St Peter’s juveniles to the fore
ST PETER’S AC athletes were once again to the fore as the Louth Juvenile Athletic Championships were staged over three days at the weekend.
Day 1 was at Lourdes Stadium in Drogheda, with hurdles medals up for grabs on the track, and first up for the Dromiskin-based club was Dearbhla Allen who, in her first-ever hurdle race, finished in fourth place just outside the medals.
Lucy Brennan collected the first medal for the club with a third-place finish in the under-13 girls hurdle final. In the girls under 14 final Niamh Brady won gold and she was closely followed by Judith Bell who was unlucky to finish fourth.
The last race of the night concerning the St Peter’s club was the boys under-14 hurdle final where Sean Allen and Ronan Deary had a great battle, with Sean narrowly winning to collect the gold medal and Ronan winning silver.
The club also had athletes in action in the various high jump competitions on the night. Ellie Smyth and Lucy Brennan won gold and silver respectively in the U-13 high jump, with Lucy jumping 1.33m and Ellie setting a new championship best of 1.42m.
Niamh Brady won her second gold of the night in the under-14 girls high jump and was joined on the podium by her training partner Judith Bell who won bronze.
On Saturday day 2 took place at Bush and for the younger St Peter’s athletes it was their first taste of Championship Action.
The 60m sprints got the action under way and in the under 9 age group the club had three girls who all ran very well, with both Niamh Allen and Grace Carey getting through to the semis and Aoibhinn Boyle narrowly missing out. Cian Smyth also made his championship debut, winning his heat in the 60m sprint and just missing out on a podium finish in the final.
The under 10 60m sprint saw Hannah O’Reilly win her heat and twin sister Emily just miss out on a final place.
The under 11 girls 60m sprint saw Orla McLoughlin ran a really impressive heat to qualify for the final, with both Catherine Carey and Mia Finnegan running really well in tough heats.
Lucy Brennan collected her third medal of the championships when she won bronze in the under 13 80m girls sprint.
Julie McLoughlin stormed to victory in her under 14 heat of the 80m sprint and followed that by finishing third in the final to collect her first of three championship medals. Mark Litchfield opened his account with a very impressive run in the 80m final to win silver.
The boys U15 saw Rory McLoughlin also win silver in the 100m sprint.
Next on the track on day 2 was the middle distance events. Emily O’Reilly was the star of the show for St Peter’s middle distance runners when she held off some stiff opposition to win gold in the girls under 10 500m, while her sister Hannah also ran strongly.
Catherine Carey gave a good account of her self in the girls under 11 600m. In the boys under 11 Ruari Carpenter ran really well in his first championship race and looks a real prospect for the future.
The girls under 12 600m race saw Dearbhla Allen go agonisingly close to winning her first individual track championship medal, only to finish fourth. Harry O’Reilly looked very comfortable when he finished in the silver medal position in the boys U12 600m and his training partner, the ever-improving Ben McKeown, finished a brilliant fifth.
Conor Litchfield ran very impressively in the boys U13 600m when he dipped under two minutes for the first time, having recently recovered from injury.
The under 14 boys 800m saw Mark Litchfield collect a bronze medal, closely followed by Sean Allen in fourth and Cian Gorham in fifth.
Rory McLoughlin showed his class when storming to victory in the boys U15 800m.
Saturday was also a busy day for field events and Aoibhinn Boyle won what was the first of many championship long jump medals for the club when she won bronze with a leap of 2.72m in the girls under 9 competition.
Emily O’Reilly won her second gold of the championships when she leaped to 3.11m in the girls under 10 long jump. This was followed by Orla McLoughlin winning gold in the under 11 Girls Long jump with a leap of 3.48m.
Day two concluded with relay races and the club had just two teams compete.
The girls under 11s had to deal with heartache as, although they finished second in the first of two timed heats, they eventually lost out on a medal by .5 of a second. This team comprised Emily O’Reilly, Catherine Carey, Mia Finnegan and Orla McLoughlin.
The girls under 9 team had a great run and deservedly won the silver medals. This team consisted of Aoibhinn Boyle, Emily O’Reilly, Niamh Allen, Hannah O’Reilly and Grace Carey who was willing and able to step in if required.
The final day of the championships took place on Sunday and it was another successful day for the Dromiskin club.
The track events commenced with 200m sprint races, with Julie McLoughlin again winning silver.
There was 2 podium finished for St Peters in the boys U14 200m, with Mark Litchfield in the silver medal spot and Sean Allen the bronze. The girls U14 1500m race saw Niamh Brady return to distance running and win bronze and Cian Gorham also claimed bronze in the boys under 14 1500m.
Rory McLoughlin had to settle for silver in the boys under 15 1500m, with Calum Grant finishing strong in fourth place.
The St Peters Club were once again to the fore in the long jump event on day three, with Lucy Brennan completing the full complement of medals when she won gold in the girls U13 long jump with a leap of 4.32m.
Julie McLoughlin continued the club’s jumping tradition by winning the girls U14 long jump with 4.39m and Judith Bell joined her on the podium with a leap of 4.34, with Niamh Brady in fourth.
Sean Allen won silver in the boys U14 long jump with a jump of 4.42m. Rory McLoughlin then matched his younger siblings by winning his long jump competition with a leap of 4.50m.
The club also won a medal in the turbo javelin when Harry O’Reilly, who has only recently taken up the event, won silver with a throw of 18.14m.
The day concluded with relay races for even ages, with the club having teams in the boys and girls under 14 age group.
The boys ran a very gallant race but had to settle for silver medals with a team consisting of Jack McLaughlin, Sean Allen, Cian Gorham and Mark Litchfield, with Conor Litchfield as sub.
However, the girls team had better fortune, with some slick baton changes they stormed to victory thanks to the efforts of Judith Bell, Niamh Brady, Lucy Smyth and Julie McLoughlin. in fine form,