Irvinestown’s Conall Mahon and Enniskillen’s Ciaran Dolan both secured medals at the GloHealth National Track and Field Championships in Morton Stadium last weekend. On Saturday, Mahon capped a great year by clinching the bronze medal in the Triple Jump while Dolan went one better when he won silver in the Men’s Long Jump, both athletes netting their first medals at national outdoor level. Mahon’s jump of 14.47m, his second best in his career, came with his second last jump and put him into second spot but with the last jump of the competition he was eclipsed by Eoin Kelly who leapt 14.67 to take silver, leaving Mahon with bronze.

“To produce my second best jump ever on the big occasion was very pleasing. Both my final two jumps were in the 14.40s so that shows I’m getting a bit more consistent, something I have improved a lot this year, and I think that consistency has shown in my results and in the championships this year,” said a delighted Mahon.

The Triple Jumper, who represents Tir Conaill AC, also states that this year’s championship was a strong competition.

“The standard was very high, one of the highest I’ve competed in. You just have to look at last year’s championship were 13.80m would have got you a medal but this year my jump of 14.47 was the bronze medal.” With the season now drawing to a close, Mahon says that he will sit down with his coach and discuss what happens next.

“We’ll sit down and talk things through and we’ll decide whether I compete any more this season. I might do another couple of competitions and then take a break for a couple of weeks. After that it will be straight back into training,” he commented.

A day later it was the turn of Mahon’s former St. Michael’s teammate Ciaran Dolan to take to the track. Enniskillen man Dolan admits that he had been hampered with injuries in the lead up to the championships so to have medalled came as something of a surprise.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” he said. “I had been going well but then I hurt my ankle two weeks before the championships and I had a wee achilles niggle last week so I hadn’t done much at all. It is a learning curve though for me and I found the rest in the lead up did me good as I had been training quite hard.” Dolan produced a consistent set of jumps on the day, four of his five efforts stetching over 7m, his second jump of 7.28m the one that landed him the silver.

“I was pleased with the jump, it was a wind assisted PB and I’m just delighted to have got the medal which is my first at National Senior level.” On his plans for the remainder of the season, Ciaran added: “I have a competition in Belfast next Thursday night and then I’ll chat to my coach and see what he says and take it from there.”