The national junior and under 23 track and field championships completed a weekend of athletics at Tullamore today, with weather conditions again ideal for athletes. And once again it was a good day for Cork sprinters. There was a very close finish to the junior women’s 100m hurdles, with Sharon Kelly of Leevale adding to her Irish schools title. Earlier she was second in the 100m. Sinead Falvey of Leevale took the lead a long way out in the 400m hurdles, and just held on to win from a very fast finishing Nicole O’Regan of Togher. Another few metres and the result would have been different. Niamh Cremin from Leevale was a close 4th. Jer O’Donoghue of Leevale had metres to spare as he won the under 23 100m, and he completed the double in the 200m, but by a much smaller margin, while clubmate Darren O’Donovan was beaten by the narrowest of margins in the junior 100m and again in the 200m. Darren really needs to learn to race in a more relaxed manner. Middle distance continues to play second fiddle to sprinting in Cork, with James Grufferty of Leevale one of the best placed Cork runners, taking a good second in the junior 5,000m after putting in a 67 second penultimate lap. Bryan Keane was a bit behind at under 23 level – both races run together. And in the field events Fionnuala Lombard of Leevale was best of the Cork contingent with a second place finish in the junior shot, with clubmate Deirdre Murphy third – and picked up another bronze in the discus. Caroline Lane from Leevale was third in the junior triple jump.