Seven Kildare athletes compete for Ireland
JP Archbold, Eabha Brennan and Robert Gleeson (Newbridge) represented Ireland at the FIESC Games.
It was a busy week in athletics, where seven Kildare athletes were part of the international experience. Robert Gleeson, JP Archbold, Eabha Brennan (Newbridge), Harry Cahill, Rhys Johnson (Donore) and Rachel and Ronan Keaney (Tullamore Harriers) competed in the FIESC Games in Budapest and SIAB International in Derby respectively.
There were many euphoric athletics moments last week. Starting with five medals at the European u23 Championships where Team Ireland produced outstanding performances. Medal after medal re-enforcing the Athletics strength that is in Ireland currently.
It can only serve to promulgate the sport’s popularity and provide a positive trajectory for the future. Success is not just the preserve of our traditional middle-distance athletes either. We had two field eventers make the final, with Nicola Tuthill taking silver in the hammer.
The balance of the medals very much tilted in favour of the girls, with four medals going their way and just one to a male – the accomplished Nick Griggs in the 5,000m. Anike Thompson was inspiration as she won gold in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m. Her humbling, down-to-earth, pragmatic interview breaking success into just pure hard work and self-belief.
In London our senior athletes did well. Sarah Healy took third in the mile and moved to number two on the all-time list with a massive 13 second personal best. Mark English and Rashidat Adeleke having good races too. Add these to the other performances that have been happening at senior and juvenile level over the past week, and you have one amazing Irish week in athletics.
All this success can only inspire our younger athletes setting out on their own international journey.
This year five Kildare athletes represented Ireland at the FIESC games which were held in Budapest. JP Archbold, Eabha Brennan and Robert Gleeson (all from Newbridge AC) and Rhys Johnson and Harry Cahill (Donore Harriers) were part of a 40 strong team across six sports.
The FIESC (Fédération Internationale Sportive de l’Enseignement Catholique”) or in English, the “International Sports Federation for Catholic Schools” has been operating for since 1946 and is rooted in Catholic education and international sports exchange. Very popular as an international opportunity for Irish juvenile athletes in the 1980s with high calibre teams sent each year to the international games.
With the dissipation of the ties of church and school, the games somewhat dropped from the Irish athletics agenda only to reappear again over recent years.
JP Archbold has experienced the highs and lows of athletics all within one season. Initially jumping personal best after personal best, his progress was somewhat hampered with a hamstring injury. An injury that caused him to miss the SIAB international and forgo the Nationals and the resulting opportunity to be selected as part of the Irish team to compete in Scotland. He did manage to salvage some of his international season with the later scheduling of the FIESC games. Competing in the Long Jump on day 1 of the FIESC games the Newbridge AC athlete took gold with a best jump of 6.74m from his final round. It was straight into the 400m hurdles where he finished third. Two days later he produced a personal best in the 400m clocking 52.43.
The heats of the 800m took place on the same day with Eabha Brennan (Newbridge AC) finishing in third and Robert Gleeson (Newbridge AC) finishing second. In the final heat Rhys Johnson (Donore) took the top spot with his clubmate and fellow Kildare man Harry Cahill taking second.
It was a personal best for Eabha Brennan in the final on Day 3. Running outside the top three, Brennan closed well over the final 200m, gaining momentum but finished 4th. She was rewarded with a personal best of 2:17.10. With three Kildare men contesting the 800m final, the contest was a battle for county as much as country honours. Six athletes remained locked together in a group for 600m of the race with the final 200m being the race decider. It was Rhys Johnson who finished third and the first Kildare man to the line, in a time of 2:00.87 (a personal best). Robert Gleeson was 4th with 2:01.92 (a season’s best) and fifth was Harry Cahill with 2:01.95 (a personal best).
Cahill and Johnson dragged their weary bodies to the line one more time as they lined up for the 3,000m on the final day of competition. It was Harry Cahill who produced the best performance of the Irish with a gusty run of 8:45.46, a personal best and silver medal. Behind him in fourth place Rhys Johnson crossed the line in 8:56.31.
Gleeson, Brennan and Archbold formed part of the relay squads that finished second.
Despite JP Archbold not making the SIAB International due to injury, Kildare was represented by two other athletes Ronan and Rachel Keaney. Now competing with Tullamore Harriers, the twins took up the steeplechase this year. Transitioning into success, they received podium placings at the All-Ireland schools and subsequently the Tailteann Games. as from the latter that they earned another international cap for Ireland. In Derby (UK) last Saturday a large team of Irish athletes competed with an overall result of second place. Contributing to that success was Ronan Keaney who finished sixth in the 1,500m steeplechase in a time of 4:36.42. His sister Rachel finished eighth in her race in a time of 5:29.26. Both athletes have previously competed in the SIAB International Cross-Country for Ireland.
A small contingent of athletes from Newbridge, Éire Óg and Suncroft took part in the National Combined events held in Carlow last weekend. The Combined Events have received much attention this year driven by the phenomenal success of Kate O’Connor. O’Connor took bronze at the European Indoors and silver at the World Indoors.
The boys u16 pentathlon resulted in two gold medals. The winner was Eoghan Gallagher with Kyle Byrne-Ward (both Newbridge) taking silver. Just 64 points separated the two Newbridge athletes, making this a very close contest throughout with the final event of the day the 800m literally being the decider of the colour of the medal. It was Gallagher who produced the best 800m result. Finishing 3rd in 2:25.03 to Byrne-Ward's fourth place of 2:25.53 it was enough to give Gallagher the victory. Gallagher produced victories in the long jump only with Byrne-Ward dominating the hurdles and shot.
Max Crampton (Newbridge AC) finished fourth in the boys u15 pentathlon with a total of 2,035 points not too far off the bronze medal. Crampton scored best in the 80m hurdles where he finished third overall.
Amber O’Connor (Éire Óg) was just 56 points off a bronze medal. Finishing fourth with 2,346 points the Éire Óg athlete performed well in the 800m with a second-place finish. She had several top six placings, which was excellent in the large entry of 16 athletes. Melita Kraniauskaite (Newbridge) also took part. Anna Dillon (Suncroft) finished 18th in a very large field of u15 athletes.
The AAI games were held in conjunction with the National Combined Events in Carlow. With several events offering athletes’ further competition across both track and field, there was good Kildare representation. This event offers excellent preparation for the upcoming national seniors at the start of next month.
Starting with field events. The Wright sisters Holly and Cara finished first and second respectively in the Discus. Holly threw a best of 43.18m from her first-round throw to take the victory. This is just 14cm shy of her personal best. Cara threw 36.43m. Alex Heaney (Clane AC) was back in action over the high jump – leaping 1.70m to win the men’s event.
Vivienne Fleischer (Celbridge) scored a double with a second place in both the Triple and Long jumps. Anna Sweeney (Naas) finished sixth in the long jimp. Aoibhinn O’Sullivan (Naas) bounced back after her recent pole vault fall to take second in the pole vault with a first-time clearance of 3 meters.
On the track both Caoimhe Cronin (Le Cheile) and Sarah Millea (Celbridge) lined up for the 200m. Cronin recorded 24.82 to take sixth in heat 1 with Millea winning heat 2 in 24.62. As usual there was a large entry in the 100m. Three Kildare men competed in the men’s series with the overall best effort coming from Kevin Migge (Naas) running 11.31 seconds. In the 100m ladies the best Kildare effort came from Sarah Millea who recorded a best of 12.08. Both Caoimhe Cronin (Le Cheile) and Sarah Kiernan (Naas) were in action in the 400m, their signature events. Cronin finished fifth in 56.61 with Kiernan seventh in 57.23 ahead of Camille Madden of Kilcoole. There was a third place finish for Rory Ardiff (Le Cheile) in the 400m hurdles in 1:00.49.
It was back to the Phoenix Park for the National 10-mile Championships. The overall winner was Corkman Ryan Creech (Leevale) who no doubt is ramping up the training for another Dublin marathon. Best of the Kildare athletes was Alexander Wallace (St Coca’s). Wallace a masters athlete shows no mercy on the roads as he continues to knock out performances that wow athletes half his age. Finishing in 8th place overall he recorded a time of 53:19, the first over 45 finisher and almost two minutes ahead of the next. Marc Augustin (St Coca’s) finished third in the over 40s section with David O’Connor (Celbridge) closing behind in fourth.
Emma Boland (Newbridge) was the first of the Kildare ladies across the line with an overall finish of 18th. She was followed home by Joan Hogan (Clane) in 25th. Boland finished third in her age group (over 45).
