West Waterford Athlete Top the Podium at Munster Championships in Castleisland and Waterford
Munster Shot Title for Jarlath Hurney
The Munster Track and Field Championships were held over the last two weekends in Castleisland and Waterford. Five athlete from West Waterford made the long drive to Castleisland to compete in the under 9-13 championships. Jarlath Hurney was in flying form winning the boys under 12 shot with a putt of 8m82. Only two of the 22 competitors threw over 8metres. Later in the day Jarlath qualified through the heats of the 60m and finished 3rd in the final. Jarlath has now qualified to compete in the All Ireland under 12 championships next Sunday in Tullamore. Mario Zakis was competing in only his second javelin competition and he threw a huge personal best of 23m07 finishing 4th in the event and qualifying for his first All Ireland in Tullamore on July 7th. Andy Zakis and David Kiely finished 12th of the 22 teams in the boys under 10 long jump. Jamie Kiely finished in the middle of a big field in the boys under 11 turbo javelin.
Another Munster Title for Sophie Beresford
Sophie Beresford continued her winning ways and added the Munster club title to the Munster schools title she had won earlier in the year. The distance this time was longer and she covered the 2000m course in 10.30.72 and finished almost 3mins ahead of the second placed athlete. Doireann Hickey interrupted her Leaving Cert studies to compete in the under 19 girls walk where she finished 2nd in the 5000m in a time of 17.48.23. The event was won by Aoife Tutthill whose older sister Nicola was a finalist in the European hammer competition in Rome last week. To round off a good days work by our race walkers Eabha Hickey finished 3rd in the girls under 18 3000m. All three girls will now progress to the All Ireland finals on July 21st.
First Munster Title for Michalina Goclik
In her second year in competition Michalina has made huge strides with two big personal bests over the weekend in the shot and discus under 16 . On Saturday in a very competitive competition she threw over 9mts for the first time and finished with 9.17 to take third place. On Sunday she pulled out all the stops in the discus flighting it out to 25m97 to win her first Munster title in the under 16 discus.
Silver for Saoirse Quinn and Ava Kiely
In her final Munster competition as a juvenile Saoirse Quinn claimed silver in the under 19 girls discus with a throw of 28m28. As Saoirse was coming to the end of her time in the juvenile ranks Ava Kiely was competing in her first Munster discus championships. Ava competed last year in the shot and made it into the top 8 and won her first Munster medal in the B championships. This year she was determined to make the medals in the A championship and qualify for the All Ireland. She did it in style adding almost 8mts to her personal best and finishing second in the competition with a throw of 22m66. Later in the day Ava competed in the under 14 80m where she qualified from her heat to the semi final and just barely missed out on a place in the final.
Bronze for Eoghan O’Brien and PB’s for Peter Ahern and Lochlann Hurney
In the boys under 19 discus Eoghan O’Brien won bronze with 27m76. The results mirrored last years under 18 event with Waterford athletes filling the top three spots. In his second discus competition Peter Ahern threw a new personal best of 18m21 to finish in 5th place. Lochlann finished just outside the top 8 in both the shot and discus but threw a personal best of 17m06 in the hammer to finish 4th and qualify for the All Ireland.
First Munster Medal for Dubhalta Mac Mhurchadha
New to this level of competiton Dubhalta Mac Mhurchadha was competing in his first Munster championships. On Saturday he competed in the 3000m where he finished in 3rd place with time of 10m34.77. On Sunday he finished 6th in a very competitive 1500m in 4.51.88. Dubhalta has now qualified to compete in his first All Ireland. Also competing on Sunday was Naoise Mac Mhurchadha who finished 5th in a very fast under 18 1500m Naoise clocked a time of 4.28.24.
4th place for Isabelle Gaffney and Naoise Commins
With the wind swirling and the rain pelting down conditions were tough for the 800m runners but they made the best of it. Isabelle Gaffney finished 4th in the girls under 15 800m in 2.19.73 just 5 hundreds of a second off a podium place. Noah Commins also finished 4th in the under 16 boys in 2.03.72 which was 4secs faster than his run a few weeks ago in the schools competition. Noah is inching closer all the time to that magical 2min barrier. Both Isabelle and Noah have qualified for the All Irelands on July 7th.
Ruby Stockwell Qualifies for 80m Hurdles Munster Final
Ruby Stockwell, Kasey Connors and Darren Doherty were all competing in the Munster Championships for the first time. On Saturday Ruby competed in the 80m hurdles where she finished 2nd in her heat and qualified automatically for the final. In the final last years All Ireland champion was first across the line with Ruby coming home in 6th place. On Sunday both Kasey and Ruby competed in the 250m hurdles. Kasey finished third in her heat to finish 5th overall and Ruby finished 9th. Darren Doherty competed in the boys under 14 80m finishing third in his heat where just two went through to the final. In the shot he made the cut and got into the last 8 where he finished 7th in 8.32. We will see these three athletes in action again over the next few years.
All Ireland Qualifiers
Sunday June 23rd Jarlath Hurney Shot and 60m
Sunday June 7th Michalina Goclik Shot : Saoirse Quinn Discus : Eoghan O’Brien Discus: Lochlann Hurney Hammer: Isabelle Gaffney 800m: Noah Commins 800m: Mario Zakis Javelin.
Sunday 21st Ava Kiely Discus: Michalina Goclik Shot: Dubhalta Mac Mhurchadha 3000m: Naoise Mac Mhurchadha 3000m: Sophie Beresford racewalk: Eabha Hickey racewalk: Doireann Hickey racewalk.
