The picturesque French alpine town of Annecy is more popular as a ski resort but this week over 1,200 athletes from 156 nations move in for the seventh IAAF World Junior Championships. Six of our top juniors surpassed the demanding qualifying marks and today Thomas Coman and Paul Opperman are straight into the action on the first day of competition in the heats of the 400 metres.
Coman has made consistent improvement this season, setting an Irish Schools record of 48.54 seconds last month and then dipping inside the world standard of 48.0 with a 47.81 at the Cork City Sports. The Templemore athlete is joined by Opperman of Dun drum/South Dublin who ran 47.35 in his first major race at the distance since moving up from the 200 metres.
Double Youth Olympic champion Emily Maher is not on the track until Thursday when she runs the heats of the 200 metres. It will be a slightly more competitive affair in Annecy, with the leading American Shakedia Jones and local hope Muriel Hurtis among the favourites to take the title. Jones ran a wind-assisted 22.65 in winning the US Juniors and has also run 11.11 for the 100m while Hurtis leads the French sprinters with her personal best of 22.84. Maher set her best of 24.16 with her gold medal run at Moscow two weeks ago and will need further improvement if she is to get into the medals this time.
Ciara Sheehy of West Dublin also competes in the 200m and signalled her excellent form by taking the National senior title on Sunday in 24.31. She also has an impressive competitive record, winning the European youth title last year, but, like Maher will need to be at her best to make the final.
The sprinters will have the benefit of the significant altitude of the venue, with the stunning backdrop of the Lac d'Annecy, so there's great opportunity for further improvements in the times of both Maher and Sheehy.
Colm McClean faces a challenging 1500m qualifying round on Friday although there is every reason to believe that the Belfast student has the ability to run with the best. McClean also set an Irish Schools record of 3:47.04 last month before lowering his personal best to 3:43.46 with a brilliant performance in Cork. Again the standards will be extremely high with Kenyan Benjamin Kipkurui the leading contender after his 3:36.00 - a world age-17 best.
Gareth Turnball was originally selected to join McClean in the 1,500m but he had to withdraw last week through injury. Turnball, also of St Malachy's in Belfast, was bronze medallist in the European Juniors last year but has missed almost all of this season and failed make adequate recovery this month.
David Kidd will have a straight final in the 10,000m walk on Thursday. The St Laurence O'Toole athlete won the National Juniors last month in 44:28.81, more than 15 seconds inside the qualifying mark.
