Provisional Results of Connacht Indoors (Updated)
Well done to all the athletes from the club on some fantastic performances in Nenagh at the weekend. Provisional results are here:- |
We had some incredible performances across the full range of athletics events with medals in sprints, hurdles, middle distance, race walking, long jump, high jump, shot putt and relays. The club took home a massive haul of 74 medals – including 23 Connacht titles, 29 silver and 22 bronze, with many other fine performances finishing just outside the medals. There were so many highlights that its hard to know where to start when writing a report but read on for some detail. The club travelled enmasse down to Nenagh for yet another fine weekend of athletics action at the Connacht Indoor Track & Field Championships in Nenagh. The official program read like a map of the large towns and cities of Connacht … Galway, Sligo, Westport, Roscommon, Athenry, Ballinasloe, Loughrea, Ballina, Claremorris, Castlebar, Ballinamore etc … and Craughwell! Incredibly the club continues to punch away above its weight at Connacht level taking home a massive haul of 23 Connacht titles and making it onto on the winners podium 74 times over the 2 days – more than any of its urban counterparts. Our athletes performed admirably across all the athletic disciplines. The progress being made in the sprints was particularly evident with athletes from the club winning the Connacht title in the girls’ u14, u15, u16 and u17 60m and in the u16 and u17 200m, in addition to 4 other medals in the 60m. Most successful athlete on the day was Claire Ryder who took home 3 individual Connacht titles, a relay gold and a relay bronze. Claire’s victory in the long jump continues a remarkable sequence for her of winning the Connacht indoor title 5 years in a row – lifting the U12 title with a 3.99m jump in 2007, 4.44m in U13s in 2008, 4.53m in U14s in 2009, 4.54m in U15s in 2010 and 4.89m in U16s in 2011. Claire added gold in the 60m and 200m in impressive times of 8.52 and 28.44 – only 0.03 slower than the club record for 200m held by Ashley McDonnell. Even more impressive in the long jump was Maria McNamara where she leaped over 5m for the first time to claim the Connacht U17 title with a PB of 5.05m. Maria becomes the third girl from the club to have jumped past the 5m mark – joining Cathriona Farrell with 5.32m and Claire Ryder with 5.22m. Later Maria jumped flawlessly in the high jump with first-time clearances of 1.40m, 1.45m, 1.50m and 1.55m. With the bar at 1.60m and a new PB beckoning, Maria’s first attempt saw her chop the corner a little on her run-in with the result that she took the bar off on the way up. But a near perfect second attempt saw her sail high over the bar but nicking it every so slightly with her heels. So close to a PB, Maria made no mistake on her final attempt with a fantastic clearance of the 1.60m height to add 1cm to her recent PB from the National multi-events – a great performance and one that augurs very well for the rest of the year. Getting back to the sprints, the club is making great progress in the 60m with 15 athletes making it to sprint finals yielding 4 Connacht titles, 1 silver medal and 3 bronze medals. The Connacht champions were Tara McNally who ran a splendid time of 8.48 in the U14 girls 60m, Sineád Treacy who equalled that time in the U15 60m, Claire Ryder who ran 8.52 in the U16 60m and Maireád McCan who ran 8.53 in the U17 60m. Tara, Claire and Maireád all set club age group records with these times, with Sineád going very close to Claire’s overall club record of 8.44. Jessica Heneghan continued the fine performances of the girls in taking bronze in the U17 sprint in 8.72, while 5 other girls made the sprint finals – Caolin Milton with 9.73 in the U12s, Michelle Duggan and Eimear Loughnane both with 9.55 in the U13s, and Dandy Murray and Ellen Treacy with 9.41 and 9.43 in the U15s. In the boys sprints, Daniel Callanan-Forde had a fine performance to take 3rd place in the U12 final with 9.27, with Jerry Keary 7th with 9.82. Kelvin Olayemi took silver in the U15 sprint with 8.04, followed closely by Aidan Conneely in 3rd with 8.15. Cathal Cronin took 4th place in the U18 boys also with 8.15. In the 200s, Jessica Heneghan added to Claire Ryders U16 title when taking the U17 title in 29.30 with Melissa Mullins 8th in 31.34, while Cathal Cronin took 4th in the U18s with 26.57. Sinead Treacy added to her 60m sprint title with bronze in the U15 hurdles in a time of 11.46 while Tara McNally went 1 better with silver in the U14 hurdles in a time of 10.97. Emma Gaffney continued the sequence with silver in the U13 hurdles with 11.73 with Michelle Duggan 5th with 12.53 and Ciara O’Boyle 6th with 12.73. Melissa Mullins took 2nd place in the U17 hurdles in a time of 12.38. In the U13 boys hurdles, Dylan Finn placed 6th in a time of 11.69 with Jim Crowley just ahead in 11.56. In the middle-distance races, there were many fine performances throughout the day, none more so than Conor Gillen in the U16 boys 800m who despite a bad fall early in the race, picked himself up off the floor and raced himself back in to contention before taking the silver medal on the line in a sprint finish in a time of 2.17.08. Nicholas Sheehan had a remarkable run in the same race to win in a time of 2.11.84, with John Cormican 7th in the same race with 2.45.38. In the U12 600m, Derbhla Cronin ran a superb tactical race to fly to victory in her heat in a time of 2.07.66. Unfortunately these races are run as time-trials with no finals and the results decided on times. When the results of the other 4 heats came in, Derbhla ended up placing 9th overall. Fine runs were also recorded by Ciana Reidy in 2.12.85 and Sandra Greaney with 2.16.91. In the boys U12 600m, Brendan Commins and Sean Delaney both led the way in their heats for most of the race only to be overtaken in the closing stages. Brendan placed 6th overall in 1.59.89 and Sean placed 7th with 2.02.56 – knocking 7 and 4 seconds off their Galway times. In the U13 600m, Dearbhaile Walshe was very unlucky to take 2nd in her heat and 4th overall in a time of 2.00.14 with Erin Fitzpatrick in 11th place with 2.11.16, Ciara O’Boyle 14th with 2.16.84 and Shonagh Gilligan 15th in 2.25.38; while in the boys Sam McArdle had a fine run to record 1.59.53 and take 5th place, with Brian Loughnane 6th in 2.00.08 and Mikey Burke 8th in 2.06.33. There were several other top-class 800m performances with Finn Stoneman 2nd in the U17 boys in a time of 2.12.29, Pádraic Tobin 3rd in the U18 boys in a time of 2.14.87 and Damien O’Boyle 4th in the U15 boys in a time of 2.19.36 – unlucky to be in the slower of the 2 heats – and Jamie Spellman close behind in 5th place with 2.22.87. Katie O’Donoghue had a storming finish to take 2nd place in the U18 girls 800m in a time of 2.37.05 while Orla McDaid made up huge ground on the last lap in the U17 girls 800m to take 5th in a time of 2.46.35. In the U14 800m, Grainne McDaid was another athlete to have the misfortune of being in the slower of 2 heats and despite an exceptional race where she finished 2nd in a time of 2.43.82, Grainne’s time only took 6th place overall. In the U14 boys 800m, Diarmuid Harvey and Matthew McKiernan ran well to record times of 2.48.23 and 3.06.73 to take 13th and 20th place, while in the U16 girls 800m, Gabrielle Tobin ran a strong race to take 9th place in 2.47.25 while Sineád Treacy took 6th place in the U15 girls event with 2.45.19. In the 1500m, Conor Gillen took the Connacht U16 title in a time of 4.34 with Matthew Moran in 3rd with 5.02 and John Cormican in 4th. Finn Stoneman placed 2nd in the U17 1500m in 4.33 while Peadar Harvey took the silver in the U19 1500m and also in the senior 3000m. Emma Byrne took the silver medal in the U15 1000m walk, with Shane Finn taking the bronze in the U15 boys walk, Christopher O’Connor taking bronze in the U16 boys 1500m walk while Andrea Tobin placed 6th in the U14 girls 1000m walk. The long jumps provided plenty of success for the club, particularly in the older ages with Claire Ryder, Ella Bryan and Gabrielle Tobin making it a clean sweep for the club in the U16 long jump when taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place with leaps of 4.89m, 4.30m and 3.76m. The U17 girls almost repeated this feat with 1-3-4 with Maria McNamara 1st with 5.05m, Maireád McCan 3rd with 4.61m and Melissa Mullins 4th with 4.27m. Strong jumping in the U15 girls event saw 3 of our athletes finish just outside the medals with Ellen Fitzpatrick 4th with 4.04m, Dandy Murray 5th with 4.03m and Ellen Treacy 7th with 3.93m. Aisling Keady Cummins led the way in the U13 girls when taking silver with 3.82m, with Shonagh Gilligan 9th with 3.38m, Erin Fitzpatrick 17th 3.18m, Mary Dunphy 18th 3.12, Ciara O’Boyle 19th 3.07, Kate Gilligan 20th 2.87 and Kim O’Hehir 23rd with 2.34. The U12 girls also had a strong performance but didn’t make the medals on this occasion – with Ciana Reidy leading the way in 6th place with 3.35m, Aoife Walsh 7th with 3.33m, Laura Cunningham 8th with 3.31m, Caolin Milton 18th with 2.92m, Derbhla Cronin 19th with 2.69, Shauna Tobin 20th with 2.68 and Sandra Greaney 22nd with 2.41. The boys long jumps proved almost as successful with Peter Martin taking silver in the U12 boys with a fine jump of 2.89m – breaking his final jump with what looked like a 4.15+ jump. Peter was followed