Fermanagh athletes – and in particular, St. Michael’s – had a superb day at the Ulster Schools’ finals at Antrim Forum on Saturday, reaching well into double figures for medals.

Highlights included triple gold for Jack O’Connor of St Michael’s – who set an Ulster schools record in the minor 100m – and golds for Sean Corry, St. Michael’s, over 800m; Annabele Morrison, ERGS, in the Intermediate girls 3000m; for Oliver Polak, of Devenish College, in the junior discus, and a crowning gold for the St. Michael’s Minor relay team, which secured the overall team trophy for the Enniskillen school.

The first medals of a long and successful day – many of the sprinters were in Antrim for 10 hours – came with double gold in a few minutes from Jack O’Connor in the Minor long jump, where he dominated with a best leap of 5.40m, and Sean Corry in the Junior 800m with a personal best and school record, of 2.07.

Both were presented with their medals by Olympic legend Mary Peters, looking as fresh as she did in Munich.

There was also a fine silver medal in the Minor 800m for Harry McKenzie, ERGS, in a big personal best, and the Enniskillen Running Club athlete has had a fine year so far.

The middle distance events have always been a fertile ground for St. Michael’s and, after an All Ireland-winning cross-country season, it was no surprise to see Daithi Mohan and Tiarnan McManus on the podium together, having taken silver and bronze in the Junior 1500m, both in personal bests.

Frank Buchanan was disappointed with his 3000m bronze on Friday night and upgraded that to a silver in the 1500m on Saturday afternoon – two Ulster medals in his first year in the Intermediate age group.

The performance of the night session from a Fermanagh viewpoint was the dominant victory for Annabele Morrison in the Intermediate 3000m in a massive personal best, the Eamon Monaghan-coached athlete adding a bronze over 1500m on Saturday afternoon.

There was also a good silver for the ERGS 4 x 400m boys team behind a dominant St. Colman’s quartet.

St. Michael’s has a great history of jumps success, and as well as Jack O’Connor, Year 8 student Kasper Ferens produced a huge personal best of 4.38m to take silver in the mini long jump.

Kasper’s day was far from done as he later anchored the Year 8 relay team to a fine bronze in a huge school record, his teammates being Conor Rooney, Wiktor Wojthowski and Nathan Coyle.

Jack O’Connor had been making local athletics experts look up since he first pulled on a pair of spikes a few weeks ago, and he added to his growing reputation with an Ulster Schools’ record in taking 100m gold, although his time was actually outside his personal best by a significant margin, thanks to the stiff headwind.

Not content with two golds, Jack was also to anchor his relay team to gold, having been well set up by Luchra McBrien, Ryan Hegarty and Oisin McGuinness.

A fine contest

The sole throws medal to come home to Fermanagh was a gold in the Junior discus for Oliver Polak, who edged a fine contest with Zack Archer of BRA with his gold medal-winning throw of 31.70m.

Unluckiest team of the day were St. Michael’s Junior relay quartet of Lorcan Fitzpatrick, Oisin Travers, Tom McMahon and James Kelly, who were denied bronze by an inch with top-six finishes too for Oisin Cassidy (St. Michael’s) in the Senior 800m; Lewis Crozier (Devenish College) in the Junior High Jump; Annabelle McKenzie (ERGS) in the Mini 800m; Kelly Burford (Devenish College) in the Junior discus and Wiktor Wojthowski (St. Michael’s) in the Mini 100m.

All medal winners other than the Year 8s can look forward to Tullamore and the All Ireland finals in two weeks.