TITLES were won and records were broken as Laois athletes excelled at the South Leinster Championships last week.

Francis Egan of Knockbeg and Michael Mulhare of Portlaoise CBS were record breakers in the intermediate Triple Jump and senior 5,000 metres respectively.

Egan’s record breaking performance in the Triple Jump secured him his second gold medal of the championships after already winning the Long Jump title.

Mulhare was a class apart in the 5,000m. Taking the lead from the start Mulhare had two unfortunate athletes lapped after just five of the 12 and a half laps. Going through three kilometres in 9 minutes 32 seconds Mulhare was well on course to beat the previous championship best performance of 16 minutes 2 seconds held by Brian Kirwan of Carlow.

A slower fourth kilometre which he covered in 3 three 20 minutes meant Mulhare had to pull out all the stops in the final kilometre. Closing in 3 minutes 6 seconds, Mulhare was comfortably inside the record.

He also dipped inside sixteen minutes with a time of 15 minutes 59 seconds as well as lapping each of his opponents.

The senior boys’ high jump saw St Abban’s clubmates Barry Pender, on this occasion representing Knockbeg and Paul Byrne of Carlow CBS go head to head. The pair were the only two to clear 1.91 metres.

With the bar at 1.94 metres, both athletes missed on their opening attempts. Pender cleared on his second attempt while Byrne again knocked the bar leaving him with just one chance to stay in the competition.

Going agonisingly close on his third attempt, Byrne was unfortunate and had to settle for 1.91 metres. Pender then moved the bar up 6 centimetres to 2 metres. He knocked the bar on his first two attempts but with the entire venue coming to a standstill for his third attempt Pender rose to the occasion and cleared the bar. 2.03 metres was next but that was as high as it would go as Pender failed on each of his three attempts.

Knockbeg dominated the senior sprints with Eoin Muldowney and Paul Gillick filling the top two spots in the 200 metres. Muldowney also took silver in the 100 metres while Gillick finished third in the 400 metres.

Eoghan Power (Portlaoise CBS) was a runaway winner of the senior 1,500 metres. After a fast opening lap, Power was beginning to put a gap between him and the rest of the field. By halfway he had three seconds to spare over his Naas rival Conor Murphy.

Power never relented and was well clear when he crossed the line in a very impressive 4 minutes 6 seconds.

In the senior girls 1,500m, Laois athlete Cheryl Nolan (St Leo’s) took the title from Kilkenny athlete Suzanne Donovan with a superb finish. Nolan also took silver in the Shot Putt.

Brian Kelly (Knockbeg) equalled the championship record in the intermediate 800m when he ran 2 minutes 4 seconds to take the title from Kevin Campion (Portlaoise CBS). Knockbeg took first and second in the steeplechase with John Delaney emerging victorious over Michael Downey.

Alan Whelan (Portlaoise CBS) took 200 metre gold and 400-metre silver despite having to share a lane for the latter event. Portlaoise CBS duo Craig Kenneally and Tony Ryan were 2nd and 3rd in the intermediate 3,000m.

The intermediate girls’ Discus saw Shauna Daly come out on top while in the 800 metres Ailish Brennan (Heywood) took silver with Ciara Carroll (Brigidine Convent, Mountrath) third. Sarah Kelly of St Leo’s was 2nd in the 300m. Mary Mulhare (Presentation Convent, Portlaoise) took gold in the junior 800 metres while Grace Miller was a double medal winner in this grade, taking gold in the triple jump and bronze in the hurdles.

Emma Daly (St Leo’s) won gold in both the Shot Putt and Javelin in the minor grade. The minor boys 800m saw another Laois 1-2 as Stephen Attride (Knockbeg) took the title from Jason Campion (Mountmellick).

The junior boys saw three titles for Laois with Chris Ennis winning the 800 metres, Jake Brennan taking the Shot Putt title while Andrew Furlong was successful in the walk.