The Galway Indoor Championships took place over two days in Athlone this weekend and there were some great performances from Craughwell AC Athletes. Craughwell AC is absolutely booming at the moment – and this was reflected in the participation and the success over the weekend.

The action kicked off on Saturday with our u9 athletes.  Liam O’Flynn got an excellent Bronze in the Long Jump with a leap of 2.62m.  The boys relay team of Daniel Magarity, Adam Heffernan, Luke Melia and Cian Fallon also won bronze in the 4x200m relay.

The girls went one better, the team of  Emma Mannion, Ellie Dermody, Ailbhe Kearney and Rosanna Burke winning Gold in the 4x200m relay.  Emma Mannion won a fantastic double-gold in the Long Jump and the 200m.   Abby Rose Geoghegan also won double medals, Silver, in the 60m and the Long Jump. Our 10 group also had some fine performances that just missed out on the podium, with many making their competition debut and getting some great competition experience.

In the U11 boys – Conor Mannion had another super day, winning Gold in the 600m in a fine 1:56 and Silver in his debut in the Long Jump in 3.89. Jack Hibbit won silver, close behind Conor in the 600m.  Muireann Kelly ran fantastically in the 600m to win Gold in 2:06.

The story of the U12s was the evenly matched twin brothers, Conor and Nathan Quinn.  Rian O’Donnell blazed to a superb Gold in the 60m Hurdles, winning a tight contest in 12.21s.  Close behind Rian, Conor and Nathan Quinn proved impossible to separate in the 60m hurdles, both getting Bronze with an identical time of 12.377.  Shortly after – Nathan won Silver in the long jump with a leap of 3.70m with Conor taking Bronze in 3.69, just 1 cm shorter!!  The u12 boys team of Conor Mannion, Rian O’Donnell, Erik Daniels and Jack McNena won a fantastic Silver medal in the 4x200m relay with a time of 2:07. 

The u12 Girls more than matched the boys – Lauren Kelly won the 60m in 9.30s, for the first of three individual medals for her.  Lola Whitney-Mangan won both the Shot put (6.37) and the 60mh in 12.06, closely followed by Lauren Kelly who won 60mh Silver.  Reailtin Ward won the High Jump, leaping 1.25m, again followed by Lauren Kelly.  Cerys Johnston made it a clean sweep with Bronze in the HJ.  Laoise Colleran raced to a fine silver in the 600m in a time of 2:04. The u12 girls 4x200m teams impressively won both Gold and Silver – with Ella Whyte, Lauren Kelly, Ruby Maher and Lola Whitney-Mangan combining to run 2:11 and Bethann Beatty, Reailtin Ward, Laoise Colleran and Cerys Johnston all running well to win Silver in 2:14.

The U13/U14 group put in a stellar performance at the Galway Indoors on Sunday.  Numerous personal bests and a fine haul of medals.

Kate O’Leary brought home our first medal of the day winning silver in the 60m Hurdles, followed by an impressive performance by Grace Drysdale and twins Jessica and April O’Reilly.  Lincoln King went on to win gold in 60m Hurdles closely followed by Seán Colleran winning silver.  The U14s had similar success with our Connacht U14 athlete of the year Alan Hallinan, taking gold in 10.19, with Oisín O’Donovan hot on his heels for silver with a time of 10.41.  Mighty performances also from Seán Cleare and Alan Warde.

Great success for our relay teams. Our u13 girls, Adele Casserly, Kate O’Leary, Grace Drysdale and Sophie Meehan stormed home with a mighty win in their heat, taking home a bronze medal overall.  U13 Boys Darragh O’Donnell, Seán Colleran, Ruarí Mc Nena and Lincoln King were just pipped to silver with our second team of Ciarán McNena, Alex Hughes, James Niland and Jamie O’Reilly winning bronze.  U14 Boys Oisin O’Donovan, Daithi Lawless, Seán Cleare and Alan Hallinan were silver medal winners in their race.  The U14 Girls Kate Kilkenny, Aisling Lavan, Jenna Brady and Isabelle Power put in fantastic runs to finish 5^th.

More success in the High Jump where U13 Kate O’Leary not only set herself a new PB, won gold, but also set a new championship record of 1.36m. This from a girl who started out in athletics less than a year ago.  Watch this space!  Alex Hughes also scored a gold medal in U13 High Jump with a  leap of 1.25m followed by Seán Colleran in second place.  Aisling Lavan took silver for the U14 girls with a jump of 1.35m.  Oisín O’Donovan took gold with a new PB of 1.43.

