Kerryman Article 28/2/08

The British AAA'S championships were held in the national indoor
arena in Birmingham on Saturday and Sunday last.Claire Fitzgearld was
choosen to compete for Ireland in the u17 shot putt competition and as
always she did not dissapoint.Even though a recurring hand injury
resurfaced early in the competition she still came away with the silver
medal with several 12metre plus throws.Hopefully this will clear up soon
as a big season lies ahead for her on the international stage.


Patrick O'Shea of Iveragh AC has been awarded the Tadhg Memorial
AAI Masters Achiever of the year Award for 2008.Past recipients include
Niamh O'Sullivan of An Riocht AC who won it last year and the "Chairman of
the boards" Eamon Couglan.
Patrick recieved this award due to his fantastic achievements in 2007.At
the 10th European Masters road championships held in Regansburg,Germany in
June Patrick competed in three races in the space of 6days.The first race
was the 10km road championships where he had a stunning victory on day 1
of the championships.Only 2 short days later he choose to line up in the
longer half marathon race and didnt dissapoint with a fine run for second
place.Patrick was also part of the Irish team in both these races and with
his help they picked up international team silvers in both events. Two
days later again he then lined up as part of the Irish 3 x 4km relay team
where they took European gold!As well as this Patrick won numerous
national road and cross country titles as well as a haul of county and
munster medals.Its great in this day and age that such a high profile
masters athlete supports his county and provincial competitions so
well.Well done Patrick and to all associated with you.

Nenagh was as always the venue for the munster u10-u14 indoor
championships last weekend.As is commonplace now Kerry athletes were in
sparkling form capturing no fewer than 11gold,14silver and 14 bronze
medals.As a county we are slowly closing the gap on Cork as the leading
athletics county in the province.These medals were brought home between
four clubs;St Brendans AC,Tralee Harriers AC,Lios Tuathaill AC and
Gneeveguilla AC.
There were many multi medal winning performances over the two days from
several athletes.Eoin O'Carroll of Tralee Harriers brought home two gold
in the u14 shot and long jump,silver in the 60m hurdles and bronze in the
60m and was also part of the u14 relay team who won gold along with Gerard
Browne,Danny Pierce and Brian Barry who is a newcomer to the sport.Quinn
Newsome Mcdonnell of St Brendans Ac also came back to Kerry with five
medals in the form of gold in the u13 60m hurdles,bronze in both the long
jump and 60m,silver as part of the u14 boys relay along with Thomas
Nolan,Daniel Shanahan,Eoghan Courtney,Ryan Duggan and another bronze as a
member of the u13 relay team along with Shane Lowth,Jimmy Shanahan and
Thomas Nolan again.Sticking with the multi medal winning theme Rebecca
Daly and Patrick Warren of Gneeveguilla AC both picked up two individual
medals.Rebecca scorched to silver in the u12 60m and then added a well
deserved bronze in the long jump later that day.On Sunday Patrick started
his day with a well deserved bronze in a very high standard u10 long jump
competition and later on that day fought it out with Eoin McElligott of St
Brendans AC in the 300m and with a blistering finish Patrick came out on
top for the race to finish in a Kerry one-two.As always Louise O'Connor of
Tralee Harriers was in the medals.She picked up three silver in the u14
60m,60m hurdles and in an enthralling high jump
competition.
Other Tralee Harriers medalists over the weekend included silver for Aoife
O'Carroll in the u11 60m and lonj jump,bronze for Aoibheann O'Brien in the
u11 long jump and bronze for both Courtney Ryan and Danny Pierce in the
u12 and u14 high jump respectively.
Probably the most impressive kerry club over the weekend was Lios
Tuathaill Ac due to their huge overall improvement.As always they excelled
in the relay events winning two gold,one silver and a bronze.Their boys
and girls u10 both won gold with excellent sprinting and sleek baton
changes.Members of the boys team were Daniel Sheehan,Shane Galvin,Sheldon
O'Neill,Donal Hunt and Ciaran Pierce.The girls team included Sophie
Lynch,Niamh Cullen,Ciara Donegan and Ashling O'Mahoney.The girls u13
quartet of Vanessa Dineen,Siobhan Donegan,Aoife Kennelly and Katie
Stapleton were the clubs silver medal winners and the boys u12 team picked
up the bronze with Joey Lynch,Jason Foley,Kieran Lynch,Brian O'Seanachain
and Cathal O'Sullivan.Brain O'Seanachain also ran a strong u12 600m and
came away with a well deserved bronze medal.
In the race walking events St.Brendans Ac had two medals in the form of
gold for Sophie Woulfe in the u14 1km and silver for James Lyne in the
boys equivalent.In the u11 boys age group Iarla Courtney was also
prevelent winning gold in the long jump with a huge leap of 3.99m and
later on added bronze in the 60m in a very tight race.He then also
anchored the St Brendans u11 relay team to the gold medal overtaking the
two sprinters who beat him in the 60m in the home stretch.The other
members of this team were Eric Leen,Christopher Heffernan,Fionnan
Mackassey and Adrian Nolan.Another member of the Courtney clan Eoghan
suprised everyone in winning silver in the u14 high jump with an excellent
clearence of 1.35m showing a natural ability in this event.The last St
Brendans medla winner of the weekend but by no means least was Daniel
Shanahan;on Saturday he won bronze in a very tight 60m hurdles race and
followed this up Sunday with a silver in the 60m sprint.
Hannah O'Sullivan of Gneeveguilla showed why she is tipped to go on to
bigger and better things when she took the u14 shot putt title in
style.Gneeveguillas final two medals came in the relay events where they
are always to the fore.Their girls u11 quartet finished in second place
with Siobhan Fitzgearld,Danielle O'Connor,Beatrice Casey and Sinead
Horgan.Then the boys u10 team picked up a well deserved bronze medal with
a team of Darragh Moynihan,Brian O'Keefe,CJ O'Sullivan and Patrick Warren.
On a non medal winning note it was also great to see participation from
many other Kerry clubs so early in the season including Spa Fenit Barrow
AC,Star of the Laune AC,Spa Muckross AC and An Riocht AC.I hope i have not
left anyone out.Well done to everyone who competed over the weekend
whether you were a medal winner or not!

The Kerry AAI would like to pass on our deepest condolences to
the family of Shane Rodgers of Tralee Harriers AC who passed away recently
after a long illness.His club secretary Donal Crowley described him as "a
natural athlete and a great character" even though he was a late comer to
the sport only joining his club in 2004.Donal also stated that "you would
think he was involved in athletics his whole life as he was a very
technical athlete,but it was just natural".In the relative short space of
time he was involved in the sport he was very highly regarded and
achieved many county,munster and national medals.In events including
200m,400m,long jump and relays he amassed 5 National championship medals,8
munster medals and countless county championship medals in the
short space of 3 years.He will be sadly misses by all involved with the
Kerry AAI.His achievements included-
2007 Munster Masters Indoors-3rd Long Jump
National Masters Indoors-3rd Long Jump
2006 National Masters Indoors:3rd Long Jump
Munster Masters T&F: 1st Long Jump, 2nd 4x100m Relay
National Masters T&F: 3rd Long Jump
2005 Munster Masters Indoors 200M 3rd, 800M 2nd.
National Indoor Masters 3rd 400m
Munster Masters T&F: 1st 4x100m, 3rd 400m, 3rd LJ
National Masters T&F 1st LJ, 3rd 4x100m

Fixture-March 1st/2nd-Munster u15-u19 indoors-Nenagh
March 3rd-County board meeting 8.30pm-An Riocht
March 8th-County Indoors-Tralee CBS-12noon