Conor Duggan put in a remarkable series of performances in the U16 100m sprint at the National Community Games finals recently to take the silver medal in the final. Comfortably winning his heat on Saturday, Conor placed 2^nd in his semi-final on Sunday behind eventual winner Odhran Gildea from Sligo before going on to record a fantastic performance in the final and take the silver medal.

Also in action at the National Community Games finals, Aisling Keady-Cummins was unlucky to finish just outside the medals in the U14 long jump with her best effort of 4.68m coming up just 5cm short of a podium placing. A similar fate awaited Damien O'Boyle in the U16 high jump where he exited the competition at 1.65m and took 5th place overall.

Conor was joined on the medals podium by Jamie Spellman, Matthew Moran and Keelan Ryan who ran brilliantly as part of the 4-man Galway team who placed 3^rd in the Community Games marathon. Pádraic Creaven from Ballinfoyle led the team home in 5^th, with Jamie 8^th, Matthew 15^th and Keelan 25^th out of the 70 strong field. This is the first time in recent memory that Galway men have medalled in the marathon or in the U16 sprint so it was a fantastic achievement for all of these athletes.

The club's progress in sprinting is particularly impressive with Conor joining Tomás Keehan who took bronze in the U14 100m in 2006 and Aidan Conneely who took gold in the U10 100m in 2007, silver in the U12 100m in 2008 and gold in the U12 100m in 2009. This adds to individual medals won by Tara McNally, Sineád Treacy and Daniel Callanan-Forde in this years club track and field to bolster a growing reputation within the club for sprinters – putting the sprint discipline on a par with the high reputation the club already has in the other athletics disciplines of distance running,  jumpers, throwers and race walkers.

Also in action, Oisin Doyle had a strong run in final of the U14 800m but had to settle for 7th place in a high quality race. Nathan Lynskey was in action in the U14 boys long jump where he jumped well but did not make the final. The Craughwell U14 girls team of Katie Stephens, Erin Fitzpatrick, Mary Dunphy and Leanne Freaney battled bravely in the heats of the 4x100m, taking 6th place. Unfortunately the heats clashed with the long jump final so the team had to cope without the presence of Aisling Keady-Cummins.