Juvenile athletes win medal haul at Indoors in Nenagh

Tessa Dennison

THE Munster U-13 to U-19 Indoor Championships took place in Nenagh last weekend and this is always a well supported and highly competitive competition where the cream of the six counties are given a chance to participate. With the heavy rain and high winds, that athletes were glad to be indoors and there was plenty of success for the next crop of young Kerry stars.

Many great performances were seen and a lot of the Kerry athletes, though not medalling, achieved personal best records with several fourth place finishes earning places at the National Indoors in March in Athlone.

Tralee Harriers AC took home a total of 11 medals. Rachel Bowler brought home double gold in the U-19 long and triple Jumps and a bronze in the 60m. This is Rachel’s last year competing as a juvenile and true to character she went out in style.

Cillian Griffin had a hat trick of medals too, he earned silver in the U-16 long jump and followed that up with bronze in the 60m and 200m. Nikolia O’Connor went home with two medals with silver in the U-19 200m and bronze in the Long Jump. Orla O’Reilly sprinted to second place in the U-18 60m.

In the U-13 boys age group Jordan Kissane high jumped his way to a bronze medal, and finally Bobby Byrne earned a bronze medal at his first Munster Indoors in the 60m. There were fourth place finishes for Cathal Fitzgibbon, Paddy Falvey, Basit Oyebanji who all secure a place at nationals for their efforts.

Kenmare AC had a strong team in Nenagh with Cormac O’Sullivan claiming top honours in the U-18 triple jump, Alyce O’Connor getting gold in the U-17 1500m she followed this up with bronze in the 800m.

There were silver medals for Michael O’Reilly in the U-15 800m, Gary Randles in the U-16 shot and Christine McCarthy in the U-18 high jump. Double bronze went to Shauna Doellken O’Shea in the U-19 800m and 1,500m. Rhona Randles was fourth in the U-16 1,500m in a very fast and furious race and Elinor Dennison, who was just coming back from injury, claimed fourth spot in the U-17 girls long jump.

Farranfore Maine Valleys AC had two gold medal winners – Elaina Norris in the U-19 hurdles and Cian Spillane in the U-14 800m.

North Kerry’s Lios Tuathail AC also had two athletes going home with medals; Aoife Mahony, also competing for the last time as a juvenile, had double gold in the U-19 400m and 800m and silver in the 1,500m. Club mate Amanda Tony won silver in the U-16 200m.

Killarney Valley’s Sarah Leahy won silver in both the U-19 60m and 200m and team mate Elizabeth Stack won bronze in the U-17 high jump.

Shona O’Brien of Gneeveguilla AC took second place in the 1,500m, Darragh Courtney of St. Brendan’s AC was second in the U-17 high jump and An Riocht AC’s Corey Kissane took top position on the podium in the U-19 triple jump.