Records Tumble in Antrim and Tullamore
West Waterford athletes were in action in the Antrim Forum and Tullamore stadium last weekend and they showed they could compete with the best in Ireland and the British Isles. The Schools International was held in Northern Ireland for the first time ever last on Saturday July 18th. West Waterford had three athletes on the Irish team and they were not daunted by the occasion or the competition. Such was the standard of this event that only five Irish girls won individual medal winners and two of that elite group were members of West Waterford. The first Irish win of the day came in the walk event when Kate Veale clocked 13.09.02 for the 3000m to win in convincing style and take a full minute off the existing record. She became the first girl from St Augustines to win a medal at this event. Kate went on from there to Tullamore on Sunday where she had another record-breaking walk in the under 16 2000m walk. Kate is now the holder of all the walks records both indoor and outdoor in club and schools in her age group. In the pole vault Lisa Houlihan equalled her personal best of 2m 85 when finishing fourth in her event. On Sunday she too was in Tullamore where she won a bronze medal in the triple jump. On of the last events of the day was the girls discus in which Zoe Scanlan won a bronze medal with a throw of 36.75. In doing so she became the first pupil from the Ard Scoil to win a medal at these championships. She finished ahead of both the Welsh and Scottish champions but was beaten by the two English competitors. In Tullamore on Sunday Zoe added a bronze in the shot and silver in the javelin to the discus gold she won the previous week. The other Irish medal winners on the day were Sarah Lavin who had a superb double in the 100m and 200m, Ailish Sheehan third in the Javelin and Emma Prendervil 2nd in the walk. Such is the strength of athletics in Munster that all the individual medal winners on the Irish team were from Munster Schools.
Superb Display by under 12 Relay Team
Also in action on Saturday was our under 12 girls relay team who competed in the All Ireland Championships in Tullamore. It is many years since we had relay teams competing at this level. The team of Laura Cusack, Kate Mc Grath, Lorna Cummins and Sinead Flynn had earned their spot in the All Ireland with a third place finish in the Munster Championships. On a wet day in Templemore they ran 1.02.27 to finish behind Gneevaguila and St, Mary’s Limerick. In Tullamore they ran well in the heats to finish second in their heat and qualify for the final. In the final they ran superbly and with flawless baton changing finished in second knocking almost 4secs off their previous best time and also beating the two teams that finished ahead of them in Munster.
Day 4 of the All Ireland Championships
We had ten athletes in action on day four of the national championships. Ciara Scanlan was first in action in the under 16 hammer and she was unlucky to finish just outside the medals with a throw of 31m 11cms. Declan showed he is improving all the time with a time of 4.54.43 over 1500m. Kate Curran and Aoife Kiely both walked well Kate finishing 8th in the under 15 event with a time of 13.00.79 and Aoife 6th in the under 16 in 12.20.58. Joe Conway clocked up a new personal best of 24.08.70 when winning the boys under 18 walk. Brandon Barry finished 7th in the under 16 Triple Jump with a leap of 10m 34. In the throwing events Kate hickey threw 10m 16 to finish 5th in the shot and later finished 10th in the javelin. Our last competitor on the day was Claire Collins who equalled her personal best of 1m 60 to win a silver medal in the under 18 high jump.
News from Finland is that Thomas Houlihan equalled his best jump of 4m 40 when finishing tenth in the Pole Vault at the European Youth Olympics.
We had our last night of the season on Friday last when we travelled to Araglin for their annual sports. This was as usual a very successful end of season event for our athletes. Full results and photos next week. Training has now finished until the end of August so have a good break everyone. A few of our athletes will be in action over the coming weeks Zoe Scanlon and Thomas Houlihan will compete on the Irish team at the Celtic International in Wales and Kate Veale will travel to the AAA championships to compete in the under 17 walk. Lisa Houlihan and Zoe Scanlon are competing, as guests with the Ferrybank in the National League and with both earning maximum points in the earlier rounds are now looking forward to the league final in early August.
