O’Riordan claims gold for Gneeveguilla

TWO very different athletic events took place over the last weekend. Saturday July 7 saw Tullamore play host to the Irish Life Health National B Track and Field Championships.

There were four medals for Gneeveguilla – gold for Frank O’Riordan in the Under 12 boys shot and three bronze medals awarded to Dylan Scannell-Fleming in the Under 14 boys shot put, Danielle O’Riordan in Under 13 girls shot and Sarah O’Connor in Under 16 girls long jump.

Sarah also reached the final of 100m. Louis O’Connell (Lios Tuathail) reached the final of the Under 15 boys 100m. Kerry had just four teams competing in the Inter Club relays, held on the same day.

The Lios Tuathail Under 12 girls team ran well to finish second in the semi final and fifth in the final, taking nearly two seconds off their Munster time. Their Under 15 girls team narrowly missed a place in the final, finishing fifth in their semi-final.

An Riocht’s Under 14 girls team finished in sixth place in the final, having qualified in second place in their semi. Also competing were the Gneeveguilla Under 13 girls team who finished in fifth place in their heat.

The action switched to Athlone on Sunday for Round 2 of the National League with both the Kerry Athletics women’s and men’s teams finishing strongly to secure a place in the final on August 19 in Tullamore.

Well done to everyone who took part over the two rounds, earning valuable points for their teams. Competing for the women’s team were Tralee Harrier athletes Orla O’Reilly who came first in the 200m and also ran in the 100m and 4 x 100m relay, Rachel Bowler (triple jump, 4 x 400m relay and 4 x 100m relay), Elinor Dennison (long jump and 4 x 100m relay), Aoife O’Carroll (400m, 4 x 400m relay and 4 x 100m relay), Leanne Cronin (discus). From Kenmare, Alyce O’Connor (1500m and 4 x 400m relay) and Christine McCarthy (high jump).

Shona Heaslip (An Riocht) ran a superb 3,000m, lapping the rest of the field for the full nine points and club mate Catherine O’Sullivan took on the 800m. In the throwing events Mairead O’Neill won the hammer, Ruth Courtney (Killarney Valley) took part in the shot and Lauren O’Grady (St Brendans) threw the javelin.

Tralee Harriers athletes also made up a large part of the men’s team with Travane Morrison taking on and winning the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay and competing in the weight for distance. Luke O’Carroll also gained the full 9 points in the long jump and ran in the 4 x 100m relay and Alan O’Connor won the discus.

Other team members were Cillian Griffin (110m hurdles, high jump and 4 x 100m relay), Basit Oyanbanji (400m and 4 x 400m relay), Cathal Fitzgibbon (800m and 4 x 400m relay).

There were other wins for Adam King (Iveragh) in the hammer, Rossa Foley (Farranfore Maine Valley) in the javelin and Michael Tony (Lios Tuathail) in the triple jump.

Also from Lios Tuathail were Ben Sheehan (4 x 400m relay) and Kevin Lynch who competed on both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay teams.

Sean O’Shea (Farranfore Maine) competed in the shot.

Many apologies to Adam King (Iveragh) who won the Under 23 men’s hammer in the National Championships on June 30 and whose result was omitted from last weeks report.