West Waterford Athletes Shine at 123.ie Munster Championships taking 7 Munster Titles.
The sun shone in MTU last Saturday for the 123.ie Munster Track and Field Championships and West Waterford athletes basked in the sunshine winning seven Munster title, several silver and bronze medals and a host of personal best performance. In all thirteen athletes competed and nine made it through to the National Championships.
Double Gold and Two Championship Records for Isabelle Gaffney.
Isabelle Gaffney continues to add to her many achievements in what has been a breakthrough year for her with wins in the 400m on Saturday and 800m on Sunday. It was flat out all the way in both races with Isabelle leading from gun to tape and setting championship records in both races. In the 800m on Sunday and into a headwind she clocked 2.09.77 knocking eight seconds off the record which had stood for twenty years. This time was once again inside the qualification standard for the European under 18 championships.
Double Gold and Personal Best for Noah Commins
On Saturday Noah ran in his usual style in the 1500m staying off the early pace and coming with a very strong finish to take the title in 4.06.92. On Sunday we saw a different Noah as he went with the fast pace from the start in the 800m. Sitting on the shoulders of the strong Leevale contenders he matched them stride for stride over the first 600m but finished strongest to claim his second title of the weekend and a new personal best time of 1.57.
Double Gold and Personal Best for Michalina Goclik
There was plenty of action in the field events on both days. On Saturday Michalina had to pull out all the stops and throw a personal best of 9m62 to win the shot putt by just 4cms. On Sunday she was in action again in the discus and throwing close to her personal best she added the discus title with a throw of 29m 17.
Munster RacewalkingTitle for Aisling Hickey
Following in the footsteps of her older sisters Doireann and Eabha, Aisling brought another Munster Title home to the Hickey Family with a clear win in the girls under 14 race. Aisling led all the way from the start and came home a clear winner adding the outdoor title to the indoor title she won earlier this year.
Silver and Bronze for Shauna Deevy
Shauna put in a very solid cross country season and this really showed in her performances on the track this weekend. On Saturday she finished third in the 1500m and is not far off breaking the 5min barrier and she also finished 4th in a very fast 400m. On Sunday she had a great run to take silver in the 800m to finish second in 2.29.
Silver for Tiarnan Hogan and Maddie Connors
West Waterford’s first medal of the championships came early on Saturday morning as Tiernan Hogan took the silver medal in the under 14 boys 1500m. This is Tiernans first competitive track season and he just missed out in the 800m last weekend. On Saturday all the competitors raced in the one race and Tiernan was on the pace from the start. Leading at the bell it came down to a sprint for the line with Tiarnan just pipped on the line by Daire Coholan. Tiarnan went on to compete in the 200m later in the day winning his heat and finishing 4th in the final with the top 4 going through to the All Ireland.
Maddie Connors won her first Munster track medal on Sunday when she made her debut in the 250m hurdles. This was run over two heats and Maddie won her heat 39.83 and was placed second overall as the second heat was run in a faster time. She also competed in the 100m and 200m
Bronze for Kasey Connors and Siún Cunningham
It was a busy weekend for Kasey Connors on Saturday she made it through to the finals of the 100m running 13.46 to finish 6th. On Sunday she started with the 300mhurdles when she crossed the line in 3rd place to take the bronze medal and finished it off with a place in the 200m final where she finished 5th in 27.66.
Siún Cunningham also won her first Munster clubs track medal when she finished 3rd in the 800m under 17. At the bell Siún was in 4th place and she had to battle hard over the last 100m to take the bronze medal.
Personal Bests for Dylan O’Leary in Shot and Discus
The standard was very high in the boys throwing events with records being broken across all four throwing events. Dylan O’Leary had to throw a personal best of 9m42 to make the top 8 in the shot and in the discus he added over a metre to his personal best with a throw of 24m93. Mario Zakis also made it into the top 8 in both the javelin and discus throwing 28.71 in the javelin and 25.78 in the discus. Ava Kiely also made the cut in the girls under 16 discus, throwing the 1kg discus she finished 8th in 21m34.
In the under 17 girls 200m Luisne de Paor was 4th in her heat but made it into the top 6 in the long jump finishing with a best of 4m12m
Well done to all our athletes who represented the club so well at these championships. Well done also to their coaches and the parents who travelled with them over the two days.
Under 10’s Prepare for All Ireland
On Sunday last our 7 under 10 athletes who have qualified for the All Ireland headed off with their parents to the track in Waterford. While training for their events they met with Olympian Phil Healy who was also training for her upcoming national championships.
Club Championships Conclude this week
We have had a very successful club championship over the last two weeks and there were some very close finishes in the 200m and 300m events last Wednesday. We still have some long jumps to finish up this week with the boys under 13 and 14 first in action on Monday followed by the under 11 girls. It will be Wednesday by the time all the long jumps are complete so we will have the presentation of prizes on Monday 22nd of June. Parents are welcome to attend the presentation ceremony. We will finish training early on Monday for the presentations at 5pm.
