Offaly athletes selected for European U23 Track and Field Championships

TWO Offaly athletes have been selected for the forthcoming European U23 Track and Field Championships.

Heather Murphy will race in the 10,000 metres in the championships which take place in Bergen, Norway from July 17 to 20. Murphy is from Offaly side of Portarlington, in the Gracefield area in GAA terms. A member of St Michael's Athletics Club in Portarlington, she is is the daughter of PJ and Patricia Murphy and is on an athletics scholarship at Montreat College in North Carolina.

Murphy has competed very successfully on the Offaly road racing circuit in recent years, winning the Jack Cox 10k in Kilcormac recently and is a very talented emerging athlete.

Tullamore Harriers' member Ava O'Connor will compete in both the 3,000 metres steeplechase and the 5,000 metres. From Emo in Laois, O'Connor is a graduate of the phenomenally successful juvenile section in Offaly's biggest club. On scholarship in Adams State University in Colorado, she has been in sensational form on the colleges circuit in the USA recently and her dual selection is no surprise.

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O'Connor (pictured below) recently won her first national title in the USA when she raced to a very impressive victory in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the NCAA Division 2 Outdoor Track and Field Championships – she also lowered her own Irish U23 3,000 metre steeplechase record recently to 9.45.