Season Ends on High Note with Five Gold Medals
Double for Dermot Ryan
Newcomer Dermot Ryan was not daunted by his first appearance in Tullamore to compete at the All Ireland B Championships. He was first in action shortly after 10am when he competed in the boys under 13 80m sprint. He did not get the best of starts stumbling slightly as he came out of the blocks but he recovered quickly to power his way up the straight and cross the line a clear winner. Two hours later he was back on his marks for the under 13 600m. He settled in well over the first 200m by then allowed a big gap to open and with 250m to go it looked like he would have to settle for silver however coming into the last 150m he upped the paced several gears and came flying off the last bend to claim victory in the home straight in a time of 1m45.3 with long time leader David Mulhare of Nt Laois a second behind.
Claire Collins claims gold in the High Jump
Last year Claire came to these championships as a relative novice and came home with a silver medal. This time round she showed how much she had improved in a year. She won the event in convincing style going clear at every height at her first attempt and winning in a new personal best jump of 1m 46cm. She went on to attempt 1m 50cm and came close to achieving this mark.
Kate Hickey and Siobhan Nugent win gold in the Shot Putt
West Waterfords continued good form in the throwing events was evident with two more gold medals in the shot putt. First in action was Kate Hickey in the girls under 13. Kate underlined her improvement in this event with a fine throw of 9mts 54cms and led the competition from start to finish to collect her first All Ireland gold. We had a repeat performance in the girls under 14 where again Siobhan Nugent led from start to finish to win this event. Siobhan was well clear of Helena Nugent of Grange Fermoy.
Bronze for David Early
David Early who took third place in a very fast race won the final medal of the day. David was very happy with his time of 2 28.9 which was the result of a lot of hard training sessions over the past number of weeks. In the last event of the day Lughaidh found himself up against the big boys when he competed in the under 16 800m. He finished strongly in 10th place with a time of 2.30.2.
Munster Championships under 9 – 12
Eleven of our younger athletes travelled to Waterford to take on the best in Munster at a very competitive championship. Medals were hard to come by so well done to Aisling Mullanney (girls under 9 long jump) and Michael Coleman (boys under 12 600m) who both won bronze medals at these championships. Well done to Caoimhe Dwyer, Emily Quinn, Cliona Ryan, Dominique O’Mahoney, Aidan Mc Kenna, Josh Rockett, Oisin O’Mahony, Eoin Ryan, and Tholm Reddy who competed for the first time at this level and the experience will stand them in good stead in the coming years.
A.A.A. Championships
Thomas Houlihan was in action with the Irish team in Sheffield last weekend where he again cleared 4.00mts to finish 6th in the A.A.A. He will stay in England for the next week for specialist coaching in the pole vault which could see him improve further in this event.
Mazda League
Well done to the senior mens team who won the National League final last weekend.
Trip to Paris
Our flights are now booked and plans are well under way for the 22 athletes and officials who will travel to Paris next November. Training for this group continues every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
