Several Craughwell AC athletes travelled to Tullamore at the weekend (Sat June 3rd) for the Irish Schools Track and Field Championships. This event is widely regarded as the highest standard in juvenile athletics in the country as it covers all schools north and south and draws its competitors from all sports.

The club had its highest participation level ever in this event with Sarah Finnegan (hurdles and triple jump), Cathriona Farrell (hurdles, high jump and long jump), Leah Creaven (long jump and triple jump) and Maeve Curley (1200m walk) all qualifying in individual events and Kelly O'Donoghue, Rachel Kenny and Leah Creaven qualifying as part of the Pres Athenry relay team.

The Junior Girls long jump was the highlight of the day for Craughwell athletes where we had both Caitriona (representing Athenry VS) and Leah (representing the Pres Athenry) taking part. Caitriona showed a welcome return to form in the long jump, clinching the gold medal with a jump of 5.10m to retain the title she won last year. Leah set a huge PB of 4.92m to take 4th place – just 2cm off 2nd and 3rd place. It was both exhilerating and dispiriting for Leah as it was a PB by almost 20cm but so narrowly missing out on a podium position in an event of this calibre. Leah also competed in the triple jump, claiming 7th place with a jump of 9.05m.

In the Junior Girls hurdles, Caitriona had a super run to take 5th place in a time of 12.51 in the 75m event and cleared 1.55m in the high jump to take 4th place. She was slightly disappointed with the high jump but made up for it the following day by taking the gold medal in the Galway Community Games with a jump of 1.60m – a jump that would have taken silver in the schools and even more impressively was off a grass surface (vs tartan surface in the schools). Sarah (representing Loughrea VS) ran well in the Senior Girls hurdles to take 6th place with a time of 19.58 and competed strongly also in the triple jump taking 7th place with a jump of 8.71m.

Maeve (representing Seamount Kinvara) claimed the club's other medal on the day – taking silver in the Junior Girls 1200m Walk in a super time of 5.56.77. In the final event of the day for Craughwell athletes, the Pres Athenry relay team took 8th place in the Junior Girls 4x100m relay in a time of 54.24. It was a good performance from the Craughwell trio of Kelly, Rachel and Leah against the best sprint relay teams from the entire island.

Well done to all involved! Full results are available here.