Close To 1,500 Young Athletes Set To Compete At The GloHealth Juvenile Relays & Junior & U23 Track & Field Championships This Weekend

Close to 1,500 young athletes from all across the country are set to compete at the 2014 GloHealth Juvenile Relay Championships of Ireland and the GloHealth Junior & U23 Track and Field Championships this weekend. The juvenile event takes place in Tullamore on Saturday, 5th of July with the Junior & U23 athletes taking centre stage on Sunday (6th) in Cork IT.

As always the relays will provide a thrilling start to the weekend with clubs nationwide comprising of nearly 1,000 young athletes battling it out for the national titles. Clubs have already qualified through from the various regions (Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Connacht and Dublin) in order to secure a spot at this prestigious event in Tullamore.

The action in Tullamore gets underway with the boy's and girl's 4x400m relays at 10am.

Over 400 of Ireland's very best athletes will descend on Cork IT for the GloHealth Junior & U23 Championships the following day. It is a very important year for Ireland's leading junior athletes with the World Junior Track and Field Championships taking place in Eugene, Oregon in July the ultimate target.

Irish junior 100m (10.38) and 200m (20.87) record holder Marcus Lawler (St Laurence O'Toole) is one of those athletes targeting Oregon. Lawler will target the sprint double in Cork; he will have to be close to his best to compete against the in form Zak Irwin (Sligo AC) after he set a personal best of 21.34 in Nivelles, Belgium last weekend.

Phil Healy (Bandon AC) is the standout performer in the U23 sprint events. The Bandon express has already run a time of 11.53 seconds this year. The time ranks her second on the 2014 Irish outdoor lists behind senior athlete Amy Foster (City of Lisburn) and also qualifies her for the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich.

In the middle distance events Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (Dundrum South Dublin AC) has secured the standard for Oregon in both the 800m and 1,500m. Cleirigh Buttner will compete in the 800m where she can expect tough competition from Aislinn Crossey (Newry AC) and Alanna Lally (Galway City Harriers AC).

Watch out for Sam Healy of Cork club Leevale AC who has soared over 7m on numerous occasions this year in the long jump. Healy has also exceled in the 110m hurdles this year running a time of 14.66 seconds.

The programme begins on the track at 10.30am with the 3,000m Walk and in the field at the same time with the men's hammer.