Athletes win medals at U-23 Junior Indoor Championships

LAST Sunday saw some of Kerry’s promising young athletes travel to Athlone to compete in the Irish life Health Junior and U-23 National Indoor Championships. This was a great event and well supported by the cream of Ireland’s top under aged athletes.

Rossa Foley (Farranfore Maine Valley) was a double national medallist, wining silver in the U-23 triple jump with a jump of 11.29m and was third in the U-23 weight for distance throwing 7.25m.

From Tralee Harriers, Aoibheann O’Brien took the silver in the Junior Women’s long jump with a jump of 5.50m. Aoibheann was also a finalist in the Junior Women’s 60m sprint, running well to set a new PB of 7.80 seconds in her heat.

Teammate Eoin O’Carroll won bronze in the U-23 Long jump with a distance of 6.59m, and was also a finalist in the U-23 60m sprint. He covered the distance in 7.23 seconds, and bettered it in the final coming home in 7.18, just short of the medals.

In the Junior Women’s triple jump Rachel Bowler finished just outside the medals in fourth place and finished sixth in the Junior Women’s long jump. Also finishing just outside medal position, but putting in a great season opening jump was Nikolia O’Connor in the Junior Men’s long jump, recording 6.29m on the tape.

Aoife O’Carroll competed in a very competitive Junior Women’s 200m and although finishing well in her heat, her time of 26.30 was just outside qualifying time for the final.

Amy Cronin and Mel O’Callaghan from Gneeveguilla competed in the U-23 group both taking on the 60m and 200m sprints. Competition was strong in all the U-23 events and though both ran well for this early in the season, neither advanced to the finals. ALSO on Sunday, at the Kerry Athletics Development Squads, Alex O’Shea and Seamus Harty of #Sportyourmind a TSI group of 15 students from Mercy Mounthawk Tralee gave a talk to the squad athletes. The students set up the group as a result of how they personally felt following injuries and disappointment in their chosen sports. The presentation and talk centred around the issues of mental health in sport and offered sound advice on how to deal with issues and anxieties related to disappointment in performance. LAST Saturday some of Kerry’s athletes took part in the new AAI Indoor Endurance Initiative that aims to create high quality middle distance races for athletes aged 16 upwards, of all abilities.

The event was run at the Athlone International Arena in conjunction with round two of the National Indoor League and was an ideal opportunity for athletes to get benchmark times and see just how well their training was going.

Aoife Mahony (Lios Tuathail) and Niamh De Hora (Farranfore Maine Valley) took part in the women’s 800m. There were three Kerry athletes in the In the men’s 200m, William O’Connor and PJ Galvin (An Riocht) and Kevin Lynch (Lios Tuathail). The three men also ran in the 400m along with Colm Lynch (Iveragh). Corey Kissane (An Riocht) took part in the triple jump.

Entry is now open for the Munster U-13 to U-19 Juvenile Championships which take place over the weekend of February 25 and 26. All athletes should contact their clubs for entry details.

Best of luck to all our young athletes taking part in the U-9 to U-12 Juvenile Championships that take place in Nenagh this weekend.