On the final day of the National Juvenile Track and Field in Cork IT on 16 July, several throwers from the club were in action, foremost of whom been Paul McGill. 

Competition got underway promptly with the U11 ball throw and U12 long jumps. In the ball throw, the club had 2 super throwers in action – the Tarpey twins from Clarinbridge. Conor threw the sliotar a fantastic 33.49 metres to claim 6th place overall in the U11 ball throw, with Brian throwing 28.47m to take 10th place.

Later in the day, Paul McGill swept into action in the U13 boys shot putt.

Having set a new National Record in the indoors in his age group of 11 metres, Paul was quietly confident of doing well. Paul’s progress in this event has been meteoric – he threw a shot for the first time last December, immediately showing potential. In the Indoor competition, he threw 8.62m in Galway Indoor T&F in January, 9.77m in the Connacht Indoor T&F in February and 11.0 in the National Indoor T&F in March to set a new National Record.

On this occasion in Cork, the word “smashed” is an inadequate word to describe what Paul did to the existing National Record of 10.91m. Paul obliterated the National Record with all 6 of his throws which ranged from 12.18m to 13.00m. Any 6 of the throws were good enough to win the competition – an impressive feat at this level! Taking the gold medal with 13m on his 3rd throw, Paul is certainly raising eyebrows at National level with his throwing ability.

Also in action at the shot putt, James Greaney recorded a good throw of 7.23m to take 9th place in the U12 boys shot and Niamh O’Halloran threw 5.84m in the U13 girls shot – both a little under their PBs of 8.00m and 5.86m from the Galway outdoors.

Final throwing event of the day for the club was the U13s javelin. In the girls’ event, Niamh O’Halloran threw a huge PB of 11.69m – almost doubling her Connacht distance; while in the boys’ event Paul McGill again demonstrated his throwing potential in adding almost 10m to his Connacht throw – recording 28.38m and taking the bronze medal in the process. Both Niamh and Paul have a lot more progress to make in this event, both having only recently taken it up.

This report on our throwers wouldn't be complete without a reference to Tara McNally's fantastic result in finishing in 1st place in the U9 Girls Ball Throw event. While Tara doesn't receive a gold medal for that because it was part of a multi-event competition, nonetheless its a great achievement and the first time that the club had finished in the top three in ball throw since David Bryne won gold in the U9 ball throw in 2001 with a throw of 36.14m.