National glory, international ranking points and competition in its rawest form will be on show this weekend at the Irish Life Health National Athletics Championships in Morton Stadium, Santry in Dublin.
It has been a week of celebration for the sport already with Sarah Healy and Kate O’Connor taking Silver medals in the 1500 metres and Heptathlon at last weekend’s European U20 Championships in Sweden and Rhasidat Adeleke securing an incredible sprint gold double overnight at the European Youth Olympic Festival.
Some of the rising underage stars will be competing alongside established top-flight performers such as Thomas Barr, Ciara Mageean, Mark English and Phil Healy over the weekend.
In order to represent Ireland at an international level athletes are expected to participate in the National Championships and a large crowd is expected to attend the Championships.
It will be an opportunity for all taking part to confirm a place on the Irish team for the European Team Championships taking place on August 9-11th.
This year’s event will also be backed up by an Athletics Festival this year. The festival, supported by sponsor Irish Life Health will include a 1 Mile Fun Run for children and a 3km Run around Santry Park with all races finishing on the home straight of the track in the Stadium before the start of the Championships.
The Festival is a first step towards bridging the gap that exists between those who compete at the very highest level and the 300,000 regular runners who do so for their own many and varied reasons.
The action will be streamed live on day one on Athletics Ireland’s Facebook page with live coverage on day two on RTE 2 television from 17:30-19:55.
