The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Brien and Kissane win gold at Indoor Championships
THE second day of the Irish Life Health Indoor Championships took place in Athlone last Sunday and although Kerry had only a handful of athletes taking part, all put in a outstanding performances, with all the hard work over the last few months paying off.
Gneeveguilla’s golden girl Shona O’Brien took gold in the U-19 girls 800m in a fabulous time of 2.18.14, adding to the last week’s gold in the 1,500m. There was also gold for Jordan Kissane (pictured below) from Tralee Harriers, competing in the U-16 boy’s 200m.
Kissane won his heat, setting a new PB of 23.71 and winning him lane 6 as the fastest qualifier for the final. A fantastic run saw him take the title with another personal best of 23.46. Team mate Cillian Griffin finished fourth in a fast and very competitive U-17 boys 200m, crossing the line in a new PB of 22.98.
Michael Tony (Lios Tuathail) was the only other medal winner of the competition, picking up silver in the U-18 boy’s triple jump with a leap of 12.27. Club mate Ben Sheehan finished fourth in the same event.
Fiona Doyle
(Star of the Laune) competed in the 200m, finishing in 5th place in the U-18 girls race. Gneeveguilla’s Frank O’Riordan took part in the U-12 boy’s shot and Shane Og McGaley from An Riocht competed in the U16 boy’s shot, both finishing outside of the medals.
Kerry 5km road race championships
LAST Sunday also saw 40 athletes take to the start line for the Kerry Athletics annual 5km road race championships. The race was won outright by Shona Heaslip from An Riocht with club mate Sean O’Sullivan taking the men’s title. Second lady across the line was Mary Daly (Farranfore Maine Valley) with Niamh O’Sullivan (An Riocht) in third. Second and third placed men were Donal Callaghan and Patrick O’Connor.
Novice titles were won by Conor O’Mahony from An RIocht and Marie McKenna (Farranfore Maine Valley). Andrew Purcell and Emily Pierce from Lios Tuathail took the Junior titles.
Men’s age category titles went to O-40 Trevor leen (An Riocht ), O-45 George McCarthy (Farranfore Maine Valley), O-50 Robert Purcell (Gneeveguilla), O-60 David Kissane (St Brendan’s). Women’s titles went to Catriona Barry (Farranfore Maine Valley) O-45, Caroline Murphy (Gneeveguilla) O-50 and Joan O’Sullivan O-60.
Kerry duo on Irish cross-country team
TWO of Kerry’s finest juvenile cross-country runners were selected for the Irish team who travelled to Nottingham in the UK for the SIAB Cross-country Championships, both competing well and winning bronze team medals.
Running in the Junior Girl’s race was Shauna McCarthy from Killorglin Community School while Niamh O’Mahony, from Presentation Tralee, was the first Irish girl across the line on the Intermediate team.
More Kerry medals at European Indoor Masters in Madrid
There was team glory for the Irish O-35 Masters Men 4 x 200m relay at the European Masters Indoor Championships in Madrid. The team featured two Kerry athletes, Ger Cremin from An Riocht and Iveragh’s Colm Lynch. Lynch, on leg two, made up great ground to put Ireland just behind fourth place when he handed over the baton to Cremin who handed over to the final leg runner to put Ireland in fourth place.
On the final leg it looked like Ireland had missed out on a medal when they crossed the line in fourth place but after a nail-biting five minutes wait for the official results, Ireland had been moved up into the bronze medal as France had exchanged the baton outside the change over zone twice over the four legs. It was not only another medal for Ireland but also a national record of 1:37:01.
James Doran competed in his first Masters Championship in the Over-35 5km Cross-country event. The Brosna native and An Riocht AC athlete was the third scoring member of the silver medal winning Irish team, placing 14th overall with the other Irish scorers placed in 12th and fifth.
The Championships had started with Jim O’Shea of Farranfore Maine Valley winning gold in the Over-75 long jump.