National Senior Track and Field Indoor championships
Galway Athletics excelled at the National Senior Track and Field Indoor championships held last weekend in Dublin. GCH duo Robert McDonnell and Cillin Greene both struck gold with tremendous victories over 200m and 400m respectively.
Cillin Greene won his third National Indoor 400m title, with a commanding win, after a long road back from post Tokyo injury. Greene breezed through his heats and semifinal and claimed gold with a season best time of 47.20,
Robert McDonnell proved he is back to his best in a competitive 200m field, storming to gold in a blistering 21.05 seconds season’s best. McDonnell had a great battle with reigning champion Mark Smyth of Raheny but was strong enough to accelerate away in the last 50 m to a well-deserved gold.
GCH clubmate Andrew Egan was 5th in the same final, another milestone for him.
As 6th fastest overall from eight heats, Laura Nally of GCH made the Ladies 200m final where she finished 6th. Sinead Treacy of Craughwell hit a club record time in the Ladies 400m heats.
In the field events, Conor Penney of Craughwell AC won a superb National silver medal in the High Jump clearing 2 metres in the process for a famous medal. Evan Hallinan placed 4th and Darragh Kelly 6th, both also for Craughwell AC.
Darragh Fahy of Loughrea AC had a fantastic day at the National Indoor Senior Triple Jump placing 5th overall. Also in the jumps, Jack Hession of Tuam AC lined up with some illustrious company in his first Senior Long Jump and recorded a lifetime best performance of 6.41m in the second round to place a top class ninth position.
Galway race walkers turned out in droves in the Race Walk finals, with the Senior Women’s 3000m Race Walk featuring Savanagh O’Callaghan (5th) Holly Shaughnessy (10th) Caoimhe Phelan (15th) & Ciara Gilmore (17th) all from Tuam, and Beibheann Hosty of Loch Lurgan 12th overall. Mathew Newell of Tuam walked the race of his life in the Men’s 5km, as he produced a time of 21.48, well under the European qualification standard of 23.30
National Intermediate and Masters Cross Country
Galway secured one individual and one team medal at the recent National Intermediate and Masters Cross Country Championships held in Dundalk on the DKIT campus last week. On a cool day and on a very testing course a superb run from GCH’s Martin McEvilly saw him win yet another National title in the M75 category
The six strong Galway Intermediate team won bronze, with scorers including the Castlegar trio of Abaas Edris who was a superb 5th overall, Hafiz Adam, and Eoin Staunton along with Aaron Brennan, John Hayes and Conor Byrne of GCH, all of whom packed well over 8k and won county team bronze for Galway. Castlegar placed 5th in the club event
The GCH F35 team of Gráinne Ní Uallacháin, Esther O’Flaherty, Niamh Hennelly and Dee McCrae placed a very good 6th overall in the Masters event. The quartet also made up the County Galway team, which finished fourth,
Connacht Indoors
The Connacht Indoor Track and Field championships takes place this weekend in Athlone. Day 1 Saturday 24th February features the U12-U14 competitions, with Sunday’s programme scheduling U15 – U19, Seniors and Masters events.
Maree 8k
The annual Maree 8km run takes place in the surrounds of Maree, Oranmore, Co. Galway on Sunday, February 25th 2024 at 12:30pm. This picturesque circuit has been measured to AI standards.
This run starts from the Maree Community Centre out onto Galway Bay, down Twain peninsula, and back to finish at Maree Community Centre.
This event will raise funds to develop local sporting facilities in Maree and is organised by the Maree Community Development Association in conjunction with the Maree Athletics Club. On the day registration is also available along with Eventmaster registration online
