Medals on provincial stage for St Peter’s club

A REAL team effort bore fruit for St Peter’s AC as they earned medal success in both the Leinster Pairs Championships and Leinster Teams Competition in the space of 48 hours.

In the Pairs competition the highlight for the small Dromiskin-based club came in the Under 11 long jump when the pairing of Lucy Brennan (3.43m) and Isabel Fitzpatrick (3.22m) won silver medals after a very tight, keenly contested event.

These girls also took part in the 60m sprint and were unlucky not to medal there also and in the same age group Katie Mulligan and Ellie Smyth did very well in the long jump and both achieved personal bests in the 600m.

St Peter’s had one boys pairing in the Under-11 age group and Jack McLaughlin ran really well in the 60m and Conor Litchfield tried very hard, while Jack also had an impressive run in the 60m sprint.

In the Boys Under-10 age group Harry O’Reilly and Matthew Durnin did themselves and their clubs proud as both ran very well.

At Under-12 level Niamh Brady was an impressive winner of the 60m hurdles to collect her second provincial hurdles gold medal, having also won this year’s Leinster Indoors.

Niamh added to her vast medal collection by winning silver in the high jump with a leap of 1.29, just 1cm short of her personal best. She was joined on the podium by her training partner Judith Bell who won an excellent bronze with a jump of 1.25m. This was no more than Judith deserved as she has experienced heartbreak in the past, with several fourth-place finishes.

Julie McLoughlin, who is developing into a fine athlete, especially at middle distance running, ran a very strong 600m race and was very close to medalling.

In the Boys U-12 age group St Peter’s had a medal winner in Ronan Deerey who had a great performance in the shot putt to earn bronze, Ronan also had a decent run in the 60m sprint, as did his training partner Dean Murtagh, while Dean was unlucky not to medal in the turbo javelin.

Sean Allen was unfortunate not to make the final of the hurdles when he finished third in his heat and he also continues to improve at his middle distance running, but this championship probably came a couple of weeks too early for Sean as he has recently recovered from injury. Mark Litchfield enjoyed a good heat in the 60m sprint and ran bravely in the 600m race.

Rory McLaughlin, who has also recently returned from injury, tried hard in the 600m, long jump and 60m but again this competition came a little too soon. Nevertheless, he will benefit from the experience and the event will bring his recovery on.

The previous Monday the club had two teams competing in the Leinster Team event.

The girls had a fantastic day especially, as they had two Under-11s in the four-strong U-12 team that won silver medals. The team consisted of Niamh Brady, Julie McLoughlin, Ellie Smyth and Lucy Brennan.

The boys team performed very well too and had a very respectable fifth-place finish, with Sean Allen, Mark Litchfield, Dean Murtagh and Ronan Deerey making up their quartet.