Oisín continued his mighty leaps in the Long Jump to take silver with a jump of 4.50 followed by Alan Hallinan in 3^rd with a jump of 4.17. Charlie Daniels scored himself a new PB of 3.85 and came in 5th place. 

There were some battles in the 60m sprints with Lincoln King taking silver in a time of 8.62.  Honourable mention for Seán Colleran who set a new PB of 8.77 coming 5^th overall after running a blistering heat.  The girls ran their hearts out with Grace Drysdale neck and neck the end in her heat and setting a PB of 9.36. Adele Casserly came 3^rd in her heat with a  super time of 9.33.  Seán Cleare took gold for the U14 Boys in a time of 8.23, another new member and definitely one to watch!

In the 800m Alan Hallinan came home in fine form to win gold, bag a new PB and also smash the championship record with a run of 2.17.  Paul Lohan put in an amazing run with an awesome finish to take second in his heat.  Charlie Daniels set himself a new PB, this amazing athlete always pushes himself to get better each time.  The girls had fine performances with Jenna Brady putting in a superb finish to take second in her heat.  Kate Kilkenny  bagged herself a new PB of 2.40 coming 3^rd in her heat.  Sophie Meehan sailed home to win gold for the U13 600m with a PB of 1.55.

The mighty throwers of the U14 boys were out in force again with Max Madden taking gold with a PB setting shot putt of 9.12m.  Ross Beattie took bronze and also set a new PB of 7.19m.  Killian Burke came 4^th with a throw of 7.09 followed by Charlie Daniels with a new PB of 6.95m.  

In the Senior Women’s jumps, Sarah Finnegan took gold in the triple jump with a best of 9.05m while Siona Lawless took gold in the long jump with a leap of 4.63m. Luke Forde took bronze in the men’s 400m in a time of 57.42. 

In the U19 Girls long jump, the club placed 1-2-3 with Siofra Davis taking the Galway title with 4.31m, followed by Ella Lyons with 4.14m in 2^nd and Erin Kelly with 3.87m in 3^rd. Andrew Power and Evan Quinn took gold and silver in the U19 Boys long jump with bests of 5.53 and 5.34m while Andrew later added gold in the triple jump with a best of 11.27. Leonore Church and Siofra Davis took silver and bronze in the U19 high jump with leaps of 1.45m and 1.40m while Leonore took gold in the 400m in 70.06 and Siofra added a silver in the 200m in 29.76.

In the U18s events, Caoimhe Kilkenny and Etaine Moran powered to impressive times in the 60m taking silver and bronze in 8.15 and 8.67. Caoimhe followed this up later with gold in the 200m in 28.05. Eva Kelleher leaped to silver in the long jump with a best of 4.62m and later added gold in the high jump with a clearance of 1.45m with Grace McKermitt taking bronze with 1.35m. Holly Shaughnessy raced an impressive 7:57.28 to take silver in the 1500m race walk while Holly O’Boyle took gold in the 1500m in 5:37.31. Sean Liston took gold in the U18 Boys high jump with 1.70m. Liam O’Connell raced to bronze in the U18 800m in 2:19.25.

Kai Watters was the star attraction in the u15 boys, with a fabulous win in the 60m (7.86s) and the Long Jump (4.87m).  Kai’s time was the best in the history of the championship.  Tom Malone was hot on Kai’s heels in the 60m with Silver in 8.22.  Stephen Joyce ran a strong 2:25 to seal Silver in the 800m while the relay team of Stephen Joyce, Ethan Stace, Tom Malone, Darragh Simpson and Kai Watters won Gold in a championship best performance of 1:46.9.

Rachel Warde blazed to Gold in both the 60m (8.17) and the 60m Hurdles (9.49), while Claudia Coyle led from the gun to seal 800m victory in 2:23.  The relay team of Sarah O’Gara, Lauren Morgan, Beth Glynn, Aeveen Kelly and Rachel Warde were a narrow Silver behind a strong city outfit.

The u16 boys were in fine form with a double-gold and Championship Best by Declan O’Connell, winning the 800m in 2:04 and the 1500m in 4:16 – both championship best performances.  Donnacha Lawless was a fantastic winner of the 200m.  In the relay the lads lost by less than 0.1s against a strong city team.  Fast-improving Keelan Moorhead broke the 2:15 barrier in the 800m to seal bronze.  Toyosi George won Bronze in the Long Jump with a fine indoor pb of 4.99m, just shy of the magical 5m mark.