Galway athletes were in record-breaking form at the National Juvenille Indoor Championships in Nenagh at the weekend.
Cathriona Farrell of Craughwell AC, Alanna Lally of Galway City Harriers, and the Galway boys’ u-17 relay teams all set new records in their respective event.
Farrell, competing in the u-19 high jump cleared all her jumps at the first attempt, and finished with a 1.77m jump, increasing the national record by 1cm.
Lally won the u-15 800m in 2min 20.73s - an exceptional run which knocked almost two seconds off the old record.
Then on Sunday in the relays the u-17 Galway City Harriers 4x200m boys’ team of Ronan Dobey, Evan McGuire, Sean Kyne and Ben Cooney won with a new championship record time of 1min 35.90s - .4s faster than the previous record.
Galway has produced another two national champions - Keith Fallon and Tomas Keehan.
In a thrilling u-18 boys’ 800m Keith Fallon of GCH claimed victory in 2.01.66, while Peadar O'hAirmhi of Craughwell AC was just one second behind in bronze position, setting a new club record and a personal best time.
Also at u-18 level, Tomas Keehan of Craughwell AC was declared joint first along with Declan Rodgers of Tipperary Town AC in the u-18 boys’ high jump, which finished with four boys jumping identical heights of 1.80m.
There were several Galway athletes in the silver medal positions. Perhaps the most dramatic battle for silver came between Craughwell AC's Linda Porter and GCH's Michelle Maher in the u-17 girls’ 800m. Maher looked like she had done enough, but was just pipped on the line by Porter with only hundreths of a second separating them.
Galway City Harriers’ proud history in the sprints continued with Tara Hession taking silver in the u-18 girls’ 200m in a time of 26.67, while Ben Cooney won silver in the u-17 boys’ 200m in 23.98. Evan McGuire took bronze in the boys’ u-16 200m with a time of 24.56.
Emma Byrne of Craughwell AC won silver in the u-14’ girls 1k walk in a time of 5.23.33, a big pb for her. In addition to this silver there were two bronze walking medals for Craughwell AC - Maeve Curley (u-19 girls’ 1500m ) and Christopher O'Connor (boys’ u-15 1000m ) highlighting the Craughwell club's growing strength in the discipline. Sinead Tuohy took Bronze for Athenry AC in the u-18 girls’ high jump with a leap of 1.45m.
