Another incredible day for Craughwell AC on Day 2 of the National Indoor Championships saw one GOLD, THREE Silver and FIVE Bronze medals in the full range of events from High-Jump to Middle-Distance, Sprints, Throws and Walks, and a host of other excellent performances.

Declan O’Connell got the day off the best possible start with an incredible performance in the 1500m, not only winning but setting an u16 Championship Record. Declan started off conservatively towards the back of the field but wound his way up and found himself on the shoulder of favourite Lorcan Forde Dunne with 500m left to run. Declan fairly blasted the last two laps to finish with 4:08.80 – almost a full second under the u16 mark set by Cian McBride 11 years ago. Unfortunately the stream failed to capture Declan’s run but we would love to find out the splits of those final two laps! Well done to Declan and his u16 coaches Ronnie Warde/Brendan Penney. Declan competes again tomorrow in the 800m.

U18 Holly O’Boyle also had a fine run to finish 11th in the 1500m in 5:28, her second time under the 5:30 mark this year.

Holly Shaughnessy delivered a fantastically brave performance in the u18 walks to win a Bronze medal. Holly paced the race to perfection, getting passed to 6th at one point but kept her nerve to re-take a medal position by the end in 8:08. Galway is lucky to have a very supportive athletics community and we would like to thank tuam AC’s Pierce O’Callaghan for his help with Holly in this event.

Michael Tobin has established a reputation as one of the finest High-Jump coaches in Ireland and this was again in evidence today with no less than THREE High Jump medals.

In the u19 Girls, Jade Moorhead came in at 1.50 and had a shaky moment, knocking the bar the first time. She soon got into her rhythm though, sailing over 1.50, then 1.55 then 1.60 and a Seasons best of 1.63m just after. This proved enough to secure her Silver behind the exceptional Ava Rochford. Ava leaped 1.76m, a fine leap just shy of the 1.77m Championship record held by another Tobin protege, Cathriona Farrell. Siofra Davis leaped a fine seasons best of 1.45m for 6th, barely grazing the 1.50m bar with her heel. Leaonore Church also jumped well with 1.40m for 7th.

In the u18s Girls, Eva Kelleher won Silver with an exceptional personal best of 1.55m on the fiurst attempt. The competition for the u18 girls was so tight that it made a huge difference that she made it on the first time over, a fabulous result for her.

Oisín O’Donovan sailed to u14 Bronze with a superb leap of 1.50m. Earlier in the day – Lauren Kelly (1.25m) was just outside the u12 medals in 6th which Laoise Colleeran 11th was also not far behind. Haille Ferrick also acquitted himself in the Long Jump with a fine 1.20m clearance and Aisling Laval came 17th with s solid 1.30m.

With another day to come and Jumpers more from the Tobin conveyor belt such as Conor Penney, Evan Hallinan and Emma O’Donovan yet to compete, this is an exciting time for High-Jumping in Craughwell!

There was great success too in the throws, with Lola Whitney-Mangan throwing a fantastic Silver-medal winning 7.52m and “Super” Max Madden coming 5th with a whoppoing 9.71m. Cathal Desbonnet came 14th with a strong 7.8m clearance.

U16 Joshua Whyte leaped an outstanding 10.79m in the Triple Jump to win another excellent Bronze medal.

At the end of the day, Ronnie’s u15/16 speedsters took to the track for the 60m and Kai Watters won a fantastic national Bronze medal with an amazing time of 7.53s. U15 Rachel Warde was 5th overall with 8.07 (8.03 in the semis) and u16 Lauren Kilduff came 6th overall with 8.05.

U13 Lincoln King also won Bronze in a stunning 8.22s. Sean Cleare came close in the u14s with a fine 8,04 to place 7th in the final. Allison Corrigan was 10th in her heat of the u19 60m. Lauren Kelly (below) blazed her heat of the 60m with a fine 9.09 for 12th overall.

u19 Siofra Davis had to race straight from the High-Jump to the Long Jump and didn’t quite find her groove on this occasion and finished 13th overall.