The club had a fantastic day out in Nenagh last weekend. An earlier article has already detailed the successes in the relays but there were even bigger performances in the individual events with several athletes taking multiple medals and several breaking club records.

In record breaking form, Paul McGill set a new PB and club record in the U15 boys shot putt, heaving the shot a massive 13.46m to win the Connacht title easily. Kelly O’Donoghue won the club’s only other shot putt medal on the day in the U17 girls shot putt with a throw of 7.86m (also a club record in that age group) – an impressive achievement given that Kelly has only returned to the shot putt after more than a year’s break and has limited practise in it recently.

In total, 19 club records were broken in the different age groups. 

 
There were some incredible performances across all of the age groups, in particular:-

• Claire Ryder who pocketed five medals – 2 relay gold in the U13 and 14 relays, gold in the long jump with 4.44m, silver in the high jump with 1.30m and silver in the sprint with 8.90s. Claire’s long jump was superb and is only 1cm short of the club record set in this age group in 2004 by Cathriona Farrell.
• Jack Raftery who also took home five medals – 3 gold in U14 sprint in 8.55s, U14 high jump with 1.45m and U14 relay, silver in the long jump with 4.52m and silver in the U15 relay.
• Maria McNamara who captured 3 gold in U14 high jump with 1.45m, U14 long jump with 4.21m and U14 relay.
• Double silver for Oisin McNally in U13 boys long jump with 4.03m and high jump with 1.30m.
• Linda Porter’s splendid run to coast home to glory in the U15 girls 800m in an exceptional time of 2.29.4. This was Linda’s best 800m run ever and she really worked hard for it during the race, particular in laps 2 and 3 of the tight Nenagh track. It set not only an U15 club record for the 800m, but also sets the senior record.
• Rachel Kenny’s and Leah Creaven’s fantastic leaps in the triple jump with Rachel jumping 9.37m and Leah 9.29m – both of which broke the club’s senior record for triple jump. This was particularly impressive as it was only Rachel’s first time attempting triple jump and Leah’s second.
• Sarah Finnegan’s 9.81s in the senior women’s 60m hurdles which broke her old club record by over half a second.

Craughwell were particularly impressive in the long jump, winning 16 medals out of the 42 medals handed out in long jump competition on the day – an incredible statistic by any standard. There was some fine jumping across all the age groups with many others coming close to the medals also:- 

 The long jump performance is all the more impressive given that the club doesn’t have a tartan run-up into its long jump pit … something we hope to rectify in the not to distant future.  

The club’s performance in the high jump was also impressive with 12 out of 34 medals coming our way:- 

In the sprints, the club took 6 medals with Aidan Conneely narrowly missing out on the gold in the U12 final by 0.01s to his regular rival Colin Cotton from Ballinasloe. Aidan ran a superb 8.73s and both of these sprinters will be in the frame for National medals in April. The club’s other sprint medals came from Ashley McDonnell who claimed silver in the U16 girls 200m in a time of 29.0s, Sineád Treacy with bronze in the U12 girls 60m (9.46s – putting Sineád in 2nd place on the club’s all time list of U12 sprinters), Jack Raftery who won gold in U14 boys in 8.55s, Claire Ryder who won silver in U13 girls 60m in 8.90s and Billy Lane who was trying his hand at indoor athletics for the first time and won a great silver in the U16 60m in a time of 7.95s. 

In the hurdles, the club claimed 3 medals with each of the three heading the club record list in their age groups – Sineád Gaffney who won bronze in the U13 girls hurdles in a time of 10.30, Rachel Finnegan who won bronze in the U17 event in a time of 9.89 and sister Sarah who broke the club senior record for 60m hurdles in a time of 9.81. 

In race walking, Craughwell’s experienced walker Maeve Curley picked up yet another Connacht title when winning the U17 girls 1500m walk in a time of 8.50. 

Finally in the middle distance, the club took 5 medals – with Linda Porter’s blistering run in the U15 800m to win gold in 2.29.4, Ruairi Finnegan and Niall Rooney taking gold and silver in the U16 800m in times of 2.25.5 and 2.33.9, Sophie Ralston taking bronze in the U17 800m in a time of 2.44.5 and Shane O’Halloran having a superb run in the U17 1500m to finish in 3rd place in a time of 4.56.1. 

The overriding highlight of the day though was the fact that 80 athletes from the club participated in these Championships. Its only a few short years since the club had only a handful of athletes taking part in the Connacht Indoors because most of our membership were too young (the Connacht Indoors are only for U12s and older). The club now have 100 athletes in the U12 and older age groups and it was particularly pleasing that so many of these participated in the Connacht’s. Roll on next year when hopefully we will have over 100 participating … and roll on the National Indoor finals where our athletes get another chance to set PBs and club records and hopefully to have a crack at winning a National medal.

Official results are in attached file – Connacht Indoor Results 2008