Superb Gregan steals the show
Despite the easterly breeze blowing around the stadium, the day produced four new schools records and a host of personal bests in the senior and intermediate age groups.
In the 400m, the powerfully build Gregan (pictured below), who stands at 6ft 3ins and weighs 85kg, stormed his way around the track to win in a stunning time of 47.49 secs. With no-one to take him on, Gregan appeared to slow down in the final few metres of the race, so there is clearly more to come.
His time easily beat the existing record of 47.8, set by Kildareman David McCarthy seven years ago and is inside the qualifying mark for the World Junior Championships in July.
On this form, Gregan could get close to the national junior record of 46.70 before the season's over.
It was a great comeback for the Tallaght athlete, who has only resumed training in the past few months after a year out with injury and is in his last year as a junior. With an Irish 4x400m relay squad off to seek Olympic qualification in the next few weeks, Gregan could well find himself competing on the biggest stage of them all in the summer.
Another athlete on his way to Poland for the World Juniors is Barry Pender of Knockbeg College, who cleared 2.10m to win the senior boy's high jump. His performance added five centimetres to the record set by Olympic high jumper Adrian O'Dwyer in 2002.
A disappointed second was Korash Foroughi of Gormanston College, who had won the intermediate title last year with a record-breaking jump of 2.04. On Saturday, Foroughi could only manage 1.95, but went on to win the javelin.
Tara Jameson, Dominican College Wicklow, can always be relied on to run her heart out and the result has been a series of great cross-country runs over the winter. On the track last week, she was running the 3000m, and despite the poor conditions, clocked a time of 10:15.26 to improve on the 18-year old record for the event by almost five seconds.
Her schoolmate Donna Carolan was the first record-breaker of the day, winning the senior girl's walk in 14.55.1.
- Lindie Naughton
