It was a great day for Rhode Island hammer throwers at the USATF Junior National Championships Saturday afternoon.
The Ocean State claimed four of the top five finishers, including the individual winner at Oregon’s Hayward Field. Former Barrington High all-stater Charlie Ionata, who just completed his freshman year at Wake Forest University, claimed the individual title with a toss of 222 feet, 1 inch for the 6 kg. apparatus. Finishing less than an inch behind Ionata was ex-Central great Clarence Gallop of Charleston Southern University with a distance of 222-0.
“It’s been a dream of mine for a while and it feels great to finally (get the chance to) compete at a world event," said Ionata, during a press confernce for the meet. “I got to compete against a lot of guys that I competed against in high school so it was great seeing them, Clarence being one of them. One of my old friends from high school so it was a lot of fun.”
“Feels great. It’s something I’ve been working on all year long and I had some throws that could have been really big and pushed it far but I made the team and it’s all that matters," Gallop said. "I just want to thank my coaches for pushing me far and trying to get it together and we finally made it here and finally got the job done. It’s all we could ask for.”
University of Rhode Island freshman Mahlik Handley of South Kingstown finished fourth overall with a heave of 214-8 and Barrington junior Adam Kelly was fifth at 210-9.
Based on their top two placements, Ionata and Gallop earned a trip to the IAAF World Youth Championships, to be held back at Hayward Field from July 22-27.
“I’m super excited," Ionata said. "The World Cup got me feeling nationalistic and I’m super excited to represent Team USA.”
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On Friday, R.I. had two of its athletes compete at the elite meet. In the 800-meter run, Classical grad Maddy Berkson fell one spot short of qualifying for the finals with a time of 2:10.79. Classical's Alva Hicks tossed the hammer a distance of 152-4.
