Big turnout expected at Lourdes for track & field
ATHLETICS
LOUTH Athletics is anticipating a big turnout for the Louth Senior, U20 and Masters’ Track & Field Championships at the Lourdes this Thursday (6.30).
It is hoped that there will be an a strong representation from Louth clubs, along with some guest competitors from outside the county, and that the spectators will be treated to some excellent performances.
Lee McGuinness (Drogheda & District), an exciting newcomer to athletics this year, leads the rankings in the men’s 100m and 200m for the current outdoor season and will be difficult to beat in these events.
In the longer sprint the man to look out for is Shane Cheshire (Dunleer), who has the fastest 400m clocking of the season to date.
The men’s 800m is probably the strongest event in depth in Louth right now, with seven athletes having broken the 2 minute barrier outdoors this year. Garry Campbell heads the rankings and is closely followed by his Dunleer clubmates Tomás Cotter and Darragh Greene. Cotter, of course, is better known as a 3000m steeplechaser and represented Ireland in that event in the European Senior Championships in the Netherlands last week.
Oisín Ó Gibne (Boyne), Jack Boylan and Diarmuid McKeown (both Dunleer), and Mark O’Shea (Drogheda & District) have also run under 2 minutes this year, while Kieran McGrath (Drogheda & District), Ruarcán Ó Gibne (Boyne), James Nolan and Sam O’Neill (both Drogheda & District) have all gone close to that barrier.
Several of these 800m athletes feature strongly in the 1500m rankings, with six of them – Cotter, Greene, Boylan, McKeown, Campbell and O’Neill – filling the top seven slots over the longer distance. Carl Dunne, another Dunleer man, splits his clubmates McKeown and Campbell to occupy fifth spot on the list, while Drogheda & District’s David Walsh has also been in good form over 1500m this season.
The Dunleer trio of Boylan, Dunne and McKeown possess the fastest 3000m clockings by Louth athletes this season, although Cotter has run faster than all of their flat times in the 3000m Steeplechase. The next fastest athlete over the seven and a half laps this season has been Paul Smith (Drogheda and District).
The leading long jumper in the county this year, 15-yearold Gabriel Bell (St Peter’s), is too young to compete in these championships until next year. In his absence all eyes will be on Mark Rogers and Conor Durnin (both St Peter’s), and Conor McMahon (Ardee & District), all of whom have leapt over 6 metres this season.
Rogers also leads the Shot Putt rankings ahead of Michael Gavin (Drogheda & District) and Tom McGrane (St Peter’s). Liam Connaughton (Dunleer) tops the Javelin list, while Scott Dorian (Dundalk St Gerard’s) and Santis Kaugars (Dunleer) have also thrown well this year. However it looks like Kaugars will be sidelined for the rest of the season due to injury.
The leading female sprinter in County Louth, Gina Akpe-Moses (Blackrock), will miss these championships as she is away in Georgia representing Ireland in the European U18 Championships. Next week she steps up to an even higher level of international competition, as she travels to Poland for the World U20 Championships.
The county’s second ranked sprinter in both the 100m and 200m, 14-year-old Patience Jumbo Gula (Dundalk St Gerard’s), is too young to compete in these championships for another year. Akpe-Moses is not the only Louth athlete representing Ireland in the European U18 Championships, as Kate O’Connor (Dundalk St Gerard’s), ranked third in the county over 200m this season, competes in the heptathlon in Georgia. O’Connor also leads the Long Jump rankings and lies second on the 800m list.
The absence of Akpe-Moses, Jumbo Gula and O’Connor opens the way for Emma Cheshire (Dunleer) to dominate the sprints in Drogheda on Thursday, with the ranking lists showing her leading the way in each of the 100m, 200m and 400m. Amy McTeggart (Boyne) also has a fast clocking to her name over the 200m this season, while Zoe Shiels (Boyne) and Orla O’Connor (Drogheda & District) could both feature strongly in the 400m.
Orla O’Connor is the fastest in Louth over 800m this season. Her Drogheda & District clubmate Mary Leech is likely to be her closest challenger should she opt to compete in the twolap event. Young Neasa Reilly (Blackrock) leads the 1500m rankings, but it will be three more years before she is eligible to compete at this level. Leech was very impressive in the metric mile during the indoor season earlier this year, but has still to make her outdoor 1500m debut this year.
Leech also sits atop the 3000m list, well clear of the next four athletes – her clubmates Pamela Howard and Noreen Mackey, Nicola Welsh (Dunleer) and Laura Matthews (North East Runners) – all of whom are quite closely bunched in terms of their season’s best times.
Amy McTeggart and Emma Cheshire have both been over 5 metres in the Long Jump this season, as has Tara Meier (Boyne), but she is too young to compete in these championships until 2018. Niamh Kelly (Boyne) and Chloe Finley (St Peter’s) have both gone very close to the 5 metre barrier in recent months.
Finley leads the Shot Putt rankings ahead of Geraldine Finegan (North East Runners), Kelly, McTeggart and Shauna McMahon (Blackrock). The versatile McTeggart, whose main event is the heptathlon, has been the leading javelin thrower in the county this year, while Dunleer’s Niamh Connaughton will also be hoping for a good throw on Thursday.
The Louth Championships will have added spice this year, as the county’s leading athletes will be vying for places on the Louth Senior men’s and women’s teams that will compete in the second round of the National League at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast next Sunday.
With separate medals being awarded in the Senior, U20 and various Masters’ age groups (in five-year bands from 35 upwards), and with the county’s leading athletes being well spread across these categories, these championships will provide meaningful and enjoyable competition for all the county’s athletes, whatever their standard may be.