Mayo athlete among the stars heading to Tullamore on Saturday

Mayo's Seamus Clarke is among the top Irish athletes heading to Tullamore this Saturday for the 123.ie Under 20 & Under 23 National Championships.

The Moy Valley AC walker looks set to duke it out with Matthew Newell of Tuam AC over 5,000m once more, with both having broken their respective age grade records already this year.

Further spice will be added to proceedings with both the European Under 23 championships (Norway, July 17 to 20) and European Under 20 championships (Finland, August 7 to 10) looming large.

This year’s 123.ie National Under 20 Championships will also be used as selection for the upcoming DNA Under 20 Club event in Portugal, which takes place on September 20 and 21.

Elsewhere among the intriguing entries this weekend is Candour Track Club’s Nick Griggs, who holds a sole entry in the 800m following his blistering 13:26.16 over 5,000m in France last weekend.

Olympian Nicola Tuthill may miss this weekend’s competition following last weekend’s exertions at the European Team Championships, but hammer throw fans will still be out in force to follow 2024 European Under 18 champion Thomas Williams (hammer), who continues to impress. He will look to go in search of another national title in the Under 20 hammer come Saturday morning.

Williams’ fellow European Under 18 medallists Cian Crampton (discus) and Joe Burke (200m) are also among the entries, as is Conor Kelly (400m) who has been blazing a trail over 400 meters this season, culminating with a national Under 20 record of 46.09 last weekend in Germany, improving on his previous record of 46.18, which was clocked last month at the IFAM Outdoor meeting in Brussels.

Kelly will be joined on track this weekend by his recent record-breaking Under 20 4 × 400 team-mates, with Alex Cullen, Sean Doggett and David Davitt all set to take their places in a stacked Under 20 men’s 400m following their national Under 20 relay record of 3:08.31 at the weekend.

There is no shortage of star power in the jumps either, with 2023 European Under 20 champion Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump) returning from duty with Team Ireland in Slovenia last weekend.

The day's action will be streamed live on the Athletics Ireland YouTube channel (commentary from 1 p.m.).