Gold, Gold and more Gold for West Waterford Athletes at Celtic International
West Waterfords’ young athletes had their most successful international to date with three wins at the Celtic International at Grangemouth Scotland last weekend. This international is held annually between Scotland, Ireland, Ulster and Wales. Over sixty athletes representing forty-nine clubs were selected to represent Ireland on the basis of their performances in the recent Woodies DIY Juvenile Track and Field Championships. West Waterford was one of only two clubs who had three athletes on the team. The events are always closely contested with little between in the teams in the overall competition and Kate Veale, Thomas Houlihan and Zoe Scanlon earned maximum points for the Irish team with three gold medal winning performance.
First in action was Kate Veale in the 1km walk. This was well below the distance Kate normally walks but she took it all in her stride winning the under 16 walk in a time of 4m 20, thirty seven seconds ahead the second placed athlete Heather Lewis (Wales). The under 16 and 18 walks were held together and Kate also finished nine secs ahead of the under 18 winner Emma Doherty (Ulster).
In the Pole Vault Thomas Houlihan moved up a year to compete under 18 and cleared 3m 90cms to win the competition from Gregor Mc Leen (Scotland). With the gold medal safely in hand Thomas opted to try for a new personal best of 4m 20cms however a heavy shower of rain made conditions difficult for the first two attempts but he did go close to clearing it on the third attempt.
In one of the final competitions of the day the under 16 Discus Zoe Scanlon stepped into the circle to defend the title she won last year at the Antrim Forum. She started modestly with a thirty metre throw but soon up the stakes with four throws over 34mts the longest being 34m 29cms which put the contest out of reach of her competitors and took the gold medal with almost three mts to spare over her nearest rival Toni Wells of Wales. Well done Kate, Zoe and Thomas on an outstanding days work. All in West Waterford congratulate you on your success.
Successful Outing to Araglin Open Sports
Our juveniles rounded off their season with a trip to Araglin Open Sports on July 25th. There was plenty of success to celebrate on the night. Lorna Cummins, Michael Power and Lucy O’ Brien each had a treble. Lorna won the under 11 girls sprint, 300m and was a member of the winning under 12 relay team, Michael Power achieved the same in the boys under 11 events and Lucy won the under 15 100m, 800m and teamed up with KCK to win the under 14 Relay. There was more success for Lucy last weekend at Midleton Open Sports where she won the under 14 800m and finished third in the sprint. West Waterford had two teams in the under 10 mixed relay. The team of Aidan Mc Kenna, Aisling Mullaney, Mark Twomey and Caoimhe Dwyer won the event with the team of Darina Shanley, Ciara Mc Kenna, Diarmuid Harty and Ben Flynn taking second. Earlier in the night Caoimhe Dwyer had won the sprint under 10 and finished second in the under 11 300m Aisling Mullaney was second behind Caoimhe in the under 10 sprint, Mark Twomey finished 3rd in the boys under 10 as did Ciara Mc Kenna in the girls under 8 and Ben Flynn in the boys under 9. Our under 12 teams made it a one two finish also in their event with the team of Sean Curran Lorna Cummins Lorraine Bray and Micheal Power winning followed by the team of Eoin, Rebecca Ansell, Aisling Prendergast and Tholm Reddy. Sean Curran and Tholm Reddy had earlier won individual trophies when finishing second and third in the under 12 100m. Aisling Prendergast came home second in the girls under 13 600m followed by Lorraine Bray in third. The under 16 team were also in the winners enclosure with a fine win in their relay making it a clean sweep for West Waterford in the relays, the team was Lisa Houlihan Clodagh Gallagher Robbie Mulligan and Brandon Barry. In the high jump Lisa and Clodagh were first and second and Brandon was second in the sprint under 15. Declan power rounded off a very successful night with a win in the senior mens 1500m.
All Ireland B Championships
A very limited programme of events will be held at the National B Championships, which will take place in Santry on Sunday August 10th with the first event off at 10am and the programme is due to be completed by 2pm. Four athletes are entered in this event Lucy O’ Brien in the under 14 800m, Lughaidh O’Mahoney and David Earley in the under 16 800m and Michael Tutty in the under 16 100m and Long Jump. Official in charge John Mc Grath. Best of luck to all.
