Athletics
In an action packed weekend there were many stars but the brightest in the Kilkenny firmament was the cluster of under-17 boys from the St Joseph’s club. At the Tullamore Harriers Stadium on Saturday morning they clocked 46.91 seconds to win the gold in the national inter-club 4X100 relay. After lunch they took a second gold with an outstanding performance in the 4 X 400 relay.
Later in the evening they became the county team which finished second in the inter-county 4X100 relay in 46.98 seconds. The Aughavillar boys under-13, with 55.44 seconds won silver in the boys inter-club 4 X 100 and then with Paul Manning, St Joseph’s played a major role in the inter-county 4 X 100 victory in 53.62 seconds. The girls under 15 from Kilkenny City Harriers in a time of 52.68 seconds, finished in bronze position, missing out on silver by one hundredth of a second. Three of that team, Cliodhna Manning, Catriona Twomey and Sinead McDonough, together with Aoife O’Connor, Thomastown, later won silver with the inter-county team in the somewhat slower time of 53.75 seconds.
Meanwhile at the schools international in the Antrim Forum, Louise Holmes, Kilkenny College, won gold with the Irish 4 X 100 relay team which came first in 47.56 seconds. Laura Langton, Presentation Loughboy, had an excellent run in the 80m hurdles, coming sixth in 12.05 seconds.
Brian Maher, Kilkenny City Harriers, had a useful workout in theAdidas 5 mile in Phoenix Park on Saturday morning. Completing the race in 24 minutes 47 seconds he placed third behind Joseph Boit, Kenya, in first place and Gary Ryan, Galway in second.
At a graded meet in Irishtown, Toss Hayes, KCH, running in the 3K, showed marked improvement with a personal best performance of 9.09.41.
It was back to Tullamore on Sunday for the final day of the juvenile individual track and field championships. There were some fine performances, with Kilkenny athletes winning one gold and three silver medals. The gold was won by Mary Kate Lanigan, Kilkenny City Harriers, in the under-18 high jump. Having won the event at 1.60 she pushed on to clear 1.70m before bowing out having narrowly missed the bar at 1.75m. Under-15 athlete Cliodhna Manning, Kilkenny City Harriers, took five medals in total from this year’s national championships. Last weekend she medalled in the 80m and 250m hurdles. On Saturday she scored in club and county relays and on Sunday she won silver in the 200m. Winning her semi-final in 26.57 she ran one of her best races to date in the final to finish a close second in 25.82 seconds, earning her third individual medal. John Murphy, Gowran, had an excellent race in the 1,500m final for boys under 17. Moving into a good position on the final lap he was able to afford a smile as he made it into second place, crossing the line in four minutes 12 seconds. The third silver went to the St Senan’s club courtesy of under-18 athlete Fiona Dennehy. Fiona had to work hard to hold second place in the 3K walk, which she finished in 15 minutes 24 seconds. There were some near wins, none closer than KCH girl, Aoife Corcoran in the under 18 long jump. Her first two jumps were her best at over five meters but were not counted because of a break at the board. Her best recorded jump of the day was 4.98 meters just two centimetres outside the bronze medal. Conor Rochford, St Senan’s, was fourth in the under-19 1,500m final. Fifth places went to Michael O’Sullivan in the under-18 high jump to Nicholas Dunphy in the under-15 walk, and to Megan Morrissey, Thomastown in her 1,500m.
Ciara Everard and Aoife Hickey headed off on Friday to Novi Sad in Serbia to compete in the European Juniors.
