The National Irish Life Junior Championships part 1 took place this weekend. Having not known if this event would take place during to to the Covid Pandemic it was suddenly announced and the events spread over 2 separate days of competition to cater for the amount of entries. Ciara Dolan competed over 3000m Steeplechase, a very tough event and put in a great performance finishing with a time of 13:17 and claiming 5th place. Ciara is showing great potential at this event looking strong & comfortable at the distance.Eimear Halpin was back throwing discuss this time at Junior throwing a best of 27.87m and is back next week for the 400m hurdles.Adam Leahy was competing over 100m and ran a very good 12.42 seconds in his heat. Adam is competing next week at his favoured event high jump.Well done to our athletes and thanks to our coaches for their persistence with training during all the uncertainty of recent months. Special mention to our members who officiated at the event and ensured a safe environment for competition.
2 National Champions On Sunday the Masters took centre stage in Santry. There is a saying that 'things get better with age' and this is definitely true with regards our Masters athletes. 3 of our members took the road to Dublin. Catherine O'Connor took on the 1500m finishing in 6:11.05 and is now National W55 1500m champion.
Martin Kelly took on the 1500m also and finished in 5:27.14 is now the National M65 1500m champion. Ruaidhri Kedney took on the 200m and secured himself a silver medal finishing in second place with a speedy 24.64.
National juniors day 2 concluded with Eimear Halpin completing her season today and finished it off with a 400mh where she placed 3rd in her heat and 9th place overall in Juniors and will have three more years at this category. An eventful year full of uncertainty due to the Covid pandemic but still trained diligently during lockdown in the hope that competition would resume. She competed in both National Seniors and National Juniors and is now looking forward to 2021 competitions as Winter training commences.
The Irish Life National senior championship day 1 took place The club was ably represented in officials with Mags, Mick, Conor, Cate, Steve and Padraig all assisting to ensure the championships ran to programme and safely with all the additional Covid requirements
Eimear Halpin, in her first year as a junior competed in the 400 hurdles, only her second race over the distance , put in a great effort to finish 5th in her heat clocking up a good pb of 1.11.89
Clodagh Dunbar contested the 400m running 63.34 to finish 6th in her heat.
Michael Deady had a good run posting 11.78 for 100m finishing 7th in heat 3.
Aaron Tierney Smith paid for a very fast 200 fading around the bend but had something in reserve to pull back on the home straight finishing 4th in his heat running 51.97.
Special mention to our coaches for keeping up the momentum of training sessions over a tough time.
Track conditions were difficult with a high wind on the back straight adding to the challenge of racing off the back of a very strange track season with very little real competition.
National Seniors part 2 took place:
On Saturday at the National Championship Eimear Halpin was our sole competitor. She experienced throwing discuss as a senior athlete for the first time and wasnt phased at all by it throwing herself a new PB of 28.82m.
Great work Eimear.
Sunday was sprints for our athletes, 200m sprints. Members Michael Deady & Aaron Tierney Smith were in the blocks and both put in great runs with a 5th place each in their respective heats. Deady put in a seasons best and only 0.6 seconds off his PB. Well done gentlemen.
Dedication during lockdown paid dividends and thanks to their coaches for keeping the athletes focused during such an uncertain time
Eimear & Ailbhe made the trip to the Kilkenny Athletics open meet yesterday. Ailbhe was drawn in the 2nd heat of the 400m and ran just outside her recent pb time. Eimear competed well in her discus and also ran in her first senior 400m hurdles race setting herself a new time at this diatance.
Laura Halpin put her self to good use as a help weighing down the blocks for Michael Bowler of EAC, he was full of praise afterwards.
Thanks to Kilkenny Athletics county board for arranging a very well organised meet with so many track & field events catered for
On Saturday 8th August Eimear Halpin was in the National Field Events Festival in Morton Stadium where she achieved a personnal best in her 1kg discus competition. Great work Eimear.
The sun shone in Enniscorthy on Friday 6th July for the Kilmore Ac time trial meet. Michael Deady ran well and back in the 23's in the 200m while Clodagh Dunbar ran close to her recent outdoor 400m & 200m time. Ailbhe White competed in her first outdoor race of 2020 in the 400m & then the 200m in good times. Thanks to Kilmore Ac for organising the event and looking forward to our next outings!
Also 2 more of our athletes travelled to the Le Cheile meet and performed well in a welcome track meet on Friday. April Keeling finished 4th in her 100m and Adam Leahy was 2nd in his 100m run. Thanks to Le Cheile for organising.
