Craughwell AC’s younger athletes put in some fantastic performances at last weekend’s Connacht track and field in Dangan, culminating with a big performance in the relays where the club won a medal in each of the 8 relay races.

In the U9-11 events where athletes competed in pairs, Craughwell had 36 pairs of athletes taking part – with 14 pairs qualifying in the top three to go forward to the National finals while 12 other teams were unlucky to finish just outside qualification when taking 4th place and 5th places. 

U9s

The U9s led the way with Lenagh Gilligan (10.71) and Jane Trehy (10.53) combining to take silver medals in the 60m and a fantastic gold in the long jump – Lenagh 3.15m, Jane 2.80m. Eva Kelly (2.86m) and Sarah McCartin (2.75m) make it a double for the club in the same long jump event when taking the bronze medals. Lenagh’s jump is a club record in this age group, eclipsing the previous best of 2.97m held by Claire Broderick. Also in the sprint, Zoe Gilligan and Sarah McCartin had good times of 11.35 and 11.43 when finishing in 9th place. In the 300m, Amber Whealton and Eva Kelly took 5th place with a 4th and 6th place finish in their heats. 

In the U9 boys 300m, Finbar McFadden tore up the track to win his heat in 54.7 (a new club record!) with Cian Garman 3rd in his heat and combining to take the silver medals. Cian added a gold medal in the long jump with a leap of 2.81m, combining with a powerful jump of 3.08m from Ryan Gallagher to take the Connacht title. Ryan’s jump becomes a world leading jump for an U9 from the Gallagher household – blasting away the previous best of 3.01 held by Brendan from 2003! Alex Boyle and Oisin Slevin were unlucky to finish in 4th with jumps of 2.87m and 2.71m. There was further success for Ryan Gallagher in the ball throw where he threw 20.96 to combine with Alex Evans’ 16.41 to finish in joint 3rd place. Alex Boyle and Gavin Surlis took 5th place with identical throws of 17.37m. 

U10s  

In the U10 girls, Abigail McNally and Clare Treacy combined with times of 1.58.2 and 1.59.0 to take the bronze medals in the 500m, with Saoirse Farrell (2:07.05) and Siona Lawless (1:59.3) in 5th place and Fiona Ryan (2:06.1) and Leigha O’Boyle (2:07.8) in 8th place. Claire Broderick (10.43) and Tara Slattery (10.67) took 5th place in the 60m sprint while Caoimhe Allen (10.89) and Tara Kealy (11.55) took 9th place.In the ball throw, Fiona Ryan and Niamh Treacy had throws of 16.27 and 13.66 to take the bronze medals – with Erin Nevin and Abigail McNally 4th with throws of 14.64 and 14.37. and Sarah Callanan and Saoirse Farrell 5th with 16.34 and 10.37. In the long jump, the 2 Taras took 5th place with Tara S jumping 3.01m and Tara K jumping 2.84m. Claire Broderick and Siona Lawless took 6th place with keaps of 3.03m and 2.64m. 

In the U10 boys sprint, Micheál McFadden and David McDonnell finished 4th in the 60m with times of 9.53 and 10.63 (7 hundreths of a second from a medal!) and went one better in the long jump to take bronze medals with jumps of 3.28m and 3.05m. Dean Moran and Cathal Bryan added a splendid gold medal in the ball throw with throws of 24.08 and 19.05, with Oisin Nevin and Darren Lyons in 6th place with throws of 16.10 and 15.19m. 

U11s  

The U11 girls 60m saw Laura Cunningham and Aoife Walsh miss out by the tiny fraction of .15 seconds when taking 4th place but their dissappointment was short-lived as they jumped 3.17m and 3.14m to take the silver medals in the long jump. Ciana Reidy and Caoimhe O’Donoghue finished in 6th in the same event with good jumps of 3.04m and 2.75m. Derbhla Cronin and Avril Donoghue put in trojan efforts in the 600m when taking 5th place with times of 2:13.9 and 2:19.7. Caoimhe O’Donoghue and Ciara Murphy took an unexpected set of bronze medals in the ball throw with big throws of 19.97 and 16.04m, with Lauren Gilligan and Shauna Tobin 5th with throws of 14.86 and 11.44. 

