Fourteen Fermanagh medals, including a remarkable five senior boys titles, headlined by a sprint double for Belleek speedster Gerard Maguire, were the highlight of another excellent day of top class track & field performances from local boys at a sunkissed Aviva Ulster schools finals in Antrim on Friday night and Saturday.
Maguire, a lower sixth student at Erne Integrated College, joined a small band of athletes who have won Ulster schools titles at all four age groups as he followed gold in 2005 (Minor 100m), 2007 (Junior 100m), 2009 (Inter 100m and 200m) with another double in ideal sprint conditions, clocking a swift 100m before accelerating away in the closing stages of the 200m, following a sluggish bend, to clock 22.7 for his fifth and sixth Ulster schools titles and with a bit of sharpening he may well add to his Irish medal haul in Tullamore in two weeks time.
He was joined on that list of athletes who have won provincial school gold in all four age groups by his training partner Ciaran Dolan of St Michael's who, with his first jump of 6.82m, secured a facile Long Jump success. Dolan will have been disappointed not to have finally broken through the 7metre barrier, a distance he has been knocking on the door of since 2008, but he has improved competition after competition so far this year, and perhaps the added buzz of All-Ireland competition will see him break what is as much a psycholocical as a physical barrier at this stage.
If Maguire and Dolan were claiming their sixth and seventh Ulster schools titles respectively, there were notable and well deserved first provincial schools titles for two other local athletes, Mark Hoy of St Michael's and James Speight of Erne Integrated. Hoy won a tactical 800m, accelerating from the bell and holding off a strong challange from Jordan Stokes of Bangor down the home straight and, less than an hour later, he just failed to secure a double as he was unable to raise his tired legs in the closing strides of the 400m, edged out in a photo finish by Maze of Friend school in Lisburn. Speight, who has been making his name on the fells in recent years, tracked long time leader Robbie Idle of Methody until the final 300m before accelerating away over the final three barriers to secure what was for him, like Hoy a well deserved first gold at these championships, proving once more that those who stick around are often rewarded as other early developers fall by the wayside.
There was also gold for Portora in the sprints, with Jordan Hylton edging an exciting junior 100m by 1/100th of a second in 12.14. Hylton is a powerfully built athlete who just got up in the last few strides to take the title and he secured his second medal of the day in the Long Jump where his best of 5.45m gained hin silver behing McKenna of Beechill in Monaghan.
One of the most improved athletes of the season is Jason White, the Devenish College student clearly benifiting from training since the autumn with the likes of Maguire ,Dolan and Hoy and he came within a few strides of making it a third Fermanagh gold in the 100m sprints as, after a sluggish enough heat, he lead the final for the first eighty metres before being overhauled in closing metres by Colhoun on Methody. White had earlier jumped a personal best of 12.43m for bronze in the Triple jump, an event where Conal Mahon of St Michael's also set new personal figures with 12.62m for silver behind the impressive winner Taggart of St Malachy's and Ballymena and Antrim AC.
There was another silver for St Michael's in the intermediate age group, as one of the busiest athletes of the stiflingly hot day, Niall McKeever, who had to sprint no less than 1300m in heats and finals, clocked a big personal best of 53.78 to take second behind Jonathan Browning having earlier been edged into 4th in the 200m despite a big personal best of 23.4.
Indded it is worth reflecting that, had the fastest U13 in Northern Ireland so far this year, Rory McCaffrey, and Irish school captain for 2009, Stuart Connor, not both been absent injured, Fermanagh's dominance of the boys sprints would have almost certainly been even greater than three gold and two silvers, a remarkable achievement given the absence of even a yard of synthetic 'tartan' in the county, which is considered essental for sprint development.
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There were two medals for local athletes in the minor age groups, the first going to the promising all-rounder Cathal McBride of St Michael's who cleared a school record 1.38m in the High Jump and the second to Chloe Hutchinson of the Collegiate who, after an excellent start in the 100m, was overhauled in the closing strides, but still took a very good silver, the only medal won by a Fermanagh girl.
On Friday night Finn Corrigan had a real go at sticking with Andrew Monaghan's record pace in the opening laps of the Inter 3000m, despite the heat, but paid the price in the middle stages, before recovering to take 3rd, and he will have learned a lot about his pace judgement for the Irish finals, as he is in excellent shape to get close to the nine minute barrier over the 3km.
Other good local performances which just missed out on medals came from Lorcan Love of St Michael's in the junior 1500m, Robert Bellancoune of Portora in the minor 100m, Katie Cromie of Devenish and Bethany Frempong of St Fanchea's in the Inter girls 300m and 200m respectively and the St Michael's minor relay team and Portora junior and intermediate relay squads on a day when once more the Fermanagh boys proved that they are capable of living with the best young talent that the province has to offer, despite our geographical and infrastructural restrictions.