Galway City Harriers' athletic teams have qualified for the National Indoor League finals on February 12.
The women's team placed seventh in the second qualifying round at the Athlone IT Arena, and the men's team was fifth overall.
The women's team produced a strong performance via Eimear Rowe over 400m and Kathryn Casserly in the 1500m, along with Laura Nally, Eva McLoughlin, Aoife Sheehy, Majella Loftus, Emma Moore and Nicole Quirke. The men's team included excellent displays from Robert Meagher, Keith Fallon and Richard Kamson.
Craughwell AC placed a strong seventh spot on the day with a young squad, just missing out on the final. Lukas Schukat impressed winning the high jump for the club, with club record performances including a super 1.54 clocking for Kyle Moorhead over 800m, and a fast 8.32 by William Fitzgerald over 3000m.
National Multi Events Championships
There were more excellent performances at the National Indoor Combined Events Championships in Athlone IT from Athenry AC and Craughwell AC athletes.
Athenry's Liam Shaw won silver in the youth men’s heptathlon, scoring 3,386 points over the seven event programme, which included shot putt, pole vault, 60m flat and hurdles, high jump and long jump, finishing with a 1000m race. Hazel Fahy of Loughrea was another Galway winner, taking bronze in the U14 girls pentathlon with a great all-round display of athletics.
The day yielded an impressive gold, silver and bronze for Craughwell with Sean Hoade taking gold in the U15 pentathlon, Laura Cunningham silver in the senior women’s pentathlon and Emma O’Donovan bronze in the U15 pentathlon.
Hoade was in blistering form as he claimed victory in the hurdles in 9.50 and in the shot putt in 11.32m, second place in the long jump with an impressive 5.30m, fourth place in the high jump with 1.55m and won his heat of the 800m with 2:18.77 to round off a winning day.
In the senior women’s, Laura Cunningham started her silver medal winning day with the 60m hurdles clocking a time of 11.93. She moved up the leaderboard winning the long jump with a leap of 4.67m and the shot putt with a throw of 8.24m, and cleared 1.52m in the high jump and finished with a 2:55.65 in the 800m to take the silver medal.
Emma O’Donovan wrapped up the medals for Craughwell with a superb series of performances to take bronze in the U15 event with two personal bests in the high jump, topping out at 1.50m before clocking 10.46 in the hurdles, throwing 6.98m in the shot and producing a 4.58m long jump to put her in medal contention. She then executed her final event superbly, with a third-place finish 2:35.99 which secured her the bronze medal.
Fixtures
Galway athletes will travel in numbers to the National Masters Indoor Competition which takes place on Sunday at the TUS Arena, Athlone. GCH’s Sean Breathnach, Jim Phelan and Kathryn Casserly will all be looking for medals, along with Craughwell AC, South Galway AC, and Corofin clubs.
