BY MICHAEL O’LEARY
Two Kilkenny Athletes from the Kilkenny City Harriers Club will represent Ireland in the European U-18 Athletics Championships in Slovakia next week.
Pia Langton will compete in the 800 metres, while Molly Daly will compete in the 200 metres and she is also part of the medley relay squad.
Both Athletes are in terrific form and will definitely feel more than confident of a good showing next week.
Pia booked her ticket to Slovakia in May by acheiving the qualifying standard in Santry, while she had a most successful weekend in June as she ran a personal best in the 800 metres by winning in Belfast in 2.08.92 seconds before setting a Championship record the following day in winning the Gold Medal at the U-18 Leinster Championships.
That Championship record was previously set by fellow Kilkenny native Geraldine Nolan who represented Ireland in the 1500 metres at The European Outdoor Championships in Helsinki in 1994.
Pia also set a personal best prior to that in May when producing a time of 2:09.20 seconds to win at the Irish Milers Club-Crusaders in Santry, while she also set a personal best indoors when running 2.14.01 seconds in Athlone in April to win the Silver Medal in the 800 metres of the All-Ireland U-18 800 metres.
She also won further Silver Medals over 800 metres in both the Leinster and All-Ireland Schools competitions earlier in The Summer, while she also competed in an International meet in Bruxelles in Belgium in May where she finished 3rd.
Most certainly she is in top form heading over to Slovakia particularly after a string of impressive performances.
Meanwhile, Molly Daly is in fine form also and she acheived the qualifying standard back for the 200 metres in January at the Junior U-20 All-Ireland Indoors in Athlone.
She ran 24.54 seconds in her heat that qualified her for Slovakia and she actually ran a quicker time when winning the final running 24.43 seconds, but unfortunately she was disqualified for a lane infringement.
However, she had the consolation of winning her heat that booked her ticket for next weeks European Championships.
Molly has been very busy over the past month running races across Europe including Belgium and Germany and with great success.
She set a personal best of 24.61 seconds in winning at an International competition in Mannheim in Germany, and she lowered that time twice since.
She won her heat in The National Senior Indoors in Santry with a time of 24.57 seconds, before finishing 4th in the Final with another personal best of 24.52 seconds behind Phil Healy who was part of The Ireland squad that won The Silver Medal in The 4 x 400 metres relay at The European Championships in Rome.
At just 16 years of age it’s remarkable that Molly has been performing superbly and setting personal bests while running against the top sprinters, and her recent form and improvements will give her great confidence to perform very well in Slovakia next week.
Molly’s parents Fiona Norwood and Robert Daly are more than well acquainted with Athletics.
Fiona was an All-Ireland Champion running for Kilkenny City Harriers and she represented Ireland in both The European U-23 and U-20 Championships, while Robert was part of the Ireland Team that won the Bronze Medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2004 World Indoor Championships with twice European Indoor Champion David Gillick also part of the team.
Both Athletes are in top form ahead of the Europeans next week and they will both feel confident of a good showing.
Wishing both Molly and Pia all the very best ahead of their trip to Slovakia.
