Gleeson selected for World U20 Championships
Cillian Gleeson (#1387) has been selected for the World U20 Championships.
Good news in this week. Cillian Gleeson (Celbridge) has been officially selected for the World u20 track and field championships in Oregon, USA. Gleeson will face the best in this age group in the World in just over 2 weeks’ time.
Gleeson is just one of a number of Irish athletes who will be competing at elite level this summer. Each week at home and abroad the action never stops. Last week alone there were over 60 Irish athletes in action at International events.
If you are an athletics enthusiast and like to be where the action is, (home or abroad) you would have been spoilt for choice. A follower of the senior athletes may have veered towards Madrid where Sharlene Mawdsley earned yet another podium placing.
Then there was the Diamond League in London where Mark English at the grand old athletics age of 33, finished second in a personal best of 1.42.97 over 800m. English is now the fastest European this season.
Sarah Healy finished 3rd in the 5000m and sits at number 4 on this season’s European ranking list. While on home soil the All-Ireland combined events and AAI games took place in Santry.
The results all around were sensational, with our elite Irish athletes providing an enormous amount of inspiration for those aspiring young elite athletes we have in Kildare.
And of those aspiring athletes, they were in action in both Europe and on home soil. The u18 European Championships took place in Reiti (Italy) and the SIAB International was held in Belfast.
Then there was the FIESC games in Budapest. Kildare had representation in both Belfast and Budapest, with further athletes taking part in the All-Ireland combined events.
In Budapest the results for the Kildare athletes were superb with three golds going to Saoirse Ballesty-Byrne (Naas) and JP Archbold (Newbridge) setting a new championship record in the long jump. It was bronze for Kyle Byrne-Ward (Newbridge) over 100m hurdles at the SIABs.
Cillian Gleeson is now officially heading to Oregon for the World u20 Championships. The Celbridge AC athlete now on scholarship at the University of Wisconsin, gained qualification for the 5,000m with his personal best time of 13:54.27 at the Plateville Invitational meet in Wisconsin on April 10th.
Like most races in the USA, an enormous start-list see’s races like these divided into heats – a graded system that encourages athletes to run faster, similar in concept to the Irish and British milers meets. Gleeson ran in the fastest of the 11 heats, clocking his 13:54.27 and just one of two athletes going sub 14 on the night.
203 athletes competed. At home recently competing in the national u20 championships Gleeson has since returned to the US, where he will work on his final block of training in advance of the World u20 race. Incidentally and rather unusually, he is the only middle distance Irish male athlete to achieve a qualification standard in events from 800m to 5000m.
Kildare had one representative at this year’s SIAB international. Kyle Byrne-Ward (Newbridge) competed in the 100m hurdles. Byrne-Ward finished second to clubmate Eoghan Gallagher at the Irish Schools track and field on May 30th.
However selection for the Irish SIAB team is based on the results from the Tailteann Games. These were held in Carlow a few weeks later. With two places per event up for grabs it looked like it was going to be a full Newbridge representation.
Luck was not on the side of Gallagher, with an injury obliterating his chances and forcing him to withdraw from the Tailteann’s. This paved the way for Byrne-Ward to secure an easy victory over Thomas McGrath (Ashbourne) and book his ticket to the SIABs.
Held at the Mary Peter’s Track where many Irish athletes set fast times, a strong Irish team of close to 40 athletes travelled north. Up against the best of England, Scotland and Wales Byrne-Ward was as good as any of them.
The Patrician Secondary School student lined up against England’s Emile Morti who had already run a personal best of 13.15 and was ranked 4th best in the UK in 2025. His Chiltern Harriers clubmate Caleb Greene also qualified. Byrne Ward knew Morti was the favourite. He also knew that a podium place should be within his reach. He had everything to race for.
From the gun, the pace was fast. Morti had the slight edge after the third hurdle. A slight clatter from Byrne Ward did not knock him off his pace. Hurdle after hurdle the Newbridge athlete navigated each obstacle and sprinted for the line. Glancing to his right he could see Morti had taken the gold. There was a surprise as Caleb Green took silver knocking over half a second off his personal best. There was good news for Kyle Byrne-Ward as he took 3rd place in 13.56 seconds, a new personal best. To finish 3rd in an international in a new person best is the perfect way to end his 2026 championship season.
