Three more Irish medals at European U18 Championships

Thomas Williams, Conor Kelly, and Joe Burke delievered Ireland's second, third, and fourth medals of the week at the European U18 Athletics Championships in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia on Saturday.

Williams came into the championships with the pressure of being one of the likely contenders in the men's hammer competition. He showed experience beyond his years to throw a huge 73.95m best to claim a superb gold. It's Ireland’s second throws medal of the week following Cian Crampton’s bronze in Friday's discus final.

Four of the Shercock athlete’s six throws were over 70 metres.

Speaking afterwards, Williams said: "It’s amazing, I’m so happy. I was a bit nervous with the first throw but once it stayed in the sector I settled. The gold was all that mattered, and the Irish crowd were phenomenal."

Kelly picked up Ireland’s second medal of the day, storming to a brilliant bronze in the 400m in an Irish U18 record time of 46.97.

"I’m gutted," he admitted. "I came out here for gold, but it didn’t happen today. It’s nice to go sub-47, but I’ve been looking at that gold all winter. It’s a great result to get a European medal but the plan was to get a little bit more."

Burke secured a brilliant bronze medal from lane eight in the men’s 200m final, having booked his place in the medal decider thanks to a brilliant 21.43 from lane eight in the earlier semi-finals. The Templemore AC athlete crossed in a time of 21.31 to break the Irish U18 200m record.

There was also success in the jumps with Ireland finishing with two athletes inside the top ten placings. Tara O'Connor signed off her appearance in the final with a best clearance of 1.78m for joint sixth, while Siún Quinn finished joint ninth thanks her best clearance of 1.74m.

Saoirse