The finest student athletes in Ireland went to battle last weekend in the Irish Universities Athletics Association’s National Track and Field Finals.  Several Craughwell AC Athletes proudly stepped forward to represent their colleges. The action took place in the fantastic facility of Dundrum South Dublin Athletics Club, surrounded by picturesque Dublin hills.   

Kyle Moorhead was the star of the show for University of Galway in the 800m, having qualified on Friday in second place in his semi-final with a 1:59.06 outing in breezy conditions.  In Saturday’s final, Kyle went through the first lap in 57 seconds and held his nerve running in 4th place until 150m to go when he made his move and kicked hard all the way to the line – closing in 55s to seal a fantastic Silver in a NEW CLUB RECORD of 1:53.79.  It is really difficult to run a second lap faster than the first in 800m running so indicates that in a more evenly paced race, he will soon push this record even lower.

Sinead Gaffney was first of the Craughwell Athletes in action, representing UL on Friday evening in the 1500m. Sinead ran well all the way to finish 6th in a fine 4:50.76 ahead of some excellent athletes.

Not to be outdone, Kyle’s housemate and close friend Sean Cotter lined up in the 5000m.  Sean went with the blistering pace of the lead group which was whittled from eight to three athletes as the kilometres ticked past. As they negotiated the backmarkers, Sean felt the pinch and dropped off the 14:25 pace with 800m to run but hung on bravely to finish in a track PB of 14:42 and win a fantastic Bronze medal.

Michelle Duggan, representing UCD had a fine weekend with an individual 4th in the 200m and contributing to team Gold in the 4x100m relay.

Laura Cunningham, representing UL came 4th in the triple Jump with a leap of 9.86m, showing good consistency through all of her leaps.

Middle-distance specialist Luke Evans lined up for Trinity in the Weight for Distance, throwing a very respectable 5.15m to come 10th.

Patrick Noonan lined up in a high quality 3km steeplechase and at halfway was sitting comfortably in 3rd and setting to work chasing down the second placed athlete when disaster struck and he mistimed a leap over the barrier to take a nasty fall. It was a good learning experience and he was sore afterwards but hopefully no damage was done.

(this is a slightly belated report – but we like to get them up to keep the historical record on the website!!)