by some fine performances from his club-mates with Jerry Keary 5th with 3.72, Daniel Callanan-Forde 7th with 3.61, Sean Delaney 9th with 3.58, Cillian Doyle 11th with 3.47, Mark O’Brien 15th with 2.95 and Brian Gillen 19th with 2.78. In the U13s, Nathan Lynskey led the way to take silver with a jump of 3.91, with Brian Loughnane 10th with 3.57, Liam Moran 11th with 3.50, Mikey Burke 14th with 3.39 and Gearóid 16th with 3.17. In the U14 boys, the club placed 7th, 8th and 10th with Matthew McKiernan 3.75m, Diarmuid Harvey 3.65m and Andrew O’Boyle 3.24m. In the U15s, Kelvin Olayemi took bronze with a 4.57m leap followed by Conor O’Donoghue in 7th with 4.26m. Diarmuid Prendergast took the Connacht title in the U16 boys with 4.78m with Oisin McNally 2nd with 4.74m – a very tight result! Peter Treacy and Cathal Cronin both jumped fine PBs in the U17 and U18 boys with Peter leaping 5.26m and Cathal 5.20 to take bronze and the silver in their respective events. A great performance from Laura Cunningham in the U12 high jump saw her take the gold with 1.20m with Aoife Walsh 4th with 1.10m, Derbhla Cronin and Sarah Phillips in joint 6th with 1.10m and Shauna Tobin 8th with 1.00m. Cillian Doyle, Jerry Keary and Sean Delaney finished 2-3-4 in the boys high jump with fine leaps of 1.25, 1.20, and 1.15. The U13 age group saw Aisling Keady-Cummins leap a big PB of 1.35m in the high jump to take the silver medal, with Emma Gaffney taking bronze with 1.20m. Sam McArdle and Jim Crowley shared the spoils when taking joint 2nd in the U13 boys high jump with 1.20m. Tara McNally had a big PB when leaping 1.40m to take the silver in the U14 girls event, while Ellen Fitzpatrick took bronze in the U15 girls with 1.30 followed closely by Ellen Treacy in 5th with 1.25. Ella Bryan took the Connacht title in the U15 girls with a jump of 1.30m as did Maria McNamara in the U16 girls with a fantastic PB of 1.60m, making it look easy, with Maireád McCan jumping nicely to take the silver medal with 1.40m. Oisin McNally took the U16 boys title with 1.40m, while Katie O’Donoghue took the silver in the U18 girls with 1.40m. The shot putt threw up some great results with 4 medals in the U13s – Michelle Duggan and Eva Prendergast taking 2nd and 3rd with throws of 6.07m and 5.93m, followed closely by Erin Fitzpatrick with 5.93m; while in the boys Nathan Lynskey and Sam McArdle took 2nd and 3rd with 7.85m and 7.66m. Mark O’Brien and Cian Waters capped a marvellous day for the U12 boys when taking silver and bronze in the shot putt with throws of 6.95m and 6.69m, with Brian Gillen 11th with 5.65m. Shauna Tobin placed 7th in the U12 girls event with 5.02m. In the U14 age group, Cathal O’Brien heaved the shot a massive 9.46m to take the Connacht title, with Andrew O’Boyle 12th with 5.15m and with Andrea Tobin taking bronze in the girls shot with 6.89m. Also in the U13 girls event, Kate Gilligan placed 6th with 5.80m, Kim O’Hehir 8th with 5.25, Mary Dunphy 9th with 5.12 and Dearbhaile Walsh 12th with 4.49. Diarmuid Prendergast added a silver in the U16 shot putt with 10.14m.Katie O’Donoghue set a new club record in the shot putt when throwing the 4kg weight 7.64m in the U18 girls event. The relays on Sunday provided plenty of excitement with the club doing particular well with 6 Connacht titles, 2 silver and 2 bronze. The U12 girls team took bronze in a time of 1.03.5 (Aoife Walsh, Caolin Milton, Dearbhla Cronin, Laura Cunningham, Ciana Reidy, Shauna Tobin); the U12 boys took gold in 1.01.4 (Jerry Keary, Peter Martin, Sean Delaney, Daniel Callanan-Forde, Cillian Doyle); the U13 girls took gold in a time of 1.01.5 (Eimear Loughnane, Emma Gaffney, Aisling Keady-Cummins, Michelle Duggan) and also 4th place in 1.04.7 (Shonagh Gilligan, Aoife Greene, Dearbhaile Walsh, Erin Fitzpatrick, Ciara O’Boyle); the U13 boys took silver in 1.00.5 (Brian Loughnane, Dylan Finn, Nathan Lynskey, Jim Crowley) and also 4th place in 1.03.4 (Mikey Burke, Liam Moran, Gearoid Treacy, Sam McArdle); the U14 girls took gold in their 4x200m in a time of 2.05.5 (Aisling Keady-Cummins, Emma Gaffney, Grainne McDaid, Tara McNally, Andrea Tobin); the U15 girls gold in 1.58.5 in their 4x200m (Sinead Treacy, Tara McNally, Dandy Murray, Ellen Treacy, Ellen Fitzpatrick); the U15 boys silver in 1.53.5 (Kelvin Olayemi, Jamie Spelman, Conor O’Donoghue, Aidan Conneely); the U16 girls bronze in 2.03.1 despite a bad fall to Dandy (Dandy Murray, Claire Ryder, Ella Bryan, Sinead Treacy, Gabrielle Tobin); the U17 girls gold in 1.55.1 (Jessica Heneghan, Maireád McCan, Sinead Gaffney, Claire Ryder, Melissa Mullins) and the U18 girls gold in 1.56.3 (Jessica Heneghan, Melissa Mullins, Sinead Gaffney, Katie O’Donoghue, Maireád McCan). |