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Kerryman Article 21/3/10The Munster Junior,
Senior and Masters indoor Championships were held on Sunday 21st
after the recent cold snap forced the event to be postponed from its original
date in January. Much discussion had been held as to the merits of holding the
event so late in the season as the National Championships for all three
categories have already gone ahead and while the fears that numbers would be
low due to this unfortunately proved true in some events this didn’t stop a
string of top performances by Kerry’s athletes in a competition which bought
the indoor season to end for most and gave them an idea of how their outdoor
season will progress. One of the busiest
athletes on the day was Mike Brown of Gneeveguilla AC who was seldom off the
track on route to three gold medals in the M65 800m, 1500m and the 3000m,
putting in excellent times late in the season at a stage when he and most of
the other athletes are taking a short break to recover for the outdoors. Many
more solid results came from Gneeveguilla with Colm Rothery winning the M45 800m while Vincent McGaley took second in
the 200m. In the women’s competition Sheila O’Donoughe showed why she was
honoured last weekend at the county awards, along with father and daughter,
when she took gold in the W40 shot putt and silvers in the long jump, high jump
and 60m. In the senior women’s 3000m Ann Marie Costello ran an excellent race
to take first place. One man Tralee
Harriers has always looked on for strong results is Donal Crowley who didn’t
let the team down, taking the full compliment of medals at M60 with a gold in
the 800m, a silver in the 1500m and the High Jump, a bronze in the Long Jump
and after all this he was still hoping to run a relay but an injury to a team
mate put paid to that. Pat Canty, already national 60m champion, added the M50
Munster title in the discipline and added another gold in the Long Jump as well
as silver in the High jump. The club continued it’s tradition of bringing
through strong junior athletes with Eoin O’Carroll winning the Triple Jump and
adding silvers in the long jump and 60m while team mate Michael Godly finished
second in the Triple Jump. Coming in ahead of Eoin to win the 60m was Conal O’Callaghan
of Spa Muckross. For An Riocht Ciaran
McCabe had an excellent double in the senior men’s by winning the 60m sprint
and the 200m while team mater Ger Crimmins won the 60m hurdles and came in
second in the 400m. In the M35 Thomas Griffin had a good run to finish second
in the 60m sprint. Fresh from the
National Pole Vault championships Jonathon Foley of Farranfore Maine Valley AC
cleared 3.60m and narrowly missed out on his next height which bought him a
silver in the junior men’s event. James Nagle won the weight while Danial
Clifford said goodbye to the junior ranks with an emphatic victory in the
senior men’s shot putt, throwing 14.28m to take his first senior provincial
title. The Ballycotten
10mile, one of the largest races of its type in the country, had a huge
attendance on Sunday with 2366 athletes setting off from the start line. Of
this massive number only 66 athletes came in under the 1 hour mark and of that
was included three of Kerry’s top road racer’s, Cian Murphy of Iveragh who ran
54.20 to finish 7th, Aodh O’Neill, also Iveragh, who recorded 56.33
to finish 17th and Tony O’Grady of Gneeveguilla AC whose 57.06
bought him in in 24th in a race won by Creg Roberts of Derry in
50.17. Sean Cahillane,
Gneeveguilla, had an impressive run to come in just over the hour in 1.00.38
while recent All-Army indoor champion William O‘Riordan of St. Brendan’s AC was
forth highest finisher in the M55 category in 1.05.20. Mary O’Connell,
Gneeveguilla AC, was the counties highest female finisher recording a time of
1.21.35 in the F35 section while Brid Stack finished shortly after in the F35
in 1.26.28. As well as his 7th
place finish Aodh O’Neill has been selected as one of 25 Irish athletes to
compete in the Elite section of the ITU European Triathlon Championships to be
held in Athlone in July in conjunction with the major triAthlone event. While a
swim in the river Shannon, a cycle on the Galway road and a run on old-Athlone’s
“West Bank” might sound like an enjoyable way to spend the day the triathlon is
one of the most physically demanding sports there is and Aodh’s selection for
the Elite section is a true testament to his ability. At the annual AAI Star
Awards in Arklow Bay Hotel on Saturday Claire Fitzgerald of Tralee Harriers was
honoured as both Kerry Star Award winner and was presented with the Matt
McGrath award for best thrower, the inaugural winner of this award being Kerry
great Eoin Leen in 2003. Claire is currently on
scholarship to Manhattan College where she has already set an Irish National
Junior record of 13.91 |
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