Jerry Keary and Laura Cunningham soaring high over 1.90m and 1.55m in Athlone

A number of athletes travelled to Athlone IT for the Northwest Games on Saturday, a relatively new competition organised by Bernie O’Callaghan of Donegal Athletics. There were some tremendous early season performances, particularly in the high jump and the 800m. Jerry Keary and Laura Cunningham both took gold in the senior men and women’s high jump events with Jerry soaring high over 1.95m and almost getting 2 metres on his second attempt and Laura clearing 1.55m and coming very close to nailing 1.60m on each attempt.

The brilliant jumping continued later in the day in the U14 event where our athletes were stepping up an age but it proved no barrier as Evan Hallinan soared to victory with a 1.60m PB clearance in the U14 boys event and Jade Moorhead had 2 brilliant PBs of 1.50m and 1.55m to win the U14 girls event. Aoibhe Carr made a brilliant return to the high jump with bronze medal winning clearance of 1.35m while Alicia Locteau also soared to a PB of 1.30m.

Katie Scully was also in great form in the U14 Girls long jump with a PB leap of 4.27m, an event where Jade, Aoibhe and Alicia also jumped very well but just waiting for the official details of their jumps. While both Laura Cunningham and Shauna Tobin were unlucky to break their first 2 jumps in the U18 Girls long jump before Laura leaped to 4.57m and Shauna 4.09m on their final jumps with Laura taking the silver medal. And in the boys U14 long jump, both Evan Hallinan and Daniel Galvin jumped very well but again the official results will confirm their leaps.

In the sprints, Sinead Treacy was in good form in the senior 60m running 8.08 while Fauve Aylmer was very impressive also in the U14 60m. While in the hurdles, Katie Scully, Evan Hallinan and Daniel Galvin all ran strongly competing against athletes a year older than them.

Kyle Moorhead ran a solid race to place mid-pack in the U16 1500m while late in the day, the 800m races threw up some riveting performances firstly from Carla Noone who placed 3rd in her heat in a time of 2.47.1 and followed swiftly by a fantastic run from Fauve Aylmer to also take 3rd place in her heat in an impressive time of 2.30.65. Daniel Galvin placed mid-pack in the U14 boys race in a time of 2.33.3 while Ben Garrard ran a brilliant 2.01 off limited training to place 2nd in the Junior Men’s race. But the bravest run of them all came from Gavin Cooney in the Senior Men’s 800m where he blitzed through the 600m in a phenomenal 1.27 before lactic acid took hold in the final 150m and cost Gavin an incredible PB … finishing in 2.04 or 2.05. But very very positive for going sub-2 soon and with his eyes on Peadar Harvey’s club record of 1.57.21.

And in the final race of the day, the U14 girls put in a great performance in their 4x200m placing 1st in their heat in a time of 2.05.98 and claiming the bronze medals. Summary results are here: 2017.12.30.NorthWestGames.pdf.

And just a small footnote comment on some of the U14 performances – Fauve’s 800m , Jade’s 1.55m and Evan’s 1.60m places all 3 athletes at the top of our best ever performances from U13 age group … super performances from all three athletes.

Laura Cunningham gold medalist in the high jump and silver medalist in the long jump
at the North West Indoor Games in Athlone