Carraig AC's rising stars shine bright
In a busy week of competition that saw Carraig na bhFear AC athletes out in force, some of our young rising stars caught the eye with some stunning performances.
On Sunday, 5th May Aoife Martin competed in the Kilkenny Race Walking Grand Prix racing in the U18 5K race. Aoife was quickly into her rhythm in the first kilometre and was in the leading pack, looking very comfortable even though the leaders had gone out too quickly, passing the km mark in 4:54. The race settled down in the second km and the lead pack was now down to two (Aoife Martin and Robin Óg Murphy from Louth). Although the race had settled, they had increased the pace, leaving the rest behind, including athletes U20s and older!
Going into the third km the race was really heating up as was the weather, neither girl would concede an inch while maintaining the pace. Their split going through the third km was just over 15 minutes, which had them on schedule for the U18 European qualifying time of 25:30. Just into the fourth km Aoife made a decisive move, injecting a slight increase in pace, making a break to power through this km. Coming into the fifth and final km she had a gap of 30 to 40 metres, but her split was 4 to 5 seconds outside the qualifying standard. She gave everything in the final stretch but the tight bends, heat and the fast first km made it very difficult to achieve the qualifying time but she came into the final 200m with the whole crowd roaring her on.
SO CLOSE!
Aoife’s official time was 25:47, just 17 seconds outside the U18 European qualifying time of 25:30. After today’s race Aoife is very confident that she will get this qualifying time. This was her third 5k since December, the first was on 17th December in Raheny where she clocked a PB of 26:41, on 16th March in Dudince, Slovakