National Junior and U23 Championships
Cillin Greene (348) GCH in action at the National U23 Championships held in Tullamore Saturday, winning 200m Silver in this race
Saturday June 30th last saw the start of the 2018 Track and Field Championships, as the National Juniors and U23 Championships were held in in Tullamore, with many Galway athletes securing National silverware, with three individual National golds being the highlight . Galway City Harriers athlete Nicole King showcased her great talent, claiming National gold in the U23 400m event with a fast 56.42, while Brendan Lynch of Loughrea AC also won a National title, with victory in the Junior Men’s 400m Hurdles. Veronica Burke of Ballinasloe and District AC continues to impress, as she won the U23 Womens 3000 m walk. Craughwell AC also secured top overall Junior Womens Club team at the event, which means they are now eligible to compete at the European Clubs Track and Field Cup in Portugal in September.
Cillin Greene of the city club sprinted to silver in the U23 Men’s 200m, while his clubmate Jack Dempsey was in top form over 100m, and won bronze in the Junior Men’s 100m final clocking 10.79.
Dempsey has been selected on the Irish 4x100m Relay team for the World Youth Championships to be held in Finland this month.
Aisling Joyce of GCH secured bronze after a hard-fought Women’s 1500m at U23 level, while Thomas McStay and Jack Maher both ran well for fifth and seventh in the 1500m Junior Men’s event. Aoife Sheehy just missed out on a medal, with strong runs for fourth in the 400m and fifth on the 400 Hurdles
Craughwell AC's Medallists at the National U20 and U23 Championships in Tullamore.
Caron Ryan - U20 National 5000m Champion, Chloe Casey - bronze medallist in the U20 Shot Putt,
Conor Duggan - bronze medallist in the U23 200m and Sinead Treacy - silver medallist in the U23 200m & 400m
Craughwell AC’s U20 and U23 athletes were in flying form, taking home five individual medals, and two sets of relay medals. In the U23 events, Sinead Treacy raced to double silver, in the 200m final in a time of 25.60 and again in the 400m final in 59. 31. Conor Duggan showed he is right back to form after along injury lay off, when securing the bronze medal in final of the U23 Men’s 100m.
Caron Ryan took gold in Junior Women’s 5000m in a time of 19:01.54 – making light of the intense Tullamore heat in the process. Chloe Casey stepped up age groups from U17 to U20 and secured a brilliant bronze in the Shot putt with a throw of 10.64 and later placed fourth in the Discus.
Craughwell AC secured bronze in both Women’s relays, as their 4x100m team raced to bronze in a time of 52.45 with Freya Bohan, Chloe Casey, Aisling Keady and Laura Cunningham on the squad, while the 4x400m team did likewise in a time of 4:24.06 with Arlene Earls, Lorraine Delaney, Shauna Tobin and Ciana Reid scoring.
NUIG athletes also performed with distinction as Ciara Barry of Crusaders AC & NUIG won U23 400 hurdles silver and 200m bronze, and sprint hurdler Sarah Quinn (St Coleman’s Mayo and NUIG) won a bronze medal over the 100 hurdles.
The GCH 4x400 metre relay team of Diego Brule, Thomas McStay, Darren Costello and Rob Meagher claimed a bronze medal in the last race of the day, to round off a great day’s action
National Juvenile Championships Day One
Day One of the National Juvenile Track and Field competition was held in Tullamore Sunday last, and featured the National Paired Juvenile team events and Relays for Under 9s, 10s and 11s along with the U12 and 13 Field events.
Darragh Fahy of Loughrea AC showed his class, winning a National gold medal in the U12 Long Jump with a best of 4.60 metres. Craughwell AC athletes had tremendous success across the programme, as Darragh Kelly secured a brilliant individual National High Jump title in the U12 Boys with a leap of 1.45m.
In the paired events Craughwell secured multiple medals, as Emma O'Donovan and Lauren Kilduff took gold medals in the U11 Girls Long jump event with big leaps of 3.86m and 3.68m. Ben Moran and Dara Zimmerer took silver in the U11 Boys Long Jump with bests of 4.22m and 3.64 m, while Lauren Morgan and Mia Hollingworth did likewise in the U10 Girls Long Jump with leaps of 3.56m and 3.41m. Calum McMahon and Alan Hallinan took bronze in the U9 Boys 60m paired event in times of 10.00 and 10.29, and later added a superb silver medal in the 300m in times of 53.84 and 53.16.
Tuam AC Juveniles also had great success. At Under 12level, Danielle Moynihan won Silver with a superb clearance of 1.36metres in the High Jump. In the Under 9events, the Girls pair of Eimear Fallon and Rachel Treacy won Silver in 300m, while in the Boys, Eanna McGrath and Cian McGinn won bronze in the 300m.Tuam Under 9s boy’s relay squad struck bronze with the team comprising Cian McGinn, Thomas Riordan, Eanna McGrath and Odhran Kelly.
Galway City Harriers pair of Juno Hayes and Elisa Jaime Stapleton put on a fantastic performance at to claim bronze medals in the U11 Girls 60m teamed pairs. Juno ran 9.56 seconds and Elisa 9.67 seconds.
This weekend’s programme features the Juvenile Relays at U12-19 and the Juvenile B Championships
Castlegar Track and Field Tribal games
Paul Robinson just pips Rory Chesser to the line in the Mens Mile. Pic - John O'Connor
Castlegar AC’s Tribal Games were held Saturday evening last in the beautiful setting of Merlin Woods City Park in Doughiska. The track and field event saw huge numbers take part across a busy programme, expertly coordinated by Sean McDermott, John Connolly and Stephen Casserly of the Castlegar club,
The two main events of the evening featured the 100m and Elite Miles, with Richard Kamson of GCH winning the Men’s race and Majella Loftus of GCH first home in the Ladies event.
Irish international Paul Robinson of St Cocas AC pipped Ennis Track’s Rory Chesser to victor in an exciting men’s mile race, won in 4.21 on the grass track. Third home was Kevin Chesser also of Ennis
Christine McMahon won the Ladies Mile, ahead of Jean O Connor and Tara Whyte, both of GCH
John Connolly of Castlegar AC presents Majella Loftus of GCH with her prize for winning the Castlegar 100m Ladies race. Pic - John O'Connor
National League
The National Track and Field League’s second and final qualifying round will be held Sunday next July 8th in Athlone. GCH, Galway Ladies and Galway Men’s teams are all still in contention to make the League final. GCH lie second in the Premier Division, with Galway ladies fifth in the Premier, and Galway Men’s team place fifth in Division One.
Headford 8k
This year’s Headford 8k Charity Road Race takes place on Saturday 7th July next at 7PM and this year marks the 14th anniversary of the popular road race, all proceeds of which go to support people with intellectual disabilities.
The race course is accurately measured and has an Athletics Ireland permit.
Race headquarters is at the GAA pitch, in Headford town on the Shrule Road, with changing and shower facilities available.
Registration for the event online is at https://www.active.com/headford-cogalway/running/distance-running-races…, with limited entry on the evening from 5.30PM at the GAA pitch.
