The Craughwell Senior Women’s team had another outstanding day yesterday in round 2 of the National League held in Athlone Indoor Arena. Managed by Sarah Finnegan, the team put in some top-drawer performances across the range of events to qualify for the final in second place on the leaderboard, only 1 point being the leaders – top Dublin club Dundrum South Dublin.

The team are pictured above.

Back row L-R: Sarah Finnegan, Siofra Davis, Caoimhe Kilkenny, Jade Moorhead, Leonore Church, Eva Kelleher, Grace McKermitt
Front row L-R: Rachel Finnegan, Sinead Treacy, Aisling Keady, Laura Cunningham
Missing from photo: Sinead Gaffney, Holly Shaughnessy

A condensed few hours of action saw the club compete across 8 events in the short space of just over 2 hours. The day kicked off with Laura Cunningham in action in the triple jump for the first time since early last summer where she posted a very strong season opening of 9.74m for 5^th place overall. Laura struggled with her mark a little, leaping from well behind the board on her first 2 attempts but getting bang on it for the 3^rd and 4^th leap … leaping 9.63m, 9.64m, 9.74m and 9.70m. Team captain Sarah Finnegan guested in the same event with a solid leap of 8.75m on her best attempt – a little behind the takeoff board also.

While the triple jump was in progress, Jade Moorhead took to the track for the hurdles where she raced to a blistering 9.89 to place 3^rd in her heat and in the process setting a new Club Junior Record for the 60m hurdles, shaving 3 hundredths of a second off the record she held jointly with Katie O’Donoghue prior to this. Jade was following swiftly by Sinead Gaffney in the 1500m who ran an excellent race to take 5^th place in a strong time of 4:46.62 and came very close to catching the group of 3 athletes on the final lap, picking up at least 2 second on them in that lap and only finishing a second behind.

Next into action, Aisling Keady flung the 28lbs Weight for Distance out to an impressive 4.63m to take 5^th place overall and in the process set a new Club Indoor Record for the event, significantly surpassing her club outdoor record of 3.89m set back in 2018. Back to the track where Sinead Treacy ran a brilliant 400m in 57.23 to take 2^nd place in her heat and 4^th overall, almost catching the leading DSD runner on the line.

Holly Shaughnessy then took to the track for the 1500m race walk, possibly the toughest event of them all where she raced to an excellent time of 8:53.71 and 5^th place to score vital team points. And while Holly was racing around the track, Jade was in action in the high jump. Jumping exceptionally well Jade was comfortably clear at 1.50 but clipped 1.55 with her heels on her first attempt. The same happened at 1.60 with Jade soaring high over it on her second attempt. The League’s ‘max 4 fouls’ rule then came into play and Jade exited at 1.65 but her jumps were very encouraging for a PB this season. Jade’s 1.60 tied with the winning jump of 1.60 from National Senior Champion Ava Rochford with Jade having to settle for 2^nd place on countback of knocked bars.

Final league event of the day was the 4x200m with the club lining out with Sinead Treacy, Laura Cunningham, Rachel Finnegan and Caoimhe Kilkenny. The girls executed a brilliant race with perfect baton passing to place 3^rd in their heat in 1.47.53 and 6^th overall. The Leevale girls team ran a new National Senior and Junior record in the same heat in a time of 1.40.23 … nice to be in that sort of company!

Craughwell had a few more athletes in action later in the guest high jump and 400m. Grace McKermitt and Siofra Davis both leaped 1.35m in the high jump with Leonore Church leaping 1.40m and Eva Kelleher equaling her PB with 1.50m. Leonore later raced to a solid 68.45 in her first indoor 400m race ever.  Sean Liston was also in good form in the high jump equaling his PB with a 1.70m leap while Evan Hallinan had an excellent leap over 1.90m and almost got 1.95m. See his 1.90m leap below. David Mulligan wrapped up the day with a solid season’s opener of 25.55 to place 3^rd in his 200m heat.

All in all a super day for the club, sitting proudly in 2^nd place in the League table after the 2 rounds!

And the scores on the board after round 2: