Juvenile News 21 January 2020

Good Turnout for Mc Grath’s Colligan Cup

Fifty one hardy young athletes took to the road and woodland track to compete in last Sundays Colligan Cup sponsored again this year by McGraths Newsagents.

First off were a group of young athletes most of whom were competing for the first time and set themselves a target of 15mins. The clock counted down and each athlete went off at their predicted time with Ian Holmes at 7.57 the last off.  Sixteen athletes ran faster than their predicted times which was 6 more than last year. Some like Luke Fitzgerald, Emily O’Brien and John Fitzgerald were much faster than they thought coming in between one and a half and two minutes ahead of their predicted time. Victor Mullins and Tony Shalloe were watching the clock closely and a large group of athletes was approaching the finish as it ticked down the last few seconds and as it struck zero Kyla Flavin crossed the line to become winner of the race just 3 seconds out on her predicted time.Kyla was just two seconds ahead of James Ferncombe both of whom were running in their first Colligan Cup.  All six prize-winners crossed the line one after the other less than 20 secs outside their time. Clodagh Lattimore made into the top six for the third year in a row. Everyone else ran slower than their predicted times.  Well done to all the young athletes who completed the course on a very cold and frosty morning and a big thank you to Albert McGrath of McGraths Newsagent for his continued sponsorship of this event. Thanks also to all our stewards and officials who helped to run the event and to Victor Mullins whose came up with the idea for the event and who is on hand each year to pick the winner.

Waterford Schools Cross Country Championships

West Waterford athletes put in some very strong performances when competing for their schools last Wednesday at the Waterford Schools Cross Country Championships. It was an ideal day for cross country running and the Friary course was as always well laid. Competing for Dungarvan CBS David Gaffney won the minor boys race and also led the CBS team to the team title also competing on the team were David Nyhan and Darragh O’Regan. Sarah Nyhan competing for the Ard Scoil successfully defended her county schools title in the intermediate girl’s race and led the Ard Scoil to the team title with Ali Cunningham  St Augustine’s in second place  just ahead of Caoimhe Prendergast who was also competing for the Ard Scoil. The Fennell twins Tommy and Rory representing St Augustine’s were second and 6^th  in the intermediate boy’s race.   Lucy Holmes won the senior girls race and led the Ard Scoil team to first place. Oisin O’Riordan kept the flag flying for Dungarvan CBS finishing second in the senior boy’s race.  Leah Harty, Angelina Chizhikova, Kate Killigrew , Cal Tutty all finished just outside the medals in 4^th place. Ard Scoil na nDeise won the overall girls trophy and St Augustine’s won the boys trophy.

Well done to all those competing on the day and a special thank you to the official from West Waterford AC who ensured the smooth running of the event with all eight races completed in less than 2hours. Full results next week.

Munster Indoor Championships in Nenagh

The first session of the Munster Indoor Championships was held in Nenagh on Sunday last and West Waterford had a small number of athletes in action. We have some of the results in. Sean Mullarkey was second in the boys under 18 with a throw of 10m 54 his younger brother Paul finished 4^th in the under 17 boys with a huge new personal best. Paul threw 9m89 in his first competition with the 5kg and this was half a metre further than he threw with the 4kg last year.

There was further success for our pole vaulters with Katie Kenneally 2^nd under 16, Kate Killigrew 2^nd under 18 and Alannah Kelly 2^nd under 19. In the boys events Ryan McGrath won the under 19 with Fionn O’Mhurchu 2^nd and Mark Finnegan 3^rd under 16. If we get any further results we will include them in next week’s notes.