National Champion crowned in new arena.

Shane Aston a first year student at the Athlone Institute of Technology delivered the goods in style on the day the college officially opened its €10 million indoor athletics arena. The bright and spacious venue is the brainchild of current Athletics Ireland president and AIT college president Ciaran O Cathain. It has been built to full IAAF specifications and should feature on the international events calendar in the coming years.

Shane topped the scores in the junior combined events chamionship with a margin of 50 points ahead of Eric Stam, Leevale AC and third placer, Colin Nolan. The Trim athlete ran 9.27 in the first event of the day, the 60m hurdles. He followed that performance with 5m20 in the long jump and a very good 11m37 in the shot putt, one of his specialist events when competing in the juvenile ranks. 

Later in the day he cleared 1m73 in the high jump and event which he has been working on in recent months. Since moving to study at Athlone Institute of Technology Shane, a field events specialist has been training to improve his endurance under the guidance of Sligo middle distance runner Dermot McDermott. .This new approach paid off in the last event of the day  when he covered the 800m in a time of 2m13.
 Shane was delighted with his success and the college will have one of its students on the record books as a national champion on the opening day. Well done.