Kate Veale does it Again and wins Gold in Record Time at UK Championships
Last weekend at the British A.A.A. Kate Veale underlined her position as one of the top walkers in her age with another impressive performance. Early in July in Antrim Kate had a record breaking performance in the All Ireland under 15 2000m walk. This led to selection on the Irish team for the Celtic International where she had a superb win over 1000m in the girls under 16 event beating the best Scotland and Wales had to offer. Last weekend she upped the anti again as she travelled to Birmingham to compete in the British A.A.A. under 15 championships. This time the distance was 3000m and neither the distance nor the competition fazed Kate as she went on to win the event and in the process broke the championship record by 53 secs and her time of 14.16 set a new U.K. record. Three races in three different venues over three different distances underline Kate’s strength and versatility in her chosen discipline. Well done Kate !!! Enjoy a well earned rest over the next few weeks and we look forward to seeing you in action in the cross country.
Success at All Ireland B Championships
The flash flooding in Dublin at the weekend put the staging of this event in doubt right up to the last minute by thankfully for those athletes who had kept up their training to compete in it, it went ahead. Three athletes from West Waterford travelled to the event and all three came home with medals. Lughaidh O’ Mahoney won silver in the boys under 16 800m. This was a great run from Lughaidh as he usually prefers the longer distances. He got well up with the pace at the start of the race but drifted back into 4th at the start of the second lap however a well timed sprint on the home straight saw him pass two athletes to take the silver medal. Michael Tutty won his heat of the under 16 100m and that performance earned him a place in the final and with a very determined run he took the bronze medal in the final. For good measure he also finished 4th in the under 16 long jump. Our final competitor was Lucy O’ Brien who in her first year at West Waterford has made huge improvement over 800m and 1500m. Last Sunday she experienced All Ireland competition for the first time and came home with a bronze medal after a very solid run in the under 14 800m
Also last week while on holidays in Scotland Daniel Mc McCarthy had a win over 400m in an event staged at Grangemouth.
We hope all our young athletes are drawing inspiration from watching the Olympics and of course we all wish the best of luck to West Waterfords own Jamie costing who we will be cheering loudly for as he competes in the walk.