JP Archbold led a string of Irish successes at the FIESC Games in Budapest. The Newbridge AC set a new championship record in the long jump while also producing a personal best in the 400m. Six Kildare athletes competed on the Irish team at the FIESC Games. Founded in 1946, FISEC, (Fédration Internationale Sportive de l’Enseignement Catholique) held its first international games exclusively for boys in 1948 in Monaco. It was not until 1959 that they were opened up to girls. Evolving from the dark ages these games have been somewhat revived with the 75th edition hosted this year in Budapest, where over 1,000 athletes from countries around the world took part in several sporting events. Kildare athletes on the Irish team included: Saoirse Ballesty-Byrne (Naas), Rachel Beattie (Crookstown-Millview), JP Archbold (Newbridge), Eabha Brennan (Newbridge), Eoghan Gallagher (Newbridge) and Jack Gilmartin (Celbridge).
Saoirse Ballesty-Byrne (Naas) took three golds as she won both the 100m and 200m races and formed part of the gold winning medley relay. The Naas AC athletes has been on fire all season. Just a few weeks ago she took second in the All-Ireland u18 200m in her best championship performance yet. Racing firstly over 100m in Budapest, Ballesty-Byrne along with Crookstown-Millview’s Rachel Beattie qualified for the semi-finals, two of Ireland’s four athletes who qualified for the semi-finals. Rachel Beattie finished second in her semi-final in a time of 12.62 with Ballesty first in the other semi in a faster time of 12.37 seconds.
The two Kildare girls lined up for the final side by side, something they have gotten used to doing since u10s at county, Leinster and National level. Ballesty-Byrne got a fantastic start and was first out of the blocks. Powering down the 100m straight she managed to keep that slight edge over Rachel Afari to take the title in a time of 13.28, a new personal best and her first international victory. Beattie finished in 5th place in 12.47 seconds. A day later Ballesty-Byrne repeated her victory this time taking the 200m gold with a time of 25.46 seconds. Beattie was busy at the FISEC games. Following her 100m she finished 8th in the long jump and 12th in the triple jump. A medal finally came her way as she formed part of the Irish 4x100m relay that finished second.
With Ireland off to such a good start, the pressure was on. JP Archbold (Newbridge) stepped up to that challenge. Archbold had already achieved the qualifying standard for the European u18 championships in the Long Jump. However over the subsequent weeks, his inability to get his mark right resulted in time running out and no second standard achieved. It was hard for Archbold to look at what might have been. The competition in Budapest which was running concurrently to the u18 European’s in Italy, was just the remedy needed to heal the wounds. A first jump of 6.85m sent the Newbridge athlete to the top of the Long Jump table, where he stayed until round 5. Nicolas Seydewitz (Chile) who had struggled somewhat with his mark, produced a massive 6.90cm.
Archbold responded with a 6.96m jump. Round 6 was a thriller. Seydewitz, was the penultimate jumper and equalled Archbold’s jump of 6.96m. It looked like the gold medal was going to be shared. Or so the supporters thought. On that final jump Archbold got what he had been searching for the past three weeks: a jump greater than 7.15m. He jumped a massive 7.38m, his second best ever to not only take gold but set a new FISEC championship record, surpassing the existing one by 9cm. It was a bitter sweet victory as over in Rieti the same jump would have given him 8th place in the European u18 Long Jump final.
Archbold did not stop at the Long Jump. It was back on with the spikes for the 400m where the Newbridge man along with Jack Gilmartin (Celbridge) were in action over the one lap event. Archbold won his heat in 50.71 seconds. Gilmartin won his in 50.90 seconds. Ireland headed the qualifiers with a 1,2 going into the final. Rest and recovery, the following day both Kildare boys went head to head in the final. What a final it was for Kildare. Archbold went sub 50 for the first time, clocking 49.79 seconds to take victory behind him closing hard was Jack Gilmartin who also ran a new personal best of 50.43 seconds to take second place. Team Ireland was on fire.
