Jerry Keary, Aoife Walsh and Ben Garrard at day 1 
of the Scottish Indoor Track & Field Championships in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow

A large group of athletes made the trip to Glasgow at the weekend to take part in the Scottish Indoor Track and Field Championships for the U20, U15 and U13 age groups. It was the largest group ever from the club to travel to Scotland since our first trip in 2008 when 27 athletes made the short journey across the waters. This time 23 athletes made the trip and the group was nicely supplemented by 6 athletes from the club’s fit4youth group with Ailvhe Martyn, Kate Craven, Alison Coye, Lauren Stewart, Andrea Treacy and Gearoid Treacy all taking part in the local 5k Park Run. The entire group were exceptionally well behaved for the whole trip and are a real credit to their parents and to ther club and performed with distinction in their events in Scotland.

At the track and field, the club came away with 4 medals, several top 8 performances and many personal best performances. Saturday kicked off the with the U20 Womens Long Jump where Aoife Walsh was taking part … Aoife had very impressive first and second jumps which looked to be over the 5m mark but with tiny breaks and a conservative 3rd jump of 4.32m placed her 13th in the competition. Jerry Keary was next in action in the U20 Mens Long Jump and recorded a massive PB of almost 50cm to leap 6.19m on his first jump and in the process set a new club junior indoor record eclipsing Daniel Callanan-Forde’s 6.15m record from last year. Jerry however had to pass on his remaining jumps due to a slight niggle picked up in round 2 but his 6.19m was good enough to place 5th overall.

Laura Cunningham – bronze medallist  in the U20 Womens High Jump at the Scottish Indoor Track & Field Championships

Jerry Keary – bronze medallist  in the U20 Mens High Jump at the Scottish Indoor  Championships

Ben Garrard was next onto the track in the U20 Mens 800m. Ben has seen his PB drop from 2.07.64 from last autumn’s multi-events to 2.04.31 in the Galway Indoors and then to 2.03.47 in the National Juniors. Eyeing a 2.02 in Scotland, Ben put in a brilliant first 2 laps to be slightly under that pace and as the leading athletes blazed ahead to a 1.58 Ben led a trailing group to cross the line in 2.02.91 and 4th in his heat – brilliant progress. Caoilin Milton also raced to a big PB in the 400m. Having ran her first 400m ever in round 1 of the National League in late January in a time of 66.15, Caoilin knocked a second off that to record 65.28 in the National League final on 4th February and raced to a brilliant 63.28 in the heats of the U20 Women’s 400m in Scotland, knocking a whopping 2 seconds off her PB in the process.

The star performances of Saturday came from the youngest athletes in our group Evan Hallinan and Jade Moorhead. Evan was into action first at 12.30pm in the U13 boys high jump, entering the competition at 1.32 and sailing cleanly over 1.37 and 1.42 and then 1.47 on his second attempt to take the silver medal – brilliant jumping which saw the winner smash the record with a leap of 1.60. Jade was in action shortly afterwards and put in a super series of jumps over 1.22, 1.27, 1.32 and 1.37 all on her first attempt to take 4th place overall and a massive PB. She was just pipped for a podium position when one of the other athletes cleared 1.42 on her final attempt. The fine performances on the Saturday concluded with another silver medal for Evan this time in the U13 boys long jump with a massive 4.41m leap in round 4 and also leaping 4.16, 4.19, 4.32 and 4.36 in his other jumps – very consistent series of jumps to give him the silver medal by a single centimetre ahead of the 3rd place 4.40m.

Evan Hallinan, silver medallist in U13 Boys High Jump and Long Jump and
Jade Moorhead, 4th place in U13 Girls High Jump
at the Scottish Indoor Track & Field Championships

Saturday night it was the parents turn to shine but I am not allowed to say any more about that other than there were some surprisingly impressive singers and dancers in the group that we were not aware of prior to now! 

On Sunday morning, the U20 Womens High Jump was the first event on the program where we had 4 in action – Aoife Walsh, Ciana Reidy, Laura Cunningham and Lorraine Delaney. Laura put in a brilliant series of jumps to nail 1.52m on her first attempt to claim the bronze medal. All 4 of the girls have the ability to clear that height and higher but it just didn’t happen for them on the day with Ciana placing 5th with 1.47m, Aoife 6th on countback on the same height and Lorraine 8th with 1.42, having struggled to find her rhythm off a new mark and very unlucky to exit at 1.47.

