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 at Saturday’s National Championships in Tullamore taking home 5 individual medals, 2 sets of relay medals as well as 3 fourth place finishes during a busy day of athletics. The club also contested the U20 women’s team event for the first time and our unofficial calculations of the team scores put us at the top of the leader board with 111 points and hopefully winning selection as Ireland’s club team to contest the European U20 Clubs Championships in Portugal this September!

In the U23 events, Sinead Treacy raced to double silver in the 200m final in a time of 25.60 and in the 400m final in a time of 59.31. Sinead’s 400m time was a new club record, one of 5 club records set on the day by a splendid series of performances by our U20s and U23s. Conor Duggan came within 1 hundredth of a second of his own club record when racing 10.96 in the heats of the U23 Men’s 100m and won a hard-earned bronze medal in the final in a time of 10.99. Conor later following this up with 22.55 in the semi-finals of the 200m and a 6th place finish in the final in 22.73. Jack Miskella placed 9th in a high quality U23 Men’s 800m final in a time of 2.05.68.

Craughwell AC’s Medal Winning 4x100m Team
Aisling Keady, Laura Cunningham, Chloe Casey and Freya Bohan

The club fielded a squad of 10 athletes in the U20 Women’s events in an attempt to win the team event and qualify for the European finals in Portugal later this year. Caron Ryan led the way for the club with a splendid victory and club record in the 5000m in a time of 19:01.54 – making light of the intense Tullamore heat in the process. Chloe Casey stepped up 3 ages groups from U17 to U20 to record a brilliant bronze in the shot putt with a throw of 10.64 and later placed 4th in the discus, just outside the medals with a throw of 31.70. Chloe’s performances followed on from a fine bronze medal a week ago at the Taillteann Games when throwing the discus out to 32.26.

The strength in depth of the club was shown in the relays where we fielded 8 different athletes on our 4x100m and 4x400m teams with both teams making the podium within minutes of each other at the end of a long day. The 4x100m team raced to bronze in a time of 52.45 with Freya Bohan, Chloe Casey, Aisling Keady and Laura Cunningham while the 4x400m team did likewise in a time of 4:24.06 with Arlene Earls, Lorraine Delaney, Shauna Tobin and Ciana Reidy.

Craughwell AC’s Medal Winning 4x400m Team
Arlene Earls, Shauna Tobin, Ciana Reidy and Lorraine Delaney

Laura Cunningham was the team’s highest scorer with points in the relay and in 5 individual events, placing 4th in the high jump with a 1.55m leap, 4th in the javelin with an incredible 26.07m which is a new club record, 7th in the shot putt with 7.12m, 9th in the triple jump with 9.81m and 10th in the long jump with 4.66m. Laura was clearly suffering from heat fatigue in the latter 2 events having been on her feet for 2 hours in the shot putt and high jump immediately prior to the long jump, and again later for an hour at the javelin immediately before the triple jump.

Aisling Keady made a little bit of history by competing in the first ever Weight For Distance event for junior women where she flung the 28lbs weight out to 3.89m to take 5th place, having earlier scored valuable points with a 7th place in the high jump with 1.40m and 8th place in the shot putt with 5.57m. Ciana Reidy leaped a brilliant 2.20m to take 7th place in the pole vault and followed it up almost immediately with 1.50m to take 6th place in the high jump and later took 11th place in the discus with 14.38m. Shauna Tobin also scored valuable points with 10th place in the discus with 16.33 and 6th place in the javelin with 14.64m. Freya Bohan had a strong javelin throw with 19.16 to take 5th place.

On the track, Lorraine Delaney put in a trojan effort in the 400m Hurdles when finishing 7th in a time of 75.90 and followed it up later with some great triple jumping to take 8th place with a best of 9.90m. Arlene Earls raced to a brilliant 2.25.56 to take 9th place in the U20 200m, a race in which Sophie O’Sullivan daughter of the legendary Sonia took 2nd place. And epitomising what was exceptional team spirit from the full squad of 10 athletes throughout the day, Ailbhe Miskella showed guts and talent to take 5th place in the 3000m steeplechase. Showing lots of raw courage on such a hot day, Ailbhe fell twice during the race due to fatigue – once in the water jump and once on the straight but each time picked herself up and battled on to a brilliant time of 13.31.78 which I need to doublecheck against our club records but think it’s a new club record for the 3k distance.

Craughwell AC’s Table Topping U20 Squad!
Arlene Earls, Freya Bohan, Shauna Tobin, Chloe Casey, Ciana Reidy, Aisling Keady, Laura Cunningham, Lorraine Delaney and Ailbhe Miskella (missing from photo Caron Ryan)

To say the club is proud of the girls’ achievements would be a gross understatement. They jumped in and out of different events outside their comfort zone all day, gave heart and soul for the team and hopefully will have the sweet reward of representing Ireland in Portugal in September!

And on Sunday also in Tullamore, it was the turn of the youngest members of the club to shine in the U9-11s paired events and relays and U12/13s individual events. 

Darragh Kelly leaped to a brilliant National title in the U12 Boys with an exceptional leap of 1.45m. It was a lovely way to end the track and field year for Darragh as he had some bad luck in the National indoor finals earlier in the year when he exited the high jump competition at the early heights but there was no stopping him today when he took the National crown in style. Ella Farrelly was unlucky to place just 1cm outside the medals in the U12 Girls long jump with a brilliant leap of 4.30m.

Emma O’Donovan and Lauren Kilduff took brilliant gold medals in the U11 Girls paired long jump events with big leaps of 3.86 and 3.68. Ben Moran and Dara Zimmerer took silver in the U11 Boys long jump with excellent jumps of 4.22 and 3.64. Lauren Morgan and Mia Hollingworth did likewise in the U10 Girls long jump with leaps of 3.56 and 3.41. Calum McMahon and Alan Hallinan took bronze in the U9 Boys 60m paired event in times of 10.00 and 10.29. They later added a silver medal in the 300m in times of 53.84 and 53.16 – brilliant performances in their first time competing at National level.

There were many more fine performances from the younger members of the club including Tara Keane 6th in the U12 Girls shot putt with 7.56m and 7th in the turbo javelin with 23.23m; Oisin O’Donovan and Daithi Lawless 7th in the U9 Boys long jump with leaps of 3.30 and 2.78; Ben Moran and Dara Zimmerer 8th in the U11 Boys 60m in times of 9.46 and 9.86; Lauren Kilduff and Keevagh Barry 9th in the U11 Girls 60m in times of 9.66 and 9.94; Keelan Moorhead and Riley Stenson 9th in the U11 Boys 600m in times of 1.59.60 and 2.00.57; Dean McNally and Harry Lynam 10th in the U11 Boys turbo javelin with throws of 18.64 and 11.55; Evan Moran 11th in the U13 Boys long jump with 4.22m; Saoirse Mullins and Gemma Cloonan 12th in the U11 Girls 600m in times of 1.39.06 and 1.54.62; Gavin Keenan 13th in the U13 shot putt with 5.87m; Chloe Hallinan 15th in the U13 Girls long jump with 3.79m; and Shannon Quinn 17th in the U12 Girls shot putt with 5.74m.

The club is immensely proud of all of our athletes achievements across all of the ages from U9 upwards. Its testamont to the hard work of the coaches that we enjoyed such a successful weekend at the top level of junior and U23 athletics and in the youngest age groups all on the same weekend. Well done everyone!