Once again Kilkenny’s juvenile athletes have done themselves and their county proud. There were in excess of thirty first place finishes by Kilkenny athletes at the Under 13 to Under 19 Leinster Track and Field championships held in Tullamore over the weekend.
And it wasn’t just wins. Two up and coming athletes from the Gowran club set new championship records in the steeplechase. Sorcha O’Connor clocked 8 minutes 39.04 seconds in the 2000m under 17 and Shawn McCormack had an excellent time of 11 minutes 05.82 seconds in the 3,000m under 18. Other Gowran athletes who had the golden touch were Aoife Naddy in the under 13 high jump; Rebecca Kennedy in 75m hurdles; Mary Ellen Doyle with victories in 800m and 1,500m; Diarmuid Hickey in shot and discus and Sophie Parkinson in discus. St Joseph’s Club had many stars. Not least was under 14 athlete Paul Manning who won 80m, 200m and 800m. Others bringing gold to the southern club were Jack Saunders in triple jump and 400m; Eoin Power in 100m hurdles and 300m hurdles and Shauna Power in the walk. Aughaviller had gold with Victor Costello in the high jump. Thomastown’s Aoife Holden won the under 13 javelin and John Joe Kelly was the star for Brow Rangers winning both shot and discus. Kilkenny City Harriers had three wins in the high jump – Charmaine O’Donoghue in under 14, Sinead McDonagh in under 16 and Mary Kate Lanigan in under 19. There were double gold’s for Lorraine O’Shea (100m and 200m under 17 ), Laura Langton (200m and 300m hurdles under 18 ) and Louise Holmes (100m and 200m under 19 ) and individual gold for Teresa Conlon in hammer, Nicholas Dunphy in walk and Sarah Nolan in 400m. (Full results next week ).