In the boys U11 60m, Daniel Callanan-Forde and Jerry Keary were unlucky to finish in 4th by 0.15s in times of 9.33 and 10.02. Cillian Doyle and Sean Delaney had a hard battle in a tough 600m race and both finished 5th in their heats in times of 2:04.9 and 2:10.4 – taking 6th place overall. Daniel combined with Peter Martin in the long jump to take the silver medals with fine jumps of 3.56m and 3.60m, with Sean Delaney (3.29m) and Jerry Keary (3.35m) unlucky to finish 4th in the same event, and Hugh Mulryan (3.14) and Cillian Doyle (3.01) completing a very impressive long jump perforamnce by the club when finishing 6th. In the ball throw, Stephen O’Connor and Mark O’Brien claimed the bronze medals with throws of 24.49 and 26.46. 

U12s 

In the U12 girls events, the top 4 go forwards to the National finals. Shonagh Gilligan had a good jump of 3.44m to take 4th place in the U12 girls long junp – with Aisling Keady-Cummins further back with 3.05m, Mary Dunphy (2.79m), Cliodhna Guilford (2.68m). Michelle Duggan threw 19.17m to take silver in the ball throw ahead of Kate Gilligan (14.95m) and Cliodhna (13.67m). Kate later claimed bronze in the shot putt with a throw of 6.06m, ahead of Shonagh (5.14m), Katie Stephens (4.58m), Aisling (4.54m), Mary (4.41m) and Sarah Egan (4.40m). Aisling placed 2nd in the high jump with a jump of 1.10m. On the track, Eimear Loughnane had a strong run in the 60m, making the final and taking 6th place in a time of 9.66 while there were  good performance from Derbhaile Walsh (2:10.8), Sarah (2:16.3) and Kate (2:29.9) in the 600m. 

In the boys high jump, Jim Crowley and Sam McArdle were in great form to finish in 3rd and 4th place with new PBs of 1.25m and 1.20m. The club had a great double in the ball throw with Oisin O’Brien taking silver with 34.73m followed closely by Dylan Finn with 34.63m, with Nathan Lynskey 5th with 34.44 and Sam 8th with 29.26. In the shot putt, Dylan was 5th with 5.96m, Oisin 6th with 5.94 and Nathan 7th with 5.93 – just 3cm separating them! In the long jump, Dylan had another 5th place finish with 3.59m, while Nathan jumped 3.50m, Jim 3.48m and Oisin 2.46m. On the track, Brian Loughnane had a super race in the 600m to take 2nd place overall in a time of 1:53.2. James Cahalane was unlucky to be in the slower heat and placed 6th overall in a time of 1:57.4, while Sam had a good race also when finishing in a time of 2:07.2.   

Relays 

The relays proved to be the highlight of the day where the club medalled in each race with 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze. The U9s were first up with Lenagh Gilligan, Sarah McCartin, Jane Trehy and Mia Waters taking silver medals in a time of 1:13.3 and Emer Mulveen, Eva Kelly, Ruth Tansey, Zoe Gilligan and Amber Whelton 5th in 1:16.6. The U9s boys team took gold in a time of 1:10.1 with Alex Boyle, Cian Garman, Ryan Gallagher, Finbar McFadden and Gavin Surlis.  

The U10 girls took bronze in a time of 1:10.8 with Tara Slattery, Abigail McNally, Caoimhe Allen, Claire Broderick and Fiona Ryan. The U10 boys also took bronze – in a time of 1:05.9 with Vincent Boyle, Darren Lyons, David McDonnell. Micheál McFadden and Dean Moran.  

The U11 girls team of Aoife Walsh, Caoimhe O’Donoghue, Derbha Cronin and Laura Cunningham took silver in 1:03.2 while the 2nd team of Caolin Milton, Ciana Reidy, Ciara Murphy and Avril O’Donoghue finished in 6th in a time of 1:06.3. The U11 boys took gold in a time of 1:01.8 with Jerry Keary, Peter Martin, Conor Callaghan, Daniel Callanan-Forde and Mark O’Brien. The 2nd team were unlucky to have a difficult baton change but nevertheless finished 7th in a good time of 1:08.9 with Sean Delaney, Stephen O’Connor, Cillan Doyle and Cian Waters.  

The U12 girls team took silver in a time of 1:03.1 with Eimear Loughnane, Aisling Keady-Cummins, Katie Stephens and Shonagh Gilligan, with the 2nd team eighth in a time of 1:06.4 with Mairead Loughnane, Dearbhaile Walsh, Cliodhna Guilford and Mary Dunphy. The U12 boys took silver in a time of 1:00.6 with Brian Loughnane, Sam McArdle, Jim Crowley, Dylan Finn and Nathan Lynskey.

Full results of the day are available here.