ATHLETICS: Galway Report (13th June 2023)

Connacht Outdoor Championships

Day One of the Connacht Outdoor Championships were held last Saturday in TUS Athlone and saw great success for Galway clubs in a very competitive series of events, which act as National qualifiers at Juvenile level.  Over 200 Galway athletes took part in torrential rain, with great team spirit shown despite the conditions

Galway City Harriers topped the medal table with 26 medals including 8 golds, including a double for Louis Jean Houkponou and a Connacht record U10 Boys relay win with Craughwell achieving 23 medals, including multiple medals for Reailtin Ward, Kate O Leary and Faye Whelan, South Galway 12, Loch Lurgan 6, Castlegar 4, CRH 3, Tuam 2 and East Galway 1. At U9-11 level pairs of two athletes qualify for Nationals, while at U12 and U13 level the top three individuals qualify.

This weekend sees Day Two on Saturday 17th next in TUS Athlone, where the U14-U19 Juveniles, Junior, Senior and Masters championships will be held.

International Selections

Galway Athletics continues to shine at International level, with David and Stephen Mannion of South Galway AC both selected for the Irish U20 4x400m relay team to compete in the Manheim Junior Gala, Germany on 24th and 25th June.

Finlay Daly NUI Galway Alumni has been selected on the Irish Senior team for the upcoming European Team Games and will race over the barriers in the 3000m Steeplechase

Shauna Bocquet of Craughwell AC has won Irish selection as part of the Irish Para Athletics Team has been announced to represent Ireland at the Para Athletics World Championships which take place in Paris from July 8th-17th.

The six-person team features three Paralympic veterans and three new names to Irish para-athletics. Greta Streimikyte, Mary Fitzgerald, Orla Comerford have all represented Ireland at Paralympics Games in Tokyo with Steimikyte and Comerford having also competed at Rio 2016. Cathal Ryan, Aaron Shorten and Shauna Bocquet will make their major championships debut in Paris in just under a month’s time.

Bocquet, has been in excellent form as of late, posting five new personal bests in a variety of distances in Switzerland in May. She followed this up by winning the Elite Wheelchair category at the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon in Dublin in June. She will line up in three races over the course of the championships: the 100m, 400m and 1500m in the T54 category.

National 5km Silver for Moran

Galway City Harriers Ellen Moran claimed National Silver at the recent National 5k Road championships held in Dublin. Moran ran a new best of 16.50 to take second spot just behind winner Olympian Lizzie Lee who just pipped the talented Moran to win in 16.47.

Galway 5km Series

A successful EY Sponsored Galway 5km Series concluded in Athenry recently, with wins for David Mahon in a  series best of 15.35, with Jane Ann Meehan finishing off a great series with 5 wins from 5 races ran, clocking 18.11 for victory. Credit is due to all 6 organizing clubs, and series director Colm McAllen and Colm Byrne of East Galway for their organizational nous

New Facilities

Both Craughwell AC and Athenry AC have recently completed full surfacing of their new tartan 400m tracks- two major steps forwards for Athletics facilities in County Galway, with further developments earmarked for both sites.