Super Saints in top form at Louth champs
ATHLETICS LOUTH TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
A BUSY weekend programme kicked off on a dry, but cold, night at the Lourdes stadium in Drogheda on Friday.
The track programme consisted entirely of hurdles on day one and the St Peters club had no fewer than eight hurdlers in action.
The under twelve girls put in a real gallant effort with Katie Mulligan and Lucy Brennan performing well, Lucy then won the club’s first gold medal of the Championship when she won the under 12 high jump.
St Peters then had three girls take part in the under 13 hurdles with all three making it to the final with Niamh Brady and Julie McLoughlin both making it to the podium finishing, second and third respectively with Lucy Smyth finishing in fourth.
Niamh, just like Lucy Brennan, dusted herself down after the Hurdles and won gold in the under 13 High Jump and again had familiar company on the podium as Judith Bell joined her in third position.
The boys under-13 also saw two St Peters athletes on the podium with Ronan Deery finishing in second just pipping his hurdles training partner Sean Allen into third.
Ava Brennan completed the club’s hurdles representation when she won gold in the under-17 final.
Ava then followed this with a silver in the under-17 long jump. The St Peters club’s best juvenile jumper Gabriel Bell won both the under-17 High jump and Long jump with relative ease breaking the championship best for Long Jump in the process.
Day two took place at the Bush Track on Saturday which began with the sprints on the track. The O’Reilly sisters of Emily and Hannah were again to the fore with Emily finishing third in the final. She also finished third in the 300m race only to be joined by her twin sister on the podium who finished second.
The girls under-10 athletes also performed admirably and showed great promise. Orla McLoughlin was unfortunate not to medal individually especially in her Long Jump and both Catherine Carey and Mia Finnegan showed great signs of improvement.
The three under-10 girls combined along with Hannah and Emily to win a deserved bronze medal in the under-10 girls relay.
Dearbhla Allen has made massive improvements in the last year and made the top eight in the Long jump to finish in fifth overall and then had a sixth place finish in the 600m. Abbey Fanning made her championship debut and did very well in her first taste of track action.
Harry O’Reilly put his recent injury woes behind him to run very bravely in the 600 under-12 boys race to win a well-earned silver medal.
Ronan Deery and Dean Murtagh continued their medal streak from day one when they joined each other on the podium in the under-13 shot with Ronan winning gold and Dean silver.
Mark Litchfield had a very impressive run in the 80m sprint to finish third but his best run was in his favourite event when he deservedly won the U13 600m.
Mark then joined Cian Loy, Dean Murtagh and Ronan Deery to win silver in the 4 x 100 under-13 relay. The girls under-13 also won silver in their relay with Judith Bell, Ellie Smyth, Lucy Smyth and Niamh Brady.
The under fourteen club star is undoubtedly Rory McLoughlin, who had just two events on Saturday and both had him top of the podium with gold medals in the 100M sprint followed by victory in the 800M.
The final day of the championships took place on Sunday,
The under thirteen long jump got proceedings under way and the club again had athletes on the podium with Judith Bell in 2nd and Niamh Brady in third in the girls and Mark Litchfield third in the boys.
The boys under twelves were unlucky not to medal in the Long jump with Jack McLaughlin finishing in fourth closely followed by Padraic Tinnelly in fifth and Conor Litchfield in sixth.
The girls however filled two spots on the podium in the under twelve age group just like the under 13 with Ellie Smyth in 2nd and Lucy Brennan in third.
Rory McLaughlin finished off his championship with a silver in the under 14 Long jump to win his fourth individual medal having secured his third gold with victory in the 200M race on the track earlier in the day.
Gabriel also collected his third gold of the championship when he also won gold in the under seventeen 200M race.
The Championships closed with relays for even ages and the club had both boys and girls under twelve teams competing. Dearbhla Allen was a late addition to the girls team which showed how important it is to have subs in relay teams,
Dearbhla ran the first leg and moving up an age didn’t phase her and along with Ellie Smyth, Isabel Fitzpatrick and Lucy Brennan won bronze.
The boys under-12 concluded the St Peters club participation and again the boys ran very bravely to win bronze with Padraic Tinnelly, Conor Litchfield, Harry O’Reilly and Jack McLaughlin.
The club will now focus on the Leinster Championships which take place in June.