The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Farranfore’s Kenny claims walking gold in Ahtlone
THE Irish Life Health National Junior and Under 23 Track and Field Championships took place in Tullamore on Saturday.
David Kenny (Farranfore Maine Valley) won gold in the Junior Men’s 5,000m walk in a performance that saw him take the title in a time of 21.59, more than two minutes faster than second place.
Club mate Rossa Foley was in action in the Under 23 Men’s throwing events were he placed third in the javelin with a new PB of 47.71m and finished fourth in the shot and weight for distance.
Competing for Tralee Harriers were Leanne Cronin who finished in fourth place in the Junior Women’s hammer and weight for distance, Fiona Doyle who was fifth in the Junior Women’s high jump and ran well in the 400m, narrowly missing a place in the 400m final and Nikolia O’Connor who took part in the Junior Men’s long jump.
Aoife Mahony (Lios Tuathail) was fifth in the Junior Women’s 800m and there was also a fifth place finish for Dion Marcus (An Riocht) in the Under 23 Men’s 400m. Adam King from Iveragh, meanwhile, won the Under u23 hammer with a throw of 62.87m
Tullamore was also the venue for the Irish Life Health National Under 9 to Under 11 team competition and the Under 12 to Under 13 field event championships on Sunday.
Lios Tuathail had a strong showing with several team taking part in the team event – which sees two athletes from the same club combine their results to give a final score.
Their best team on the day was the combination of Amy O’Connor and Tally Collins, who won silver medals in both the Under 11 60m sprint and Under 11 Long Jump. Amy and Tally combined with Holly Boyle, Caoimhe Lynch and Katie Walsh to run a great relay, finishing just outside the medals in the final.
Fantastic throwing by Thomas Cahill and Odhran Buckley in the Under 10 Turbo Javelin saw them win bronze. Just outside the medals in fourth were Steve Reidy and Odhran Buckley in the Under 10 60m, where Steve put in the best time of the day.
In the Under 10 long jump, Steve Reidy and Ajay Barrett combined to finish fourth with only 1cm off a medal position. The Under 11 pairing of Jeremiah Galvin and Ronan Sheridan were also fourth in the Under 11 Turbo javelin.
The Under 9 boys’ relay team were just pipped for the bronze medal in the final with great running from Thomas Scanlon, Shane Mason, Liam Galvin, Alex Collins and Eoin Cuddigan.
In the Under 9 Boys’ long jump there was bronze for the Tralee Harriers team of Stephen Harty and Daniel Moriarty with Aaron Crean and Sean Murphy finishing fourth in the Under 10 Boys’ turbo javelin.
Round 2 of the National League takes place on Sunday July 8 in Athlone. Both the Kerry Athletics Women’s and Men’s teams finished in second place after Round 1 and a top eight finish overall for the two rounds will secure a place in the final on August 19.