Girl power to the fore for St Gerard’s club
ATHLETICS ROUND-UP FROM THE LOCAL CLUBS
TULLAMORE was the venue for the Leinster Pairs and U12 & U13 championships on Saturday last and making the two-hour journey to the midlands venue was an all girl St Gerard’s AC squad of Cara Miele, Zariah and Elahna Faapito, Tara O’Connor, Grainne Moran, Lucy Mahon, Abaigh Moonan, Enya Silkena, Meabh O’Connor and Ciara Cunningham.
Once again the club’s young athletes stepped up to the mark with an inspirational display of girl power against the province’s best youngsters.
Getting the team off to a flying start were Cara and Zariah in the U-9 girls pairs. In the turbo javelin they performed brilliantly to gain a well-deserved silver medal for their efforts.
In the long jump the girls once again put in a good performance. With the youngest members of the team doing well the bar was set high for the club’s highly-rated U11 girls group, and with the gauntlet laid down the girls rose to the challenge with aplomb.
In the field events Enya and Meabh paired up to take a magnificent double gold in the long jump and turbo javelin, proving too good for the opposition on the day.
Tara and Grainne and Abaigh and Lucy made up the other U11 pairs in the 600m and 60m.
With two superb runs Grainne and Tara stormed to victory in each of the two time trials in the 600m, smashing their PBs to take the gold.
Abaigh and Lucy performed well on the day also.
In the 60m the girls repeated the dose to take another gold, albeit in a much closer affair.
With only four events at U-11 the girls achieved a clean sweep of the gold medals on offer in their age category in a rarely achieved quadruple - and there was the U11 inter county relay still to come.
With St Gerard’s quartet Meabh, Tara, Enya and Grainne forming the county team there were high hopes of another strong showing, and with another tremendous performance the girls showed their mettle to take another great victory.
In the U12 individual competition Elahna and Ciara gave strong performances. In the shot put Elahna took a bronze medal with another great series of throws.
Ciara ran strong race on the 600m. In the 60m she performed brilliantly to come through the heats to make the final where once again she showed improvement.
It has been a busy time for the athletes of Dundalk St Gerard’s AC on a few fronts in the past week or so, from the ever-entertaining and novel Blackrock Beach Races to the Louth Community Games and the red-hot competition of the All Ireland Schools Championships in Tullamore.
First off were the Beach Races in Blackrock which took pIace in beautiful sunshine.
Making their debuts in the U8 girls race were Chloe Cheshire and Eire McCrystal. Both girls were brilliant and made the medals, with Chloe in fourth and Eire in sixth, fantastic performances in their first outing. For the U8 boys Ben Eccles was in the medals, with Senan McEnteggart and Cillian Mullen running well.
Doireann Conlon ran another super race in the Under 10 girls to take second, with Ellie McVeigh, Sadbh Branigan, Dara McEnteggart and Nicole Mulholland doing well. Rian McCrystal and Adam Eccles put in a good shift for the U10 boys.
In the U12 girls race Enya Silkena flew home to take second and Nicola McElroy had a great run to make the medals too, with Mia Keely and Molly Whately giving great efforts. Hayden Mulholland, Aaron Clarke, Ethan Mullen kept going well for the U12 boys.
Caitlin Mulholland was in the medals - silver in the U18 girls race.
The All Ireland Schools track and field championships took place in Tullamore, where five of the clubs athletes were in action representing St Vincent’s.
Lining up were Maria Smith, Ellen McBride, Patience Jumbo-gula, Kate O’Connor and Caitlin Mulholland.
Caitlin ran a great race in the senior girls steeplechase, just running out of steam over the closing stages.
Kate was in majestic form on the day, firstly throwing an impressive 13.97m to take gold in the intermediate girls shot put. In the javelin she continued her impeccable form with a fantastic championship best performance of 45.65m to take another gold.
Patience Jumbo-gula ran a great 100m in the intermediate girls final to finish 4th after a slow start, looking like she is gradually coming back to her best form.
In the junior relay Ellen McBride and Maria Smith were on top form alongside the two Sarahs, Clarke and Morgan of Blackrock, to storm to victory for the second successive year.
In the intermediate relay Kate and Patience were no less impressive, along with Gemma McCrave and Kelly Breen of Blackrock. With a brilliantly fast second leg Kate put the team in pole position and on the anchor leg Patience took the baton in front and drew further ahead to win impressively.
Some of the club’s athletes representing the St Joseph’s area of Dundalk at the Louth Community Games finals in Drogheda.
In the U10 girls sprint Grainne Moran was an impressive winner, with Zaria Faapito running well.
Tara O’Connor stormed to victory in the 200m, with Enya Silkena running well for second and Doireann Conlon showing up well in fourth. Finn O’Connor ran well for the boys.
In the U12 girls sprint Ciara Cunningham had a great victory in the 100m and Elahna Faapito had another good outing, third in the ball throw. In the boys U12 ball throw Andrew Rosbotham had a great victory.
Maria Smith was victorious in the U16 girls 100m and Jamie Wynne and George Maas ran great races to take second and third in the U16 boys 100m.