Foley claims gold in weight for distance
Tessa Dennison
THE first indoor competition of 2020 took place at Nenagh last Sunday with the Juvenile Combined Events Championships and the Junior and U-23 Championships taking place on the same day.
In the Juvenile Combined events there was silver for Luke Merrigan (Kenmare) in U-12 boys and bronze for Tom O’Flaherty (St Brendan’s) in U-15 boys. In the Junior competition there was gold for Siofra Foley (Farranfore Maine Valley) in the women’s WFD and three silver medals were won by Darragh O’Leary (Killarney Valley) in the men’s 1,500m, Padraic McCarthy (Lios Tuathail) in the men’s WFD and Kirby Anne Ryan (Tralee Harriers) in the women’s shot.
Two very popular and long standing road races took place over the holiday period and both were blessed with good weather, making for enjoyable events with record entry numbers.
First up was the Farranfore St Stephen’s Day 5km and 2km Family Fun Run/Walk which attracted a huge entry with more than 400 runner and spectators enjoying the 58th running of the event. Conor O’Mahony (An Riocht) was the overall winner for the second year in a row in a time of 15.47 and Michelle Lee (Leevale AC) was the first woman across the line in a new course record time of 16.18.
Beaufort was the venue for the New Year’s Day Charlie O’Shea Memorial run which saw 350 runners compete over 5km and 10km. Winner of the 5km was Pearce Geoghan with Martina Kiely with first lady across the line. Conor O’Mahony took top honours in the 10km with his cousin Niamh O’Mahony coming first in the women’s race.