missed out on the final by 0.08 seconds. Teagan was unfortunate not to qualify for the final having drawn the toughest heat. She had a very good run nevertheless and was just 0.05 seconds off her PB.
The final was destined to be very tight, based on the heat finishing times and a fast start was paramount. Alisha claimed third place and a bronze medal in 7.83, while Katie finished 6th in 7.97. The challenge of competing in the long jump just prior may have impacted Katie's performance.
Three of the girls also participated in the long jump events, with Eimear Cotter and Katie in the U18s and Lucy Deverell competing in the U16s. Lucy, a debutant at All-Ireland level, finished in 14th place and gained valuable experience.
Eimear Cotter and Katie demonstrated their experience in national competitions, with both having competed at this level for the past three years. The girls both made it to the final eight after their first three jumps with Eimear jumping a 508cms best, placing 4th, and Katie a 504cms best, placing 5th.
However, as the competition progressed, the girls were unable to improve on their earlier jumps and finished 5th and 6th overall. Katie was unfortunate to have her 60m heat clash with the long jump and as a result had to forfeit her last three jumps.
On Sunday, the U18 girls 200m final qualifiers were the winners of each heat and the fastest 2nd spot making for a very competitive event. Alisha won her heat in 26.26 and Lucy Champ was 2nd in her heat in 26.23 and Teagan was 5th in her heat in 27.91.
In the final some hours later, Alisha was landed with the most challenging lane 1 – making the bends very tight to sprint hard. Despite this, she put on a great performance to finish in 6th place overall.
Eimear Cotter lined out for the U18 60m hurdles where she ran a PB of 9.32 to place third and qualify for the final. Eimear got off to a great start in the final, but she had a slight stumble coming off hurdle 2 resulting in disrupting her pace and rhythm. She put in a great effort to recover and finished a commendable 8th overall.