Galway City Harriers’ athletes secured more success at the The National Juvenile Outdoor Track and Field championships which concluded at the weekend.
Jack Barry won the U12 boys' 60m dash, and Christian Ogbemudia stormed to victory in the U15 100m in a championship record of 11.91. He also won silver in the U15 shot put.
Other GCH individual medalists included Elisa Jaime-Stapleton, who won silver in the U12 long jump, Shane McGovern, who took a fighting silver in the U12 600m, Emmanuel Chinagorm, who placed second in the U15 high jump, and Aisling Finn, who secured a bronze in the U16 100m.
In the interclub relays, Galway City Harriers teams were outstanding, winning seven team medals.
GCH U18 girls were in great form, winning double gold in 4x100m relay and the 4x400m via the same squad of Seren O’Toole, Aoibhe Deeley, Eimear Rowe, Chloe Casey and Emma Jane Moran. GCH U19 girls also took relay gold, with the squad of Chloe Casey, Aoibhe Deely, Miriam Greene, and Seren O'Toole.
The city club won the U16 boys' relay gold via Luke Dahler, Robert Urquhart, Conor Hoade, and Callum Healy, while GCH U17 boys continued their club's strong run with gold, via the squad of Conor Trehy, Shaun Gilligan, Niall Breathnach, and Andrew Egan.
GCH boys' U15 team won silver medals via Senan McDonnell, Nick Ukaga, Emmanuel Chinagorom and Franco Jara, with the U18 team winning bronze , the squad comprising Jonathan McGrath, Richard Kamsen, Shaun Gilligan, and Niall Breathnach.
International athletics
Laura Nally of GCH had a dream international debut at the European U20 Championships in Boras, Sweden. Nally featured on the fastest U20 women's 4x400m team in Irish history as they qualified from their heat and eventually made it to fifth place in Sunday's final.
In the heats the four strong quartet of Simone Lalor, Miriam Daly, Nally and Rachel McCann smashed the Irish U20 record with a fast 3:41.28, and the squad later broke that record again by four seconds in the final, with Davicia Patterson coming into the squad.
Kyle Moorhead of Presentation College Athenry competed with distinction on the Irish team in the 1500m steeplechase at the Schools' International Track and Field held in Swansea, Wales. He placed sixth overall in a match versus the best of Irish, English, Welsh and Scottish schools.
Robert McDonnell of Galway City Harriers is competing on the Irish team for the 400m and 4 x 400m relay for the European Youth Olympics to be held in Baku Azerbaijan this week.
National Track and Field League final
Two national medals were won in the finals of the National Track and Field League at which Galway County womens and men’s teams, and GCH men’s teams competed .
Galway women's team, under the stewardship of Sarah Finnegan, won team silver in the premier division for the second year in a row, just losing gold by four points to Dundrum South Dublin AC.
Galway had victories from Veronica Burke in the race walk, Emma O'Hara in the hammer, and the 4x400m relay squad, with some other top performances from the talented squad of Regina Casey, Nicole Walsh, Mary Barrett in the field, Sarah and Rachel Finnegan, Laura Cunningham, Freya Bohan, Sinead Treacy, Arlene Earls, Aisling Joyce, Lydia Doyle, Sinead Gaffney and Kathryn Casserly.
Galway City Harriers men’s team, under the guidance of Cliff Jennings, won bronze medals in the premier division, continuing their consistently high performances in this competition. The club’s star performers were Cillin Greene over 400m and Sean Breathnach taking victories. The GCH squad all contributed valuable scoring points from Eoghan Jennings, Henrique Nkolovata, Michael Breathnach and Brendan Staunton in the field, Jack Maher, Andrew O Donnghaile and John Moroney in the middle distances, Seamus Leddy on the walks, and sprinters, Rob Meagher, Jonah Erugo, and Darren Costello.
Galway County men’s team led by Sean McDermott and Michael Tobin, placed a fine fifth overall in division one, with Brendan Lynch putting in some amazing performances, including a 1.90m high jump and a 55-second 400m hurdles. Lynch, along with Justin Lane, Tommy Farragher, Luke Evans, Gavin Cooney, Jack Miskella, Ryan Gallagher, William Fitzgerald and Samuel Erugo, combined well to place fifth team.
