Scanlon sets pace for ‘Rock
CLUB coach Mary Scanlon took the plaudits once again for Blackrock AC with a series of superb performances at the Leinster Masters Track and Field Championships held in Tullamore over the June Bank Holiday Weekend.
A hat-trick of gold medals was achieved, with things getting off to the best possible start with a winning time of 14.03sec in the 100m, some seven tenths of a second inside the championship record. It got even better later on in the day when she posted another championship best time of 28.62 seconds for the 200m - and she then blew the competition away in the very first round of the shot put to complete a memorable day.
At the Leinster Team Championships on Bank Holiday Monday, the club were represented by the Under 11 Girls team - Jessica Scanlon, Emmy Jeytoo, Grace Reilly and Megan McEvoy - and Boys Under-12 team of Sean Reilly, Pádraic Fennessy, Oisín O’Rourke Curran and Ethan Doherty.
Ethan Doherty and Sean Reilly kicked proceedings off for the boys in the high jump, with both lads jumping well, while Grace Reilly and Megan McEvoy got the girls off to a great start in the Turbo Javelin.
Soon afterwards Grace was back on track, this time with Jessica Scanlon for the 60m. Both girls did brilliantly, finishing 4th and 2nd respectively in their heats.
Oisín O’Rourke Curran and Pádraic Fennessy wre in action in the first field event the shot put, and despite having very limited experience in this technical event both performed brilliantly and fin- ished in a combined second place.
Last weekend saw a number of club members regroup in Tullamore for the U9 to U11 Pairs Competition and the U12 and U13 Track and Field Championships.
James Scanlon, Daniel Hanna, Sam Jeytoo and Hugo Nolan formed the Boys U9 team, and although there weren’t any medals won on the day there were a number of solid performances.
The Girls U11 squad of Keelan Bewley, Emmy Jeytoo, Erin Finnegan and Jessica Scanlon put up a spirited display.
Ralph Tinsley, Cormac Broe and Eoghan O’Brien took part in the Boys U11 competition. Just like the girls before them the boys found the going tough against some very good athletes, but there were some notable performances.
Towards the end of the day Ralph and Cormac formed half of the Louth U11 relay team who just missed out on a medal in the inter county 4 x 100m.
In the individual championships the highlight for Blackrock was Sean Reilly’s U-12 high jump personal best to claim third place.
Alex Bewley and Ciara O’Brien were unlucky to finish 4th and 5th respectively in their U13 Shot Put, but there was some consolation for Alex who was part of the Louth U13 team who were runners up in the inter county 4 x 100m relay.