Nine gold medals for Kildare Juveniles at the All-Ireland Juvenile Track and Field Championships
Georgia Coughlan (Crookstown-Millview) races for gold in the u13 60m hurdles Photo: Perri Williams
The Irish senior athletics team were in sunny Slovenia competing in the European Team Championships, trying to keep cool as temperatures soared above 35 degrees. In contrasting conditions, those competing at home, had to endure the constant sheets of rain, soaking both track and body, in a never-ending cascade. In Tullamore, from start to finish there was no let up with the damp conditions – making things difficult for the field event athletes in particular. Despite this, Kildare athletes took home a total of ten medals from Saturdays competitions – six of them gold. Gold medal winning performances came from: Ryan O’Neill (Newbridge), Noah Tracey (Kildare AC), Senan Markey (Tir Mona), Ella Hanlon (Suncroft), Florence Harte (Crookstown-Millview) and Cara Wright (Crookstown-Millview). While Sunday saw nine further medals medals with three of them gold; Iris McCartan (Clane), Kyle Byrne-Ward (Newbridge) and Georgia Coughlan (Crookstown-Millview).
At the Irish Milers Meet in Dublin, the senior athletes were in action. Alex Murphy (Suncroft) finished fourth in the 3000m.
Meanwhile competing for Ireland Theo Hanlon (Suncroft) recorded a throw of 71.61m at the u20 Gala in Mannheim, Germany.
A team of Irish athletes were selected to compete in the Bahaus Junior Gala in Mannheim, Germany last weekend. Amongst them was Theo Hanlon (Suncroft AC). Hanlon finished third with a sixth-round throw of 17.64m, just 21cm short of the European u20 B standard. Sailing close to the European B Standard for the Shot Putt, Hanlon requires two B standards in order to formally qualify as per Athletics Ireland regulations. He has already achieved his first B standard at the Irish Milers Meet in Clonmel where he threw 17.96m. He still has another month to secure the second. Thus far he has been very close in all his competitions.
Also competing in Mannheim was Sarah Kiernan (Naas). Kiernan has made great progress in her 400m running this past year, from being crowned national champion to representing Ireland at u20 level, she is now on the national u20 relay squad with realistic prospects of representing Ireland in the European u20 Championships in Finland in August. In Mannheim the 4x400m relay team, finished third.
Athletics Ireland have named a strong Irish team to ahead of the Schools International in Derby, England this month. Included in the team are Ronan and Rachel Keaney, both of whom will take part in the Steeplechase. The Keaney twins, from Kildare, took up the event just this year and thus far have had plenty of success.
Kildare has always been a mecca for summer road races, with ample summer series races scattered across the county, often with serious entrants too. St Coca’s held their 5km race last Friday with over 600 athletes taking part. First to cross the line was Tadgh Donnelly (Drogheda and District AC) who has just graduated from Iona College where he was on an athletics scholarship. The first Kildare athlete home was St Coca’s Kevin Kelly who finished third. Its onto Celbridge for the next 5km race.
The Bio freeze 5 mile race took place last Sunday in Dublin. The first Kildare athlete across the line was Colm Roche (Cebridge) in 18th place overall.
There was plenty to smile about after last weekend’s National Juvenile championships in Tullamore. With ten medals on Saturday (six of them gold) and eight medals on Sunday, three of them gold. Kildare athletes have proved they are amongst the best in Ireland.
The Javelin in particular produced a string of successes, with two gold medals and a silver on Saturday, followed by silver and bronze on Sunday - 5 medals in total, along with some fourth placings and a wealth of Kildare athletes competing. Starting with the boys u13, Dylan Burke (Crookstown Millview) took silver with a best throw of 29.18m. Then came two gold medals first for Ryan O’Neill (Newbridge) in the boys u15 and latterly for Noah Treacy (Kildare AC) in the boys u16. O’Neill threw 41.71m from his fourth throw with all of his other throws over 39m. There was a margin of over half a meter between the Newbridge AC athlete and Eli Duffy (The Rosses) who took silver with a throw of 41.04. Just half an hour later, Noah Treacy (Kildare) avenged his defeat at the recent Leinster Championships with a superb gold medal winner performance in the boys u16 javelin. His final throw of 44.62m (a personal best) moved him from third to first. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of fellow county man Hugh Melaniphy (Naas) whose 43.82 saw him eventually take the bronze medal. On Sunday the girls u13 had two Naas girls competing: Eabha Larkin and Mia Shine. A fifth-round throw of 28.57m move Eabha from third to second with Mia finishing 7th. In the girls u14, it was the same story, two girls competing; Kayleigh Redmond (Clane) and Grace Cassidy (Naas). Kayleigh finish third with a throw of 28.16 and Grace finished 14th.
Senan Markey (Tir Mona) added another gold medal to the board with his fine win in the boys u16 walk. Markey has been steadily improving since he first raced the All-Irelands as an u14 athlete. His winning time of 16:03 is yet another milestone on his athletics journey, and so close to that sub 16 mark, that most often take years to get.
Tuan Lee (Clane) took a bronze medal in the boys u15 long jump with a consistent series of jumps over the six rounds. It was his final jump of 5.69 that proved the best. The winner Matt David Duro (Kilmore) has been wowing audiences all summer with his gigantic frame cruising through the air with magnificent leaps of over 6m. Such distances are phenomenal for fourteen-year-olds, especially in Ireland. His winning jump of 6.09m was just 9cm off the record, held jointly by another Wexford man David McDonald along with Timothey Harrington. Henry McCormack (Newbridge) was seventh in the same event. Blessed Nleya (Crookstown Millivew) finished second in the boys u15 100m, in a time of 11.93 behind Harry Atkinson (MSB). It was unfortunate that the Leinster u17 Long Jump champion John Paul Archbold had to miss his All-Ireland competition. A hop injury that has been plaguing him for some months new finally gave way. It will be some consolation to Archbold that he was good enough to get the gold. With some good rehab work he can hopefully bounce back to don some of those international vests that he has earned.
Ella Hanlon (Suncroft) is no stranger to the podium with an array of both shot putt and discus medals hanging on her shelf. Hanlon was the only athlete to throw over 30m in the girls u15 Discus. Taking the gold medal, her winning throw of 32.91m came from the fourth round and was one of four throws over 30m that she threw in the competition. Unfortunately for Hanlon the discus and shot putt competition clashed, which resulted in her missing the event that she first took national medals in. However, Kildare was represented by two other athletes; Lucy Cousins (Suncroft) and Autumn Mawer (Clane) who finished 13th and 14th respectively.
Another gold medal for the u15 girls came in the same hour when Florence Harte (Crookstown-Millview) took the triple jump title. Harte produced a new personal best of 10.87m with her first jump. She was the only athlete who produced all six jumps of over 10m. In the end she had a winning margin of 22cm over Clongriffin’s ValeryRiecka. Harte’s clubmate Niamh O’Shea finished sixth.
Cara Wright (Crookstown-Millview) rounded off her juvenile career with a gold medal in the girls u19 Discus. Her throw of 37.80m came amid a series of fouled attempts during the latter half of her competition. A distance and position Wright has been capable of for a while now, finally came about. This is her first ever All-Ireland gold medal.
Amber O’Connor won her heat in 10.60 and third in final in 10.69. Third, fourth and fifth so close, just two hundredths of a seconds separated them. Abigail Fenton (Belgooly) won in 10.52 It has always been a ding dong battle between Saoirse Ballasty-Byrne (Naas) and Rachael Beattie (Crookstown Millview) in the sprinting events. Ballasty-Byrne seems to be coming out the victory this past year. Last Saturday once again the two Kildare athletes lined out for the girls u17 100m final. Ballasty-Byrne in lane 6, Beattie in lane 4, Between them was Tiffney Nwaedozie (Belgooly) who was the outright winner of the race. It was Ballasty-Byrne who dipped for the silver medal, after producing a strong second half. Beattie finished fourth, recording the exact same time as the bronze medallist (12.77) – a photo finish being called in, to decide the medal position. Aoibhe Leigh (Kildare AC) almost made the final. Finishing 9th overall, she was just eight hundredths of a second off making the final eight. Aoibhinn O’Sullivan (Naas) took silver in the girls u19 Pole Vault.
On Sunday, Georgia Coughlan (Crookstown-Millview) took gold in the u13 hurdles. Coming from third, she moved to first after the final hurdle. That was all in the middle of her long jump competition. Initially leading in the long jump, the medal positions changed constantly throughout the six rounds of jumps. A fifth-round jump of 4.95m push her into a comfortable lead. However, Harriet O’Loughlin (Tralee) responded with a 4.98m in the final round. Coughlan was not giving up that easily and responded with a 4.97m, just one centimeter short of the gold medal. There was further gold medal news in the boys u16 80m hurdles. Kyle Byrne-Ward (Newbridge) grabbed the gold in a head of sprint finish with Amusa Adekunle (Leevale). Just one hundredth of a second separated the two athletes. His clubmate Eoghan Gallagher finished third in the same race.
Irish McCartan (Clane) produced a stunning display of front running to take the gold medal in the girls u14 800m. In front from the start, McCartan pushed the pace with 200m to go and enhanced that gap. In the end her time of 2.17.13 left no doubt as to her ability and potential. Also qualifying for the final, Isla Corcoran finished eighth overall. The Newbridge AC athlete recording a time of 13.61 seconds is a new personal best. Robert Gleeson (Newbridge) announced result to middle distance running. An initial temporary layoff turned out to be a little more that the few months intended. Emerging from the depth of the injury Gleeson fought hard throughout a very competitive 800m. Ryan Vickers (Farranfore-Maine) was the only athlete to dip under 2 minutes with his 1:58.99. Gleeson, for his part, regained a few places over the final 100m to take the silver in a time of 2.01.41.
Max Drennan (Naas) in his first ever All-Ireland hurdle competition took a well-deserved silver in the u13 60m hurdles. Henry McCormack (Newbridge) finished third in the u15 triple jump. The competition was won by the acclaimed Matt David Duro who broke the 10-year-old championship record with each of his six jumps.
U13 Javelin - 2 Dylan Burke (CM) 10 Aidan Duignan (NB)
Long Jump - 6 Dylan Burke (CM) 11 Conor Lawlor (CM)
600m - 3 Max Drennan (N)13 Conor Lawlor (CM)
Shot - 4 Aidan Duignan (N) 13 Jayden Lambe (N)
U14 800m - 7 Matthew Ennis (SC) Shot 4 Harry Kearney (N)
U15 100m - 2 Blessed Nleya (CM)
High Jump - 6 Max Crampton (NB) 12 Michael Clere (N) 14 Eoin Kelly (LC)
Javelin - 1 Ryan O’Neill (NB)
Long Jump - 3 Tuan Lee (C) 7 Henry McCormack (NB) 12 Alexander Guther (NB)
80mH - 8 Illia Budiak (N)
Triple Jump - 3 Henry McCormick (N) 9 Charlie O’Neill (CM)
U16 Walk - 1 Senan Markey (TM)
High Jump - 9 Darragh O’Grady (TM)
Javelin - 1 Noah Treacy (KD)
80m H - 1 Kyle Byrne Ward (N) 3 Eoghan Gallagher (N)
800m - 2 Robert Gleeson (N)
Shot - Aronus Andriulionis (C)
Triple Jump - 5 Rudhairi Archbold (N)
U19 100m - 5 Ryan Taylor (NB)
800m - 6 Adam Smith (CB)
U13 600 - 14 Ailbhe Byrne (Sun)
Hurdles - 1 Georgia Coughlan (CM) 8 Emily O’Meara (Eog)
Javelin - 2 Eabha Larkin (N) 7 Mia Shine (N)
Long Jump - 2 Georgia Coughlan (CM)
U14 Walk - 9 Beth Grogan (NB)
80m - 3 Amber O’Connor (Eire Og)
Discus - 12 Kayleigh Redmond (C)
Shot - 6 Robin Denehan (C) 10 Kayleigh Redmond (C)
75m H - 5 Kylie Mhondiwa (LC)
800m - 1 Iris McCartan (C) 8 Isla Corcoran (C) Javelin 3 Kayleigh Redmond (C) 14 Grace Cassidy (N)
U15 Discus - 1 Ella Hanlon (Sun)
Triple Jump - 1 Florence Harte (CM) 6 Niamh O’Shea (CM) Javelin 9 Sarah Sinnott (Sun)
U16 Walk - 5 Elba Bayon (CB)
Triple Jump - 7 Grace Norton (CM)
High Jump - 8 Lorelle Houlihan (CM)
Javelin - 4 Hannah McBride (C) 7 Grace Garvey (C)
U17 - 100m 2 Saoirse Ballasty-Byrne (N) 4 Rachael Beattie (CM) 9 Aoife Leigh (KD)
400m - 10 Eabha Brennan (NB)
800m - 10 Eabha Brennan (N)
Long Jump - 11 Caoimhe Gallagher (N)
U18 100m - 9 Eimear McGrath (CB)15 Caoimhe Gallagher (NB)
Triple Jump - 7 Lydia Fleischer (CB)
U19 100m - 9 Anna Sweeney (N)
Discus - 1 Cara Wright (CM)
Pole Vault - 2 Aoibhinn O’Sullivan (N)
