EVE EXCELS FOR NEWCASTLE AC AT NATIONAL PENTATHLON

Newcastle AC’s Eve McNamara showed plenty of class in her performance in Dublin. Find out how she managed to go toe to toe with All-Ireland champions.

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Newcastle AC's Eve McNamara

By  Siobhan Grant

Newcastle AC

WITH a spring and early summer followed around by mostly dull, dark and rainy days, the sun shone down in Morton Stadium in Dublin on Saturday as Newcastle AC athlete Eve McNamara began her Combined Event season a bit earlier than planned against the best that Ireland has to offer.

Last week, Eve represented the club and Ulster at the 75m Hurdles in Tullamore. She will return again next week to take her place on the long jump run. 

The diverse skill required to transition between both hurdles and long jump demonstrates this young lady’s abilities as a multi-eventer so it made sense to travel to the home of the many recently broken national senior records and set a baseline for the combined events for 2024. 

Even with this not being a goal event for Eve, and more an opportunity to build her resilience and stamina within the combined events set up, she still pulled out some spectacular performances beginning with a power-driven first event in the 75m hurdles. 

Hurdles is one of Eve’s preferred events and although she toed the line against last week’s All-Ireland winning U14 hurdler, this didn’t stop her giving her all to cross the line in 12.65 to get off to a 600-plus point start on her day. 

It was a swift move from the track to the long jump pit, giving enough time to change her shoes and measure out the run up within the top-class stadium. Eve led the first two rounds of jumps with a 4.44m jump on her first attempt, hitting the board with precision and speed. Though with a massive jump of over five metres from the winner of the hurdles in the final round, Eve went into event three sitting in fourth place. 

As part of the Athletics NI Rising Stars squad, Eve has had the opportunity to build her skills across all disciplines including throws. 

Shot Putt is considered her least favourite of the five events but a mid-week session at the track in Newry when she made minor adjustments to her throw and familiarised herself with optimising the throwing circle to maximise points resulted in a strong throw of 7.07m. 

As the intensity of the days’ demands on the participants began to become evident heading into the fourth event of the day, Eve was coasting along.

She was calm, in control and enjoying the transitions between each event. 

Opting to work her way up the high jump heights as the first to jump, she glided effortlessly over all jumps under 1.25m and edged closer to her PB height. 

Matching that target of 1.33m filled Eve with confidence and self-belief. 

A huge 6cm jump to the next height of 1.39 took a number of participants out. On her attempt Eve just grazed the pole and knocked it off. It’s clear that Eve is very capable of making that height another day. 

There was a well-needed break before the 800m to recharge. The heat had become a dead heat and the breeze had died down, making the 800m a battle of the mind more so than anything else. 

Eve got off to a strong start and held onto the lead group through 400m. In the second lap those who favour the 800m event came into their own and pulled away at speed. Eve crossed the line in 2.40 running at just over a 5.20 minute per mile pace which was an extraordinary pace after a long day of back-to-back competitions. 

Finishing the day in seventh place at a National Championship is an exceptional achievement. Eve competed in her last pentathalon representing Shimna College, last September scoring 1977 points. 

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