The Cuisine De France National Junior and Under 23 Track and Field Championships were held in sunny but windy conditions at Tullamore Harriers stadium today, with some very promising performances all round. Derval O’Rourke of Leevale has already qualified for the World’s in the 100m hurdles, and she again put in a fluent performance to win. Earlier she placed second in the 100m. Shane Thornton of Grange Fermoy had a good win in the junior long jump with a best of 6.39, while John Hobbs of Leevale made his first appearance of the season a winning one in the 35lb for distance, and also took third in the shot. Fiachra Lombard of UCC won a very exciting 1,500m in the U-23 championships, running a 59 seconds last lap to win in 3:52.93. There was further success for the Lombard family when sister Fionnuala won the junior shot putt with 10.92. Togher’s Shane O’Shaughnessy used the championships to get his season back on track with a second place finish in the junior 1,500m behind Conor Sweeney of St. Malachy’s who won in a time of 3:54.69. William Harty of KCK in Waterford set off at very fast pace in the combined 5,000m, and was a clear leader for over half the race. However, the chasing group worked well to overtake him, leaving just Barry Egan of Clonmel leading at the bell, with Leevale’s Bryan Keane on his shoulder. Egan held on well to win in atime of 14:50.86, with Keane taking some twenty seconds off his personal best in second with a time of 14:55.42. Sinead Falvey ran a strange race in the heats of the junior 400m hurdles, finishing fifth, putting her place in the finals in some doubt. However, she did just qualify, and then ran a great race in the final to win comfortably in a time of 64.66. The junior 800m saw Tony Lilley of Togher win in a time of 1:53.87, putting the qualifying mark for the World juniors well within his reach.