On Sunday last, just a week or so after her unfortunate elimination from the Long Jump at the European Championships in Barcelona, Kelly Proper, Ferrybank AC, bounced back to form and had the longest jump of her career when winning at the Brussels Grand Prix meeting, and in the process broke her own Irish Record in the Long Jump with a great leap of 6.60 metres. Her old mark was 6.51, set in Amsterdam in August 2008, and of course she also holds the Irish Indoor record with a mark of 6.59m set in 2009.
The Ferrybank AC athlete’s performance on Sunday will have done her confidence a power of good, but no doubt there is plenty more to come on foot of lots of training with her coach to get everything right at the board and a progression to much greater distances to enable her to compete with the best jumpers around – something which is essential. So very well done to Kelly on her new Irish record.
At a meeting in Amsterdam also on Sunday, Billy Ryan, Ferrybank AC won a graded 400m race in 49.11 seconds.