Craughwell AC’s U20 High Jumpers – Aoife Walsh, Ciana Reidy, Laura Cunningham and Lorraine Delaney
at the Scottish Indoor Track & Field Championships in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow

Ellie Cronin and Aoife Kelly were also in action early on in the U15 Girls Long Jump with Ellie leaping a PB of 4.34m and Aoife 4.02m. And later in the U15 Girls High Jump Ellie put in a magnificent series of jumps culminating in a massive clearance over 1.52m to put her into the last 4. With only 1 of the 4 clearing 1.57m on her first attempt, the pressure was on and it was a battle for the 2 remaining medals between 3 jumpers. Unfortunately for Ellie on her second attempt, the bar rebounded off the mat to whack her on the head and this made it impossible to get a good final jump in. So even though she jumped the same height as the silver and bronze medallists, Ellie lost out on countback of knocked bars and had to settle for 4th place – so close and tough on Ellie as she had also placed 4th here as an U13 in 2015.

Jerry Keary continued his winning ways in the U20 Mens High Jump. Having won the Scottish title in the U17 High Jump last year, Jerry was stepping up against older athletes here and put in a good series of jumps to take the bronze medal with a best of 1.87m and coming very close to clearing 1.92m – the height that took the gold medal. It’s all on the day in high jump and to be in the medals at National U20 level is a fine achievement on any day.

Craughwell AC’s U20 Triple Jumpers – Caoilin Milton, Laura Cunningham and Lorraine Delaney
at the Scottish Indoor Track & Field Championships in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow

Laura Cunningham broke the club’s senior record in the triple jump when taking 10th place in the U20 Womens event with a best of 10.27m while Lorraine Delaney took 12th place only a fraction behind with a best of 10.10m just 4cm from obtaining a new PB. And it was unlucky for Caoilin Milton who picked up an injury on her practise jump, twisting her ankle in the sandpit. Thankfully an xray on Monday showed there was no break and just some ligament damage which will heal in a couple of weeks. And to wrap up the performances in the field events, Paschal Walsh hit a big PB in the U15 long jump where he placed 9th with a best of 4.44m. Conor Roberts took 11th place in the same event with a best of 4.40m while Oisin Davis also leaped to a PB of 4.25m to place 14th. And in the U15 Girls Shot Putt, Caoimhe Starr took 13th place with a best of 6.63m.

Out on the track, Ciara Hughes was the first into action where she raced to 5th place in the heats of the U15 hurdles in a good time of 11.64. The hurdles were followed swiftly by the 60m sprints where Aleisha Larkin put in a tremendous run in the heats of the U15 Girls 60m to take one of the automatic qualifying spots in 2nd place in a time of 8.47 and went on to place 5th in the semi-finals in 8.43. Shaun Gilligan was equally impressive in the U15 Boys 60m where he qualified in 4th place from the heats in 8.28 and took 7th place in the semis in 8.27. Paschal Walsh placed just outside the qualifiers for the semis when running 8.49 to place 5th in his heat.

Shaun Gilligan and Paschal Walsh
at the Scottish Indoor Track & Field Championships in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow

In the 300m, the star performer was Oisin Davis in the U15 boys who ran a blistering semi-final to take 3rd place in a time of 43.98 and went on to take 6th place in the final in a time of 44.94. Liam Leen also had a fine run in the 300m and just missed out on the last qualifying spot for the final when racing to a time of 44.26 to place 4th in the semis. Ornait Coen also had a strong run in the U15 Girls 300m placing 5th in her heat in a time of 47.43.

In the 200s, Chloe Farragher had 2 outstanding runs when placing 3rd in her heat in a time of 27.95 and going on to place 3rd in the semis in 28.05 and narrowly miss making the final. Aleisha Larkin was also impressive when running 28.69 to place 3rd in her heat as were Aoife Kelly and Ciara Hughes with times of 30.10 and 31.12 in their heats. In the U15 Boys 200m, Shaun Gilligan and Conor Roberts recorded solid times in their heats of 27.13 and 28.74, 

In the middle-distance races, both Kyle Moorhead and Liam Leen had outstanding runs in the heats with Liam running 2.20.82 to take the last qualifying spot from heat 1 and Kyle running 2.19.47 to qualify comfortably from heat 3. Liam’s time was an 8 second PB while Kyle’s was a 9 second PB, both from the recent Galway indoors. With their times ranking them 7th and 11th overall, it qualified Kyle for the A final and Liam for the B final. Kyle had an unbelievable run in the final to knock an incredible further 5 seconds of his PB to take 6th place in the final in 2.15.98 while Liam took 5th place in the B final in 2.22.70 clearly feeling the effects of 3 top-notch races within the space of a few hours. Caoimhe Starr was also in the 800s where she placed 7th in the heats in 2.56.94, a fast early pace taking its toll but very good experience for an athlete with plenty of potential in this event.

So that was it for another year in Scotland … another great weekend and hopefully back again next year!

U13s and some of the U15s on their way out of the Emirates Arena

U20s on their way out of the Emirates Arena