Those involved in Wexford athletics continue to shine…
John O’Connor, who is apart of the Enniscorthy Athletics Club, travelled to Germany recently.
An EAC masters athlete, he travelled to Germany to compete in an open Decathlon in Saxony, East Germany.
It was for masters athletes in the 50-59 age category.
The 10 events over two days was made difficult due to high temperatures reaching 34 degrees. Despite that, with strong performances in each event on day one, John was leading by 200 points.
He fell on the last hurdle in the first event day two, but got up to finish. However, he lost his advantage over the other competitors on that event.
In the throws events John was throwing well but competition was tough and he lost points to the German competitors in both Discus and Javelin (PB 27.15).
At the end of a hard two days and nine events, only 5 were left in the competition John was just behind the two leaders.
John won the 1500m with a minute to spare over the competitor who come second. The points that was gained in the 1500m meant that John won the overall competition by 278 points over second place.
The Enniscorthy Athletic Club congratulated John and said he is an “inspiration” to younger athletes in particular.
Jason Redmond
From Gorey, Jason is the owner of Wexford Weekly. He is also a post-primary English and History teacher.
