The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
National Athletics award for Iveragh AC’s Adam King
ADAM King from Iveragh Athletic Club was honoured at the Irish Life Health National Athletics Awards last Wednesday in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, Dublin.
The National Athletics Awards is a celebration of Ireland’s many successes, national and international, and King was awarded with the prestigious U-20 Athlete of the Year trophy. He was one of four nominees and his win reflects the very good season that he has had.
Competition started in April for Adam and within one month he had won the IUAA Inter-varsity title and had also achieved the qualification standard for the World U-20 Championships which would be held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. His season progressed well from there and he threw personal bests in most competitions. Podium finishes in the Irish U-20 Championships, the England U-20 Championships and the Mannheimm International Junior Meet in Germany gave him great confidence ahead of travelling to Bydgoszcz in July.
In Poland he threw another personal best and a new national record of 71.60m in the semi-final. This was good enough to qualify him for the final where he added 10cm to his previous national record with a throw of 71.70m and finished in 11th place overall. Reaching this final had been Adam’s target for the last three years. Achieving this target and setting a new national record in the process was very satisfying. Incidentally, his 71.70 metre throw was the longest hammer throw by any Irish man or woman ever in a major global competition.
King is a second year student of Athletic Therapy & Training in Dublin City University. There is a big emphasis on athletics at DCU and Adam is thriving in this environment. Training is well underway for next season when the big target will be to qualify for the European U-23 Championships. He will be very young for this and will still be underage when it will again be held in 2019.
Adam takes great pride in representing his family, Iveragh Athletics Club, Kerry Athletics and Ireland and insists that the Irish U-20 Athlete of the Year Award is for everyone who has helped him along the way.
Elsewhere, the Munster Juvenile B and Intermediate Cross-Country Championships were held in Clarecastle, Co Clare last Sunday. Kerry were well represented in the Intermediate category with the An Riocht men’s team winning gold medals for the club. All four men finished in the top 12 with Patrick O’Connor an excellent 2nd, Tommy O’Brien 7th, Martin Dineen 10th and Sean O’Sullivan. Their women’s team finished in 5th place overall with Suzanne Neilan the top finisher in 10th place and Mary O’Connor 19th, Deirdre Enright 29th and Suzanne O’Sullivan 30th. Caroline Murphy from Gneeveguilla finished in 21st position to give the Kerry team a 4th place ranking.
In the Juvenile races Robbie Guest (Kenmare AC) was the only gold medal of the day, topping the podium in the U9 boys. In U-9 girls Katie Galvin (Iveragh) was the first Kerry girl across the line. Kathryn Ryan (Killarney Valley) finished 4th in the U-11 girls race and was part of the Kerry team who finished 4th overall. There was better results from the U11 boys with the team winning gold county medals. First Kerry boy across the line was Adam Quigley from Ive ragh who was 6th. He was followed by Kenmare athletes Kieran O’Donoghue 10th, Cathal Kelleher 14th, Lios Tuathail boys Matthew Quinn and John Carmody who were 15th and 21st and from Iveragh, Donagh O’Sullivan 26th and Marcus Draper 35th. The Kenmare boys team were 4th overall.
In U-13 girls Aoife Dwyer (Iveragh) was the first Kerry athlete home, finishing in 17th place. The Kerry team placed 4th. Timothy O’Donoghue from Kenmare was 4th in U-13 boys with the Lios Tuathail team of Rian Quinn, Gearoid Mulvihill, david Harris and Fergal Pierre finishing in 4th position.
Kerry Eager (Star of the Laune) won silver in the girls U-15 event. In U-15 boys Kenmare’s Michael O’Reilly was 4th. There were also top 10 finishes in girls and boys U-17 with Lios Tuathail athletes Emily Pierse and Seamus Leahy both finishing in 7th place in their respective races.