The Virtual King of Greystones triathlon because of Covid-19 it ended up as a virtual edition where you recorded your own times and submitted them to the results crew and the organisers trusted your own honesty to do things right. It did however give people a chance to do the event and John & Sharron Dier did theirs spread out over 445km, starting with the 750m swim at 9am on Friday in Lecanvey in Mayo and then the 20km cycle at 9am Saturday followed by the 5km run at 5pm Saturday. Considering neither of them have run much since the Route 66 challenge, concentrating on fine tuning Sharron's swim technique, both were very happy with all times. Well done to you both from everyone at the club.
At the Moyne AC track meet yesterday 25th July our athletes were glad to be back competing again. A very well organised event. In the Senior Men 100m Michael Deady ran 11.5, Clodagh Dunbar ran the Senior Ladies 200m in 27.72, Aaron Tierney Smyth ran 23.52 in the Senior Mens 200m, Eimear Halpin ran the U17 girls 200m in 28.9 & the Senior Women 400m saw Clodagh Dunbar 1:04.6 & Eimear Halpin 1:06.3.
The Fighting Cocks GFC held their 5k/10k 25th July. One of the first to take place since the Covid lockdown. Our club members travelled up and reported a really well organised event. Finbarr Bradley 18:59 Fran Power 22:18, Grace White 31:39. Sinead Ryan 30:02 & Maeve White 43:58 all ran the 5k loop with Ollie Stack running the 2 loop 10k route in 51:21. Congrats to Finbarr, Fran, Grace & Ollie who all improved their PB times today. Lockdown training paying off now guys.
Ruaidhrí Kedney won the O35 200 m at the Athletics Ireland Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships in Athlone today. Martin Kelly took silver in the over 65 800M and gold in the 1500m. Congratulations to both athletes
The Glynn 5k took place today in a testing route with plenty of hills thrown in to test us. We had a big crew out which is great to see. Club Results : Gavin Hayes 23rd 21.18 Jesse Kielthy 29th 21.50 Tadhg Henderson 43rd 23.59 Darren O'Grady 44th 24.00 Paula Gondard 46th 24.19 John Dier 47th 24.21 Ollie Stack 70th 26.53 Enda O'Sullivan 82nd 28.42 Orla Redmond 83rd 28.46 Dave Percival 092nd 29.23 Sinéad Ryan 106th 31.38 Siobhán Doyle 124th 35.39 Fran Power 168th 49.52 Sharron Dier 169th 49.53 Well done to the organisers on a very well run event and congratulations to all who completed the 5k.
Roisin O'Reilly travelled to Santry today to compete in the National Schools Cross Country. She ran a really strong race finishing in 30th place overall in 15'32 Well done Rosin who was competing for Loreto School wexford.
As the Wexford Racecourse Parkrun celebrated their 5th birthday and also International Womens day our members cancelled their normal Saturday morning training session to be part of the event. A cool and breezy morning saw 125 people showing their support to John Dier and his team of Parkrun volunteers. Club members Dermot Foley 20'44 , Jesse Kielthy 22'05, John Dier 24'44, Mary Gaynor 25'41, Jim Carty 26'06, Helen Sinnott 26'07, Enda O'Sullivan 29'09, Louise Henderson 29'25 & Fran Power 44'46 all got their Saturday morning 5k done and dusted. Well done everyone on a cool windy morning.
Last night Wexford Athletics held their annual awards night in the Riverside Hotel Enniscorthy. A number of members received their medals and awards at this event. Women's Intermediate cross country team silver, Alex Donhue, Helen Sinnott, Louise Henderson. Men's Intermediate Cross Country Bronze Dermot Foley, Neil O'Grady, Paul Donovan & Martin Kelly. Masters cross country o65 Gold Martin Kelly. Intermediate road race team Bronze Alex Donohue, Catherine O'Connor, Paula Gondard & Helen Sinnott. Individual bronze Alex Donohue. Laura Halpin T&f silver hammer, Adam Leahy Novice 100m Gold. Ciara Dolan junior cross country Gold. Morgan Haydon junior cross country Silver. Roisin O' Reilly certificate for representing Ireland in Youth Nations Cup, SIAB and European Youth Olympics. Catherine O' Connor Masters mile Bronze, Masters o55 cross country Gold & Masters 800m Silver. Certificate for representing Ireland in the Celtic University International were presented to Conor Wilson (captain, competing in 200m and 4x100m relay) and Shaun Donohue (400m and 4x400m relay) . Congratulations to everyone. (Photo credit to Sean Rowe)