The All Ireland Juvenile finals were held over two weekends the first weekend was in the usual venue at Nenagh. Athenry had a number of athletes competing , pride of place goes to Jack Fitzpatrick who won a bronze medal in the under 12 600m, Maria Cooney just missed out on a medal in 4th position in the 60m hurdles as did Emma Grady who was 4th in under 14 shot putt. Others to compete in Nenagh were Eilis Hynes and Joey Quinn in the Shop Putt and Sinead Tuohy in the hurdles.

The second weekend athletes faced the long trip north to Magherafelt in Co Derry. Magherafelt boasts the largest indoor sports facility in Europe with a huge building enclosing 2.5 acres of a carpet-clad playing field.

The track was very different to what we are normally used to - being a flat 300m track laid out on a type of industrial carpet. The facility itself was well worth seeing and as far as I know was built by the local district council in Magherafelt.

The girls under 15 relay team of Maria Cooney, Hayleigh Sommers, Marie Tuohy and Orlaith McGrath put on a marvellous performance to win a silver medal, others to compete in Magherafelt were Serena Hansberry in the High Jump and 800m, Sorcha Murphy in the High Jump.

There were a number of others athletes who qualified for the All Ireland finals but could not compete for a number of reasons. It is straight into the outdoor season which starts with the county finals over the May Bank holiday weekend.