Juvenile News 25 April 2022

 

Large numbers compete in RSC at Day 1 of the County Championships

 

Last Sunday we returned to the RSC for the first county track and field championships in three years. West Waterford had a big turn out with 59 juveniles competing and there were also a big turnout from all the other clubs in the county which made for a very exciting and competitive championship. Our French visitors competed on the day and had a very successful day with all fourteen of their athletes among the medal winners.

 

Gold for Aoife and Silver for Ami in the Hurdles

 

First up on the track were the 250m hurdles and it was a winning start for West Waterford with Aoife O’Donovan taking gold and Ami O’Riordan silver in the under 15 event.

 

Big Numbers in Very Competative Sprint Events

 

Action on the track then turned to the sprint events with athletes running over 60m, 80m or 100m according to their age. There were heats in all the age groups with the first 3 in each heat making it through to the finals. Lots of West Waterford made it  to the finals including Madeline Curran, Leah Kiely, Ellie Mae Doherty , Jarleth Hurney, Anna Rochford, Ruth Walsh, Olan Devereaux, Mario Zakis, Ava Kiely, Lochlan Hurney, Fergus Donnelly, Callum Curran, Ellen Power, Shannon Radley, Isobelle Gaffney, Rosie Berryman Cathal Mc Kenna, Sarah O’ Riordan,  Clodagh Cunningham, Lauren Cliffe and Naoise Mac Mhurchadha.

West Waterford athletes won five medals in the sprint events with Jarleth Hurney winning the under 10 boys 60m and Naoise Mac Murchuadha winning the boys under 16 100m. Mario Bradatan Zakis took silver in the 80m under 11 and there were third place finishes for Lauren Cliffe under 15 100m and Callum Curran under 12 80m.   All the medal winners were competing in their first county track and field championships.

 

Double for Ellie Mae Doherty and Jarleth Hurney

 

Once the sprints were completed attention on the track turned to the middle distance events. In the under 9 boys there was a great finish with Evan Radley and Rian Flavin finishing very strongly to take the silver and bronze medals.

In the girls under 10 500m Ellie Mai Doherty won the first of her two gold medals. Ellie Mae got out strongly at the start and led all the way to the tape. Later in the day she won her second gold in the long jump with a great leap of 3m 34. In the boys under 10 Jarleth Hurney came with a great sprint over the last 80m to move from 3rd into first place to add a second gold medal to the one he won in the sprint. Later in the afternoon he jumped 3m46 to take second place in the long jump.

In the girls under 11 600m Anna Rochford put in a good last 300m to move into second place and Alicia Radley sprinted for the line to take the bronze medal.

Katie Mai Daly also put in a good run in this event and was not far off the medals. Ellen Power in her first race of the distance ran very strongly and was only just pipped on the line for a medal.

 

Wins for Sarah and Naoise over 1500m

 

In the first of the 1500m Kyla Flavin took silver in the girls under 14 event. The under 15 event was an all West Waterford affair. The five athletes were closely bunched for much of the race and it only open up in the closing stages with Sarah Gaffney taking the win followed by Aoife O’Donovan in 2nd place and Fia de Paor in 3rd. Sarah O’Riordan was close behind in 4th place and Clodagh Cunningham finished 5th.  In the junior womens 400m Angelina Chizhikova finished 2nd. Naoise Mac Mhurchadha was in a race of mixed ages and he ran very strongly over the 1500m to come home first of the under 16 athletes.

 

Bronze in the Turbo Javelin 

 

While the track events were taking place we had lots of activity in the field in the throwing and jumping events. There was turbo javelin for athletes under 9, 10 ,11, and 12. Three West Waterford athletes came away from the event with bronze medals. Charlie was 3rd in the boys under 9, Sinead Donnelly was third in the girls under 9 and Olan Deveraux was third in the boys under 11.

 

Gold for Saoirse and David in the Throwing Events

 

Saoirse Quinn continues to made progress with every competition and yesterday she threw two personal best to win gold in the youths hammer and the shot. In the hammer she broke the 30m barrier for the first time and won the event with a throw of 32m. Later in the shot she went over 8m for the first time to win with a throw of 8m 25.  David Conroy Fahey has only recently joined the club and he was competing in his first ever competition. He threw 19.m90 to win the youths discus and later went on to finish 2nd in the javelin. Rory Donnelly has also taken up the throwing events this year and in his first competition he finished 3rd in the under 14 discus and the under 14 javelin. Another newcomer to the throwing events Kyla Flavin finished  3rd in the under 14 shot as did Sarah Gaffney in the under 15 shot.

 

Win for Mario Bradatan Zakis in the Long Jump

 

In the final field event of the day Mario Bradatan Zakis took gold in the under 11 boys with a jump of 3m31. There was also good jumping from Isobel Daly and Leah Kiely who are both close to breaking the 3m mark. Olan Devereaux had some fine jumps but he couldn’t quite keep behind the board so they did not count.

 

Win for under 11 boys in the Relay

 

The event conclude with the relays. We didn’t have enough athletes to field teams in the under 9 relay but it was the same for most clubs as the numbers competing were very small. Once we moved on to the under 11 and upwards all the lanes were full and the races were very competitive.

 

 West Waterford fielded three teams in the under 11 girls. The under 11 team of Anna Rochford, Ruth Walsh,  Alicia Radley and Katie Mai Daly finished second. There was also good running from Grace Hodge, Leah Kiely, Ellie Mai Doherty, Isobel Daly and the team of Clodagh Mills, Eile de Paor, Sinead Houlihan and Sulan Ni Shuilleabhan.  Lots of these athletes will get a chance to run under 10 on day 2 so it was good practise to run up an age.

 

The boys under 11 team of Olan Devereaux, Mario Bradatan Zakis, Jarleth Hurney and Tiernan Hogan put in a very strong performance to win gold in the relay and hold off the teams from the city that are more used to training on the track.

In the girls under 13 race West Waterford had two teams running.  The team of Ellen Power, Rosie Berryman, Shannon Radley and Isabelle Gaffney came home in second place and there was also good running from Siuin Cunningham, Luisne de Paor, Ciara Flavin and Ciara O’Donovan.

The under 13 boys team finished just outside the medals in 4th place and the team was made up of Cathal McKenna, Peter Ahearne, Lochlann Hurney and Callum Curran. For the final race of the day we had to reorganise our two teams at short notice to make one team and the team of Lauren Cliffe, Sarah O’Riordan,  Clodagh Cunningham and Ami Flavin came home a very close 4th place.

 

Well done to all the West Waterford athletes who travelled to compete for their club and to all the parents who helped out on the day. See you all at training this week and at Day 2 of the Championships on Sunday May 8th.

 

Secondary Schools Championships on Wed Next 

 

The next event on the track will be the secondary schools track and field championships in the RSC on Wed next May 27th starting at 12noon. We wish the best of luck to all our athletes competing for all the local schools.

 

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