Published: Wednesday, 29th July, 2009 12:00pm

Ó Catháin smashes Irish record

A thirty year Irish sporting record has been smashed by young Kiltoom athlete Lorcán Ó Catháin.

Competing in the 200-metre final of the European Youth Olympics Festival (EYOF) in Finland last week, Lorcán knocked eight-hundreds of a second off the previous national record which was set in 1979 by Liam McDermott.

This latest achievement capped a hugely successful week for Ó Catháin who beat his own personal best time twice, as well as coming in fifth place against a very competitive international field.

Lorcán's time of 21.79 secs in the 200m final was more than a quarter of a second inside his own qualifying time in the heat.

The Kiltoom man was competing against an international field that included athletes from Belgium, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine and Italy.

His time was 0.28 secs inside his qualifying time on Thursday, which had also been a new personal best for the Athlone athlete.

Earlier, he had competed in the 4 x 100m relay, but the Irish team narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final.

Liam McDermott's thirty year old record of 21.87 was equalled twice in 1983 and 1986, but that mantle has now passed to one of the most promising young athletes in the country.

Already this year, the 17-year-old Marist College student achieved gold, silver and bronze medals in the under-18 200m, 60m and 400m races at the Woodie's DIY/AAI Juvenile Indoor Championships.

Earlier in spring, Lorcán won three gold medals at the Connaught Indoor Championships in the 60m, 200m, and 400m races.

The European Youth Olympics Festival has been taking place in the City of Tampere, Finland since July 18. The week-long multi-sport event features young athletes from the 49 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees.

Young European athletes compete in nine sports at the event: athletics, basketball, cycling, gymnastic, handball, judo, swimming, tennis and volleyball.

Further information about the athletics festival is available online at www.eyof.ie.