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by Dermot McNamara

Evan Quirke, 14, of Presentation College, Athenry, and Athenry AC took the gold medal at the Junior Boys Long Jump at the All-Ireland Schools Track and Field Championships on June 2nd. The championships were held in Tullamore and Evan won the competition with a personal best jump of 5.78m (a fraction under 19 feet).

Two of his other jumps would also have won the competition - 5.75m and 5.66m - ahead of the silver medalist, A. Coakley of Kenmare, who jumped 5.63m.

Over the past year, Evan has made great progress in this, his favourite event. In August 2011 he won the National Community Games U14 long jump with a winning jump and personal best (PB) of 5.34m. At the National Juvenile Championships in March he increased his PB to 5.61m and at the Connacht Schools T&F in May, he again improved with a winning jump of 5.73m.

This was followed by his win in Tullamore and on June 24th he competed in the Schools Interprovincial competition at Intermediate (U17) grade in Santry and yet again improved his PB to 5.85m.

The next target for Evan is to break the 6m barrier, and based on his recent performances, this is achievable by next Spring.

Evan also competes in the 200m and he did a PB of 24.96 sec in Tullamore on June 2nd. He ran 24.84 at the Connacht U16 T&F champs in Dangan on June 17th to take the silver medal.

He also took the gold in the Triple Jump on the same day, his first time to compete in the event.