It was also a 1,2 for the Irish girls over 400m. Kildare’s Eabha Brennan took second in her heat with 58.87 seconds. Ireland’s Ailica Hegarty won her heat in 57.21m. It was Hegarty who won the final with a personal best of 56.74 seconds. Eabha Brennan (Newbridge) had the race of her life. Running her fastest race ever she clocked a new personal best of 56.89 seconds to take the silver medal.
More silverware was won in the hurdles. After sustaining an injury that put him out of the Tailteann Games, thus missing out on an international vest as part of the Irish team for the SIAB Internation, Eoghan Gallagher was disappointed. In Budapest he had to switch to the 110m hurdles, higher and longer than what he was used to. Clipping a hurdle Gallagher miraculously scraped into the final with a time he would not be happy with. The final was a different story. Gallagher got the pace and technique perfect. He finished second with a new personal best of 14.98 recording the same time as the third placed athlete Felipe Sahli (Chile). The photo finish awarded the silver to Gallagher.
The final event of the Games was the medey relay where Saoirse Ballesy-Byrne competed over 200m and Jack Gilmartin over 400m. It was gold for Team Ireland once again.
In Santry, the All-Ireland combined events and AAI Games took place over the two day weekend. Following in the footsteps of Ireland’s International superstar Kate O’Connor scores of young boys and girls competed over multiple events for podium places. In the boys u14 it was Adam Clancy (Clane AC) who took silver. Clancy started off in 5th position after the hurdles.
Then came the long jump, high jump and shot putt where his position remained unchanged. A phenomenal race over 800m producing a 2.16 win saw him move through the table to take 2nd place. He won the 800m by over 11 seconds. The 800m as the final event is well known for altering potential podium positions, what Adam did last Sunday was incredible as such alterations go.
Ava Waugh (Eire Og) competed in the u14 girls pentathlon. Waugh finished 8th place overall with her clubmate Emily Cramer O’Meara retired before the end of the competition.
It was silver for Harry Kearney (Naas) in the boys u15. Kearney was up against a very strong Harry Butcher (SLOT). Ultimately it was Butcher who proved the strongest and took gold. However, Kearney topped the table in the shot putt with over a meter to space over the Carlow athlete.
The third silver of the day came from the u20 boys decathlon. Dylan Heffernan (Clane AC) took second. Heffernan proved strongest over the 100m and 400m. A fourth silver came from John Molloy (Celbridge) in the master (70-79) category. Molloy proved strongest in the javelin, discus and 100m.
Athletes were given another opportunity to achieve European qualifying standards ahead of the next week’s final qualifying event the All-Ireland seniors. The AAI games proved the perfect opportunity to do so. For others it was about getting one more race in ahead of nationals.
Four Kildare athletes competed in the 100m, with Runo Ayavoro (Newbridge) coming home ahead with a 3rd place finish with a time of 10.88 seconds. This was just marginally behind the personal best of 10.57 that the set at the Stratford Speed event the previous week in London.
David Oghuvbu (Naas) proved to be the strongest Kildare athlete in the 200m. Oghuvbu finished 9th in 22.47 seconds. The ladies 400m featured Irish international Sophie Becker who is having mixed fortunes this year due to injuries. Becker won from Jennifer Sawyer (SLOT) with Caoimhe Cronin (Le Cheile) in third place. Cronin ran a season’s best of 55.48 seconds. Avoiding trips abroad it was Donore’s Jack Raferty who won the men’s race.
Kildare AC’s Robert Hewison moved up to the 1500m where he clocked 3.57.54 to take 5th place. The Wright sister Holly, Cara and Eve (Crookstown-Millview) were back in action again last weekend. Holly the eldest sister finished second to Irish International Anna Gavigan in the Discus, with a throw of 44.13m, a little short of the personal best of 45.46 she secured in Tullamore in May. Cara finished 5th with 34.79m. The younger sibling Eve finished 4th in the Long Jump.
