Treble for Zoe Scanlon at Munster Championship
This year has been the most successful to date for West Waterfords young athletes at both county and Munster level and last week end they underlined that success with some excellent performance that saw them claim seven Munster titles and qualify more than twenty athletes for the All Ireland Championships. Star of last weekend was Zoe Scanlan who added to her reputation as one of Irelands most promising young throwers by winning the under 17 shot, discus and javelin. Kate Veale was as impressive as ever when winning the under 16 walk. Claire Collins cleared 1m 60cms to win the under 18 high jump and later in the day finished second in the steeplechase. Lisa Houlihan added the triple jump to the pole vault title won earlier this month and also won silver in the 100m hurdles and bronze in the 300m hurdles while Joe Conway walked his way to the Munster under 18 title.
Stephan Mc Mahon won silver in both the under 15 shot and discus and bronze in the 80m hurdles. Kate Hickey threw over 30m to finish second in the under 15 discus and also took silver in the shot later in the day she also qualified in the javelin when she finished 4th in that event. Michelle Kenneally was another to win silver finishing second in the under 18 hammer. Declan Power also won silver in the 1500m on Saturday and returned on Sunday to take bronze in the 3000m under 19. Brandon Barry (triple jump) and David Earley (3000m) both won bronze medals. Ciara Scanlan had to throw a personal best of 33m 44cms to win bronze in the under 16 girls hammer. There were also 4th place finishes for Stephanie Power (800m under 16), Kate Curran (under 15 walk), Aoife Kiely (under 16 walk) Laura Connors ( under 14 high jump) Alan Mc Mahon (under 14 75m Hurdles) and all these athletes also qualify for the All Ireland. Unluckiest athlete on the day was Alex Lai who seemed to be heading for his first Munster title in the hurdles when he took a heavy fall and ended up 7th later in the day he got some consolation by finishing fourth in the shot and qualifying in that event. To finish off a very successful week end our under 16 boys relay team of Brandon Barry, Alix Lai, David Earley and Stephen Mc Mahon were third and on Sunday our under 17 team of Brandon Barry, Micheal Tutty, Alix Lai and William Keane were also bronze medal winners.
First All Ireland in Templemore
Our youngest athletes head to Templemore next Saturday for their first ever All Ireland championship. Nolween Le Gal and Orla Queally compete in the under 9 ball throw and later in the day Nolween will compete with Claudia Quarry in the 300m. Jerome Power and Cian Fagan will compete in the boys under 10 500m. We wish them all the best of luck in their events. We also wish bon voyage to the le Gal family who will head back to Paris after this event.
Tailteann Games
On Saturday we will also have athletes competing on the Munster team at the Tailteann games. This is the schools inter-provincial championships and at the conclusion of this event the Irish schools team for the schools international will be chosen. Kate Veale, Zoe Scanlon, Lisa Houlihan, Claire Collins, Katie Laffan and Martin Houlihan will all represent Munster schools at this event and the Munster team manager is Mary Ashe. On Saturday evening Kate heads to Dublin where she will join Joe Conway to compete in the Race Walking Grand Prix on Sunday. Zoe Scanlon and Lisa Houlihan will be in action again on Sunday in the Junior Championships as will Thomas Houlihan.We wish them all the best of luck in their events.
Training continues on Wednesday and Friday nights at 6pm and on Wednesday night we will have the presentation of prizes for the club championships.
