Another early morning start was in store for 62 of Craughwell AC’s juvenile athletes as they journeyed to Nenagh for the 2007 Connacht Indoors Track & Field last Saturday, 10th Feb. Events got underway at 10.30am, kicking off with the U12, 14, 16 and 18 relays. There were many highlights on the day for the club – with some very impressive performances across all the age groups and the juvenile club doing very well overall, winning 15 Connacht titles, 9 silver and 13 bronze. The following are just some of the more eventful moments during the day’s competition:-

• The U12 boy’s relay team got a poor start in their heat when Oisín McNally (competing indoors for the first time) was expecting a gun rather than the indoor ‘hum’ as the starting signal. But worse was to follow when the team were impeded later by another team in the baton change-over. The heat had to be rerun and the team of Oisín, Nicholas Sheehan, Conor Tarpey and Brian Tarpey performed heroically to take the silver medal with the 2nd fastest team of the 2 heats.

• Three relay titles for the club in the U12 Girls 4x100m (Ailbhe Greaney, Claire Ryder, Sarah Molloy, Ella Bryan), U13 Boys 4x100m (Peter Treacy, Jack Raftery, PJ Kelly, Brendan Gallagher) and U15 Boys 4x200m (Niall Rooney, David Farrell, Micheál Hannon, Tomás Keehan).

• U13 girls relay team narrowly missing out on bronze medals in their 4x100m by the narrowest of margins – one-hundredth of a second! Hard luck to the team of Caoimhe Quill, Claire Ryder, Maireád McCan, Laura Porter, Eimear Kelly.

• Double jump medals for our U12 jumping duo Claire Ryder and Ella Bryan, with Claire taking double gold in the high jump and long jump and Ella taking silver and bronze in the same events. Claire’s winning jump in the high jump was particularly impressive, possibly good enough to make the medals in the National finals. Super jump also by Mairead McCan to clinch the silver medal in the U13 girls long jump.

• Jumping success continued in the U13 boys’ high jump by Jack Raftery who cleared a fantastic 1.43m which again is a height that will be very close to the top of this age group in the National finals. Disappointment for Jack in the long jump as he struggled to get a consistent mark/run-up and didn’t qualify for the National finals – but more than make up for this when he took gold in the 60m with splendid run.

• Further jumping success in the U15 boys’ high jump where Tomás Keehan took the gold with a jump of 1.53m. For good measure, Tomás added a bronze medal in the long jump and a silver medal in the 60m sprint.

• Ashley McDonnell coasted to victory in the U15 girls 60m hurdles, despite feeling a soreness/injury on her left leg during the warm-up – an injury that ruled her out of the 800m later on and also weakened her performance in the high jump. Heroic effort also by Siobhán Gardiner who picked up an injury in the hurdles but continued in competition to qualify in 3rd place in the high jump.

• PB jump from Caoimhe Quill to take the silver in the U13 girls with a jump of 1.20m.

• A gutsy performance by Katie O'Donoghue in the final of the U14 girls hurdles, having been instructed to leave the track by an official as she was not on the start list for the final. Then the officials discovered their mistake and Katie was called back to line up with the others for the final. Katie put in a fine run in a far from ideal situation to take 4th place in the final.

• Wall-wreaking throws by Paul McGill in the U14 boys’ shot putt where he did his best to knock down the back wall of the shot putt pit with throws over 12 metres to easily clinch the gold. 12.38m was his best attempt as the officials struggled to figure out and measure up to where exactly the shot had hit the wall. Paul continued his day by taking the gold in the 60m hurdles and bronze in the 60m sprint.

• Good performances by the U14 4x200m relay teams who both took the bronze medals – U14 Girls Orla Ryan, Katie O'Donoghue, Linda Porter, Debbie Kenny, Karen Roche. U14 Boys – Cormac Dillon, David Farrell, Padraic Tobin, Paul McGill. Good run also from the boys 2nd team – David Concannon, Ross Haverty, Cillian Reidy and Liam Dundon.

• First Connacht shot putt medals for PJ Kelly, Cathal Coppinger and Brian Tarpey as they displayed their potential in this event.

• Triple medals for Cathriona Farrell as she took gold in the hurdles and high jump and silver in the long jump. All eyes turned to Cathriona as she attempted a new PB in the high jump of 1.73m. On her first attempt, Cathriona commenced her run-up to the noise of the crowd’s encouraging hand-clap and very nearly cleared it, brushing it with her hair to bring the bar down. Mary Porter on the PA system appealed for quiet for the next two attempts and a hush descended on the arena – almost as deafening as the earlier hand-clap! Alas, 1.73m was not to be on this day … but something to look forward to when next in Nenagh.

• Super running by Linda Porter in the U14 girls 800m to take the title by 3-hundreths of a second ahead of Ruth O’Sullivan of GCH – in a time of 38.09. Super running also by younger sister Laura in the U13 girls 600m where she ducked under the 2 minute mark and was unlucky to finish just outside the medals in 4th place in a time of 1.59.91.

• A heroic effort by Claire Ryder to pick up her third individual medal of the day when she raced in the U12 girls 600m. Still new to this event, with 150m to go she put in a supreme effort to overtake Ballinasloe’s Michelle Burke on the final bend. As the race entered the home straight, the Ballinasloe athlete mustered enough strength to regain her place and finished only just ahead of Claire, taking 2nd place when the heat times were announced. Claire’s time is not yet available – but she was only a pace off 2nd place which was 2.02.45. A Swinford athlete in another heat took 3rd place overall with 2.02.99. Claire’s time must have been practically the same and she was unlucky not to qualify.

• Further heroic’s in the middle distance races by a number of athletes – particularly Nicholas Sheehan in the U12 boys 600m where he narrowly missed out on the medals, coming in 4th in a time of 1.54.51. Super running from Conor Tarpey in the same race where he also broke 2 minutes, recording a time of 1.59.26. Also under the 2 minutes and very close to the medals were Paul Joyce who ran close to 1.50 in the U13 boys 600m and Patrick Prendergast who also comfortably went under 2 minutes in the same race.

• Middle distance success completed by Shane O’Halloran in the U16 boys 1500m where he ran a splendid time of 5.08.94 without hardly any training. A bit of work and Shane would certainly be going well under 5 minutes.

• Fantastic work by Sue Joyce on the check-in desk where she willingly dealt with check-in for the various clubs, displaying remarkable composure under pressure. New to this event, Sue handled it with ease and put in a top notch performance fully deserving of the official’s gold medal on the day! Right up there with Sue’s performance in the Port Tunnel run where she led out 10000 athletes into the tunnel in her first 10k. Thanks Sue!

• Double silver for Sarah Helebert in the U15 girls long jump and high jump.

There were many other super performances on the day but too numerous to detail them all. The following are the full details of the finishing places/times. I will update this as more information becomes available:-