UNITED STRIDERS A.C.

The U.S.A.C. Juveniles completed a very successful Wexford track and field championship in Enniscorthy, with lots of great performances and plenty of medals.

The day had many highlights with many athletes achieving their personal best times on the track and personal best distances and heights in the field events.

These highlights included a sprint gold for Aaron Browne in the Under-16 80m and a sprint silver for Oisín Mac Eochaidh in the Under-14 80m, where Seán Barry and Owen Lennon also made the final.

For the second week in a row the Striders excelled in the middle distance events. Over 600m, Myles Hewlett won the Under-13 event, with Eoin Shannon finishing third.

With the distance up to 800m, Aidan Shannon, Adam O’Connor and Cian Flanagan won their respective Under-14, Under-15 and Under-16 events with fantastic performances.

Against a competitive field, including some real speedsters, Aedan Rogers decided to lead from the gun and judged the pace to perfection to win gold in his Under-18 800m event.

Likewise the girls had middle distance success, with Rebecca Bawden leading out her 800m race and finishing strongly to win gold, ahead of Alanah Byrne in third place.

In the final middle distance race of the day, Elaina Browne ran a perfect race to claim another gold in the girls’ Under-19 event. In the race walking events, all three Striders excelled with podium finishes. In her competitive debut, Ciara Murphy won gold in a thrilling finish in the Under-14 girls’ event over 1k.

In the same race Isabel Bawden won bronze, despite being a year out of her age group. After some great performances in schools events recently, it was no surprise to see Ryan Kielthy win gold in his 2k walk. In blustery conditions, Louise Doyle and Conor Murphy did really well to win medals in the high jump event. Louise had some good training sessions and won gold in her first competitive attempt.

Likewise, Conor’s training programme paid dividends as he equalled his P.B., in adverse conditions, to win silver.

In the throws, Oisín Mac Eochaidh and Darragh Flannelly won gold and silver in the Under-14 shot putt event.

The best event of the day for the Striders was undoubtedly the Under-13 javelin, where Cosmo Hewlett, Eoin Shannon and Myles Hewlett filled the first three places. A great championship wrapped up for the Striders with relay medals for the following - bronze, Under-12 boys (Seán Lennon, Luca O’Connor, Olan Delaney, Sam Myers, Ronan Shannon); silver, Under-14 boys (Seán Barry, Owen Lennon, Oisín Mac Eochaidh, Aidan Shannon); silver, Under-16 girls (Eve Byrne, Aoife Nic Eochaidh, Aisling Power, Louise Doyle, Erinn Shannon); bronze, Under-16 boys (Cian Flanagan, Conor Murphy, Adam O’Connor, Ryan Kielthy).

Well done to all U.S.A.C. athletes who participated.