West Waterford Athletic Club Notes
First Munster Title for Nolween le Gal and Orla Quealy
Last Saturday and Sunday the first session of the Munster Club Championships were held in Templemore. After the glorious weather of the past week and the wonderful night at the county schools finals all our athletes were looking forward to a good days athletics in Templemore. Oh how things can change in a day. Saturday dawned overcast and by the time we got to the track the temperatures had dropped considerably and winter clothes were dragged back on. With such a bad forecast everything got under way in record time and soon we had sprints, long jumps and ball throws underway. West Waterford young athletes showed they we well up to standard of the best in Munster as they qualified for sprint semi finals and finals. The first medals of the day came in the under 9 ball throw when Nolween Le Gal and Orla Queally combined to take gold. The under 9, 10, and 11 events are all team events where the scores of both performers are added to decide the final placings. With a throw of over 22m Nolween had the longest throw of the day with herself and Orla clear winner in this event. Later in the day Nolween and Claudia Quarry combined in the 300m to take the bronze medals. In the other under 9 events Claudia and Ciara Mc Kenna finished 9th in the sprint event and Ciara and Orla were 7th in the long jump.
Such were the numbers in the under 11 long jump that it took almost two hours to complete and with no shelter around the young athletes were almost numb with the cold by the time it was completed. Caoimhe Dwyer, Aoife Brown, Rachel Wyley and Chloe Fennell all competed but as yet we have no results. Also taking part in their first Munster championships were Aine Flynn and Aisling Beauman who competed in the under 10 long jump and sprint. In the distance events Sinead Flynn won her heat to claim a place in the girls under 12 600m final while Tholm Reddy was our other qualifier in the boys under 13 event. Cliona Ryan, Sarah Wyley and Oisin O’ Mahoney all ran well in their heats but did not progress to the finals. Meanwhile in the high jump Lorna Cummins put in a great performance to clear 1.15 and finish second to claim her first individual Munster medal. The gusting wind and rain made it very difficult for the throwing events and in particular the javelin where Eoin Dwyer and several of the other competitors found the wind pulling the javelin in all directions
Relays an Endurance Test
After a short break the relays got under way and then the rain teemed down making life difficult for everyone. To speed up events they decided to run the relays on time. Our under nine girls ran very well and finished third in their heat. The under 12 team of Laura Cusack, Kate Mc Grath, Lorna Cummins and Sinead Flynn gave a flawless performance of baton changing and led all the way to emerge clear winners of their heat. The second heat was a much closer affair with the teams pushing each other to a very fast time. When the results were computed West Waterfords girls were third with only hundreds of seconds separating the first four teams.
First Munster Track Title for Sinead Flynn
We had much to cheer about on Sunday, for a start the weather was much better. Sinead Flynn was our only girl in action on Sunday. From the start of the 600m she was up in the leading group running on the outside to avoid any bumping with 150m to go she lengthened her stride and made for home a convincing winner of her first track title. In the boys under 10 Jerome Power gave everything he had even throwing himself across the line and with a strong performance from Cian Fagan in the second race their combined times earned them silver medals. Jerome and Jamie Walsh finished in 6th in the long jump while Diarmuid Harty and Cian competed in the ball throw. A fall at the start of the under 11 600m which left Micheal Power a badly bruised knee didn’t help his chances in this race though he battled strongly to finish third but it definitely hinder his performance in the long jump later on but both he and Aidan Mc Kenna carried on as best they could. Tholm Reddy ran in the final of the under 13 600m where he had an even better run than the day before. On Saturday he finished 6th in his heat but on Sunday when the top twelve from both heats were in action he again finished 6th and in the final 200m made a brave bid to close the gap on the 3rd , 4th , and 5th placed athletes. In the relays our under 9 team of Cian Fagan, Jamie Walsh, Diarmuid Harty and Jerome Power qualified from the first heat and finished 7th in the final but our under 13 team of Richard Casey, Tholm Reddy, Eoin Dwyer and Sean Curran found they did not have the speed to compete with the teams that are used to training on the tartan tracks. Well done to all who competed especially in the cold and rain hopefully we will have abetter day at the all Irelands.
All Ireland Qualifiers
Nolween Le Gal, Orla Queally – Ball throw under 9
Nolween le Gal, Claudia Quarry –300m under 9
Jerome Power. Cian Fagan —-500m under 10
All on in Templemore on Saturday 27th June starting at 11am but athletes must check in before 10.30.
Lorna Cummins – High Jump under 12 — Saturday 11th July Tullamore
Sinead Flynn — 600m under 12 — Sunday 12th July Tullamore
Laura Cusack, Lorna Cummins, Kate McGrath, Sinead Flynn — under 12 Relay
Sunday 19th July Tullamore.
Club Championships Start Wednesday
The first session of the club championships will ger under way on Wednesday night when we will run off the sprint events. This will be followed on Friday night by the girls Long Jump and the Ball Throw/shot Putt for the boys. The event will continue the following week with the long jump for boys and throwing for girls on Wednesday and concludes on Friday the 19th with the distance races in all age groups. Points will be awarded in each event and trophies will be presented at the end of the four events.
