Another successful day for the Club at the Connacht T&F on Saturday in Athlone. It was the turn of the U14-U19 ages as well as the Senior/Master categories with plenty of very impressive performances across a range of events.
Emma Brennan was again at her brilliant best as she notched up a trio of U16 middle-distance medals with double gold (800m and 1500m) and silver (3000m). Following a morning 1500m victory, a long wait for the 800m didn’t deter Emma from clinching the win which was followed barely 20 minutes later lining up in her maiden 3000m track race. Under darkening clouds, Emma showed her strength to secure silver and round off a superb day on the track. In further family success, brother Conor had earlier taken gold in the 1km Walk with an excellent, disciplined showing of race walking and a deserved win.
Further middle-distance medals came with gold for Oisín Dillon in the U14 800m with a confident display of front running. Timothy Sheridan also ran brilliantly to claim a fantastic bronze following a great battle to the line. Bronze medals were also won by Rachel Keenan (U16 1500m), Sophia Carey (U14 1500m) and Darcey Brady (U14 800m). The latter saw another thrilling finish as Darcey, having patiently waited for her delayed race start, showed her speed with a super sprint at the end.
Rian McCaffrey enjoyed double silver-medal success with second place in both the U14 1500m and High Jump while also obtaining Nationals qualification with fourth in the Javelin. Another talented multi-eventer is Sinead Masterson who leaped 1.45m for High Jump bronze and later competed strongly in the 200m and Long Jump. Also doing very well in the U14 age group were Alisha Manning (1500m and Long Jump), Cara Davis (Long Jump), John Keenan (200m) while Sophia and Darcey clocked good times in the 75m Hurdles.
A notable feature was the brilliant return of medals by Club members in the field events. Brayden Francis landed gold in the U15 Javelin with a longest effort of 42.17m and followed that with a strong run in the 100m. Finbar Thomas was equally impressive when achieving gold in the U16 Shot Put (4kg) with a winning 12.16m distance. A long day for Conor Meadows but that didn’t prevent him from producing medal-winning efforts with silver in the U15 Discus and bronze in the Shot Put. Excellent showings by the Moyne CS trio of Brayden, Finbar and Conor in their first competition representing Longford AC.
Our first track medal of the day had come with Sian Gallagher claiming silver in the U18 400m and the medals kept coming with Kelly Davis’ bronze in the U15 Shot Put and Seán Grealy in the U16 200m.
A busy day of events for Leah McVeigh (80mH, Shot Put and Long Jump) performing well in each with strong runs in the U15 age group also by Ben O’Connor (100m and 200m), Lucy Maher (200m) and our two 4 x 100m girls relay teams. Leah’s fourth place in the Shot Put achieved Nationals qualification. Max Gallagher placed well in the U16 800m despite having already played a GAA match in the morning. Credit to Max for running the quick time he did.
Fiona Gettings landed a double gold medal haul with convincing victories in the Senior 1500m and 3000m while Edel Nolan showed her speed with Masters gold in the 100m. Making his track debut was Michael O’Hara who won Masters 3000m gold less than 48 hours after a fast time at the Newtowncashel 5k. Completing the treasure trove of gold was Aaron Kelly who took the win in the Senior 200m.
A lengthy programme of events in Athlone on a day of warm sunshine, late afternoon rain and a weather warning threat that thankfully didn’t fully materialise until after the events finished. Our thanks to the event officials for their time and effort to ensure these days of competition can happen. Thanks to the athletes and parents for their patience and well done to all participants on an excellent day of athletics.
Congratulations to the juvenile qualifiers who can now look forward to next month’s National Championships in Tullamore.
