Kerryman Article 21/2/08


The AAI Junior and master indoors were held in Nenagh on Saturday and
Sunday the 16th/17th last.As we now come to expect the competing Kerry
athletes were to the forefront in many events.
On Saturday the Kerry masters were in excllent form bringing home a total
of 16 national medals between five different clubs,one of the strongest
showings in many years!Probably the most outstanding athlete over the
weekend was Tomas Griffin of An Riocht ac who made the trip back down to
the Kingdom with four medals in his pocket.These came in the form of gold
in the long jump with 6.11m and three silver in the
60m[6.59secs],200m[24.77sec] and high jump with a clearence of 1.60m.His
clubmate Sean Mulvihill who was also running in the M35 category ran a
storming race in the two lap 400m race to finish in third place in a time
of 57.7secs.
As always the everpresent Patsy O'Connor of Tralee harriers was in action
in both the high hump and shot putt in the M50 category and didnt
dissapoint winning gold in both with relative ease with a jump of 1.45m
and a throw of 12.67m.Another Tralee harriers man Donal Crowley also
picked up two medals in the M60 category.He cleared 1.10m for 2nd in the
high jump and then added another silver with a leap of 3..55m in the long
jump.The last harriers man in action on the day was Pat Canty and like his
clubmate Donal he finished second in the M50 category long jump with a
best jump of 4.81m.
Gneeveguilla AC had two athletes in action on the day in Mike Browne and
the only kerry female competitor Sheila O'Donoghue.Mike won two bronze in
both the M65 400m and 3000m.Not to be outdone by her team mate Sheila also
went home with two medals.She threw a fantastic 9.70m in the shot putt for
an easy win and rounded off her day with a bronze in the long jump. The
final two medals of the day came from probably the two most
contrasting athletes;a stalward of Kerry athletics Jim O'Shea of
Farranfore/MV and a new kid on the block Paul Lowth of St.Brendans AC.Jim
was in his usual good form and cleared 1.20m for gold on the M65 category
and Paul threw 8.41m for bronze in the 040 shot.
On Sunday the Juniors were in action in a very high standard indoor
competition.Kerry athletes brought home both indoor shot titles in the
form of Daniel Clifford[FFMV} and Claire Fitzgearld[Tralee H].Daniel was
involved in a very tight competition with Waterford athlete Dale Kennedy
but eventually came out the victor with a putt of 12.72m.Claires
competition was much more clearcut and she was never really under any
pressure from her competitors and won with relative ease with a huge throw
of 12.69m.
The last medal of the weekend came from Kerry juvenile athlete of the year
Niall Prendiville of Farranfore/MV.Niall was competing in the mens 5km
walk and finished an excellent second with a time of 24.20 minutes.
Overall a total of 7 gold,7 silver and 5 bronze national medals were
brought home to the Kingdom last weekend.Well done to everyone involved.

Fixtures-Munster u10-u14 indoors-Nenagh-23/24th February
Munster u15-u19 indoors-Nenagh-1/2nd March
County Indoors u9-u14-Tralee CBS hall-8th March