Sineád Treacy

National Indoor U18 200m Champion 2014

It was another incredible weekend for Craughwell AC with 5 medals amidst quality opposition at the National Juvenile track & field in Athlone. An action-packed 2 days saw both Sineád Treacy and Aisling Keady-Cummins take home their first Irish indoor titles.

In Sineád’s case, the weekend provided an incredible breakthrough for this hard-working athlete. Racing to the silver medal on Saturday in the U18 Girls 60m in a new PB and club record of 7.74s, it was a foretaste of what was to come on Sunday. In the U18 Girls long jump on Sunday, Sineád took the silver medal with an impressive leap of 5.28cm, just fractionally ahead of the club record of 5.25cm set by Cathriona Farrell in 2011. Moments later, Sineád was in action in the 200m heats where she comfortably made the final. The final saw Sineád blitz the field to take the victory by over 3 metres and in a huge PB of 24.73 – just one-tenth of a second short of breaking the national record in that age group and also qualifying Sineád for selection for the European Youth Olympic Trials in May.

Sineád’s achievements are a huge boost to the club and great encouragement to our younger athletes many of whom exhibit similar talent to Sineád when she was their age. If those younger athletes are interested in statistics, Sinead ran 9.04 for 60m as an U13, finishing 11^th out of 14 in the National finals while in the U13 long jump Sineád placed 8^th in the Connacht finals with a PB of 3.61m.  She is a role-model of dedication for younger athletes and hopefully they and parents would take note of her performances as an U13 and her performances now and see what the combination of consistent training and talent can achieve.

It was a fantastic weekend also for Aisling Keady-Cummins. Having won the Scottish Indoor U14 title in 2012 and joint winner of the Irish outdoor U14 title in the same year, Aisling was plagued by growth-related injury since then and had to take a long layoff from the sport from summer 2012 until now. Only just back training once a week this year and with only a handful of high jump practise sessions, this talented athlete put in an incredible series of jumps to land the National title. Aisling opened her jumping at 1.40m with a clean clearance. A small blip at 1.45m saw her knock it on her first attempt and clear it on her second attempt. Placed 5^th at this point in the competition, Aisling sailed over her 1.50m on her first attempt as did 3 other competitors with the eventual silver medallist getting it on her 3^rd attempt. Lying 4^th at this point, all 5 jumpers knocked 1.55m on their first event. Bursting with confidence, Aisling was the only athlete to clear it on her second attempt which put her into the lead and eventually gave her the victory. A remarkable performance considering her lengthy absence from the sport.

Aisling Keady-Cummins

National Indoor U16 High Jump Champion 2014

The 800m provided the club with its 5th medal of the championships and a number of near misses. John Cormican had his eye on a medal in the U19 800m and was well placed for the first 500m, but just hadn’t enough on the day to respond to the kick that came at that point and finished in 4th place in a time of 2.03.11. Oisin Lyons had a super run in the heats of the U15 800m to place 2nd and make the final with a time of 2.15.04. He followed this up with a herculean effort in the final to occupy second place for much of the race but narrowly lost out in the last 200m when placing 4th in an excellent time of 2.11.34.

Leanagh Gilligan was in hard luck on the double in the U13 long jump and high jump events, placing 5th in the long jump with a leap of 4.50m which was just 3cm shy of the bronze medal position and placing 5th in the in high jump with a leap of 1.30m. Ryan Gallagher and Garvin Surlis were unlucky to exit their U13 high jump early – both jumpers perhaps overawed a little on the day and not threatening their PBs. Elsewhere in the high jump, Lorraine Delaney did very well in the U15 girls with a PB of 1.45m while Ciana Reidy cleared 1.35m but exited at her PB height of 1.40m. Sean Delaney had a strong performance when clearing 1.55m in the U15 boys while Jerry Keary cleared 1.50m, a little down on what he is capable of. Also in the jumps, Aine Kelly cleared 1.15m in the U12 grade while Eabha Leech performed very well in the U14 grade with a leaps of 1.38m. Tara Slattery cleared 1.30m in the U14 grade with Michael Hand clearing 1.35m.

In the long jump, we probably need to get onto the Athlone boards more often as we struggled with our marks in a number of grades where we had some fine jumpers in action. Eva Kelly leaped 3.99m in the U13 girls event with Alex Evans making the top 8 with a 4.17m leap in the U13 boys event. Sarah McCartin was unlucky to break all 3 jumps in the U13 girls, as was Mary Dunphy in the U16 girls. Ultan Sheeran made his debut at National level with a 4.09 leap to place 11th in the U14 boys event. Caoilin Milton cleared 4.18m in the U15 girls having earlier had 2 breaks while Aoife Walshe also struggled with her mark on the day, taking off from a good bit behind the board each time for a best of 4.06m on the day – very unlucky for both Aoife and Caoilin as 4.83m took bronze which is a distance both athletes are well capable of clearing. Ellen Treacy placed 7th in the U18 girls event with a leap of 4.18m while Matthew McKernan had a fine performance in the U17 boys event to take 6th place with a best of 5.53m.

In the shot putt, Cian Waters and Eva Kelly were the club’s leading performers both with an 8th place finish with Cian throwing x in the U15 boys and Eva with a best of 8.32m. Eva had to cope with the hassle of going to the long jump after each throw and swapping her runners for spikes each time. Michael Hand placed 10th in the U14 boys with 9.19m. Laura Cunningham placed 11th in the U15 girls with a best of 7.03m while Sarah McCartin placed 14th in the U13 girls with a best of 6.11.

Aidan had a more positive experience in the 200m on Sunday with a new PB. In other sprints, Kelvin Oleyemi recorded 7.68 in the heats of the U18s 60m, Cillian Dolan recorded a strong 7.62s in the U16 heats, Cian Waters recorded 8.25s in the U15 heats and Shaun Gilligan ran 8.80 in the U12 heats. In the girls sprints, Michelle Duggan made the U16 final with a solid 8.25s in her heats but unfortunately had to pull up in the final due to injury while Tara McNally ran 8.19s in the heats of the U17 girls. In the hurdles, Oisin Shannon placed 7th in his heat of the U14s in a time of 10.35s while Cian Waters placed 4th in the U15 heats in a time of 10.06 just missing out on qualification for the final.