International bronze medal for Ollie running for Ireland

It was with great pride and excitement that Oliver Robinson travelled to Dublin airport on Friday to pick up his first All- Ireland kit. He had been selected, from his performance at the Tailteann Games a few weeks previously, to participate in the U17, SIABs (Schools International Athletic Board) Track & Field International Games as part of the Irish Schools’ Athletics Team. Ollie was selected to take part in the 400m and the 4 x 400m relay at the games which were held in Grangemouth Stadium, Scotland the next day.

Prior to this, athletes from Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland had taken part in their respective national schools’ competitions. A very small number of these athletes who do well at their national event, in their respective disciplines, are selected to compete in this international athletics competition representing their country. So Ollie was competing against the best in his age category.

He will be the first to admit that the enormity of the event got to him when he stepped up to the blocks for his 400m race. He had never raced at a track where there was an indoor warm up area or from blocks that were set up to automatically trigger a false start. Conditions were very windy and heavy showers frequently occurred with some surface water lying on the outside lanes. He was running in lane 6 so had someone to chase down. As the gun went he held his own for the first 200m and tried his best to hold onto the tails of the leaders. Although he crossed the line disappointed with his run he realised that maybe he had run against a future T&F star.

The 4 x 400m event was the closing race of the day. Ollie ran the final leg so knew he had a certain amount of pressure to bring the team home in a good position. England were the clear leaders coming into the final leg with all other countries level pegging. Ollie stepped up and ran the race of his life with a personal best of 51.65 finishing in 3rd ,a clear 5-7m ahead of the Welsh team. The games finished with the podium presentations and the great honour of holding the Irish flag up. Next up for Ollie is the All-Ireland Age Group competitions in Tullamore this weekend.