There were many excellent performances from Kilkenny athletes at the national track and field championships in Santry at the weekend.
There were very contrasting weather conditions on the two days with an amount of heavy rain on Saturday making life difficult for everyone. Sunday was warm and sunny making for better competition and a happier atmosphere for spectators.
Saturday brought many excellent results. Hammer throwers Aoife Hickey and Teresa Conlon were first to brave the rain and both were in fine form. In the absence of Eileen O’Keeffe, national champion for the past nine years, a new champion had to be crowned. Eventually the 2010 title went to Rebecca Baehni, Sli Cualann with a throw of 54.66m, just pipping Aoife Hickey who won silver. Aoife’s best throw of 54.23m was some three meters plus improvement on her 2009 performance. Teresa Conlon qualified for the final eight when she threw a new PB of 42.73. She then proceeded to set further PBs with throws of 42.88m and 43.80m.
The action then moved to the track where John Fagan with a second place in the semi-final of the 400m hurdles easily qualified for Sunday’s final where he won bronze in an excellent time of 52.60 secs. Next up was the semi-finals of the 200m. Eoin Muldowney, Castlecomer, missed out on the men’s final by the narrowest of margins. For the ladies both Catriona and Joanne Cuddihy got through to the finals with Joanne winning bronze in 24.21 seconds and Catriona finishing fifth in 25.31 seconds. Then in the 800s both Ciara Everard, UCD, and Eoin Everard, Kilkenny City Harriers, made it through to Sunday’s finals. In the women’s final Ciara ran much of the first 400m in second place but entering the final lap she slipped back to third and ultimately crossed the line in fifth place in two minutes 10.62 seconds. Eoin ran a very competitive race. Comfortably in second place at the bell, he made his move to the front with 250m to go. With hindsight he possibly moved too soon and was passed on the home straight finishing fourth in 1 minute 50.09 seconds.
The men’s 10,000m race was on Saturday. Brian Maher, fifth in 2009, gave a courageous and storming performance over the 25 laps to take the silver medals in 30 minutes 03.5 seconds. The winner, Gary Thornton, Galway City Harriers, opened up a lead of some 120m over the first lap. Maher was in second place with a string of eight runners close behind. Unflinchingly he held his second place as the string dropped to six and four and then three. The three - Joe McAllister, Barry Minnock and Serguie Cibanu, were poised behind Maher waiting for the moment as they did in 2009 to make their move. However Maher wasn’t having it and with just over 400m to go he injected pace and ran out a comfortable and happy silver medal winner.
Saturday concluded with both Cuddihy girls qualifying through the semi-finals for the 400m final on Sunday. An in form Joanne coasted to victory in 52.76 seconds while Catriona finished with a PB of 55.48 seconds. The 100m sprints were held on Sunday. Louise Holmes bowed out at the semifinal stage in this her first national senior championships with a time of 12.77 seconds. Jonathan Holmes, silver medalist in 2009, won his heat in 10.75 seconds. Finishing second in the semi-final didn’t auger well. In a very competitive final with ten fairly evenly matched runners he finished strongly to take the gold in 10.71 seconds ahead of Steven Colvert, Crusaders and Seye Ogunlewe, Celbridge. In addition to the gold medal he was also presented with The Paddy Larkin Memorial Trophy. The final medal for Kilkenny City Harriers went to Juraj Kubis in the javelin. Juraj who won gold in 2009 when he threw 59.54m had to be content with silver on this occasion despite having a slightly better distance of 60.01 meters. Niall Sheehan, Gowran, showed good form in the final of the 5000m. Finishing in 9th place, his time of 15 minutes 01.94 was almost 30 seconds up on his 2009 performance. Eoin Kelly, St Abban’s, retained his triple jump title with a jump of 14.83 meters. All in all a very good performance by our athletes.
National League – Round 2
Kilkenny City Harriers travel to Santry stadium on Sunday for the second round of the National League. The men who compete in fifteen events in the first division enter round 2 in sixth place. The ladies are involved in the premier division, having won the first division in 2009. They will score in seventeen events and currently lie in joint 10th position. A full muster, firing on all fronts will be needed for both teams to progress to the League final on August 14.
