All-Ireland silver for Kyle Ward-Byrne

It is impossible to think about athletics this week without considering the recent performance of Rhasidat Adeleke in Monaco. The talented Tallaght AC runner won her very first Diamond League and ran her second fastest ever 400m. 

Adeleke is one of our best individual prospects for the Olympic Games next month and her performances have inspired a nation of athletes. None more so that our aspiring internationals such as Cillian Gleeson who will head out to Slovakia to compete in the u18 European Championships and Theo Hanlon who will journey to Wales for the SIAB international.

At home there was plenty of action with international athletes flocking to Cork and Dublin to compete in the 70th running of the famous Cork City Sports and three days later the Morton Games in Santry. While the weekend played host to the All-Ireland combined events and the AAI games. Robert Hewison (Kildare AC) had a magnificent win in the Senior Men’s 800m at the AAI Games in Santry last Sunday. In the combined events Newbridge AC athlete, Kyle Ward-Byrne took silver in the u15 pentathlon, narrowly beaten for gold.

All-Ireland Combined Events Kyle Ward-Byrne (Newbridge AC) is one of those athletes who seems to get it right for most events. He shines at hurdles, high jump and long jump. Its only natural that being good at multiple events that an athlete like Ward-Byrne would be drawn to the pentathlon. The pentathlon (as the name suggests) consists of five events; Hurdles, Long Jump, Shot, High Jump and the 800m, which usually rounds off the entire competition. 

It is the 800m that can ultimately determine the colour of the medal an athlete gets. Byrne won the High Jump, hurdles and long jump, securing a new personal best of 5.41 in the latter. It was the 800m that was critical. Coming into the 800m, the final event to complete, the Newbridge AC athlete held a marginal lead over Fionn Naughton (Leevale AC). Despite securing a personal best in the 800m, he unfortunately lost out to Naughton in the 800m which resulted in a silver medal for Byrne. With the strong High Jump, Long Jump and Hurdles had a distinct advantage over Naughton. It was however, the Shot Putt that Naughton was very strong in – throwing almost two meters more than everyone else. With some more shot putt training the gold is there for Ward-Byrnes taking next time around.

There were two other Kildare athletes competing in the combined event; Max Crampton in the u14 pentathlon and John Paul Archibold in the u16 pentathlon. Crampton finished 3rd in the hurdles, high jump and long jump and secured a new personal best in the 800m. This is Crampton’s first All-Ireland pentathlon and with some minor tweaks, the is perfectly poised to medal in the future. Like Crampton, John Paul Archibold finished 4th in his pentathlon, the boys u16. Having worked on his endurance over the past year, this yielded dividends as Archbold secured a new personal best over 800m and in doing so accumulated massive points to bring him from 5th to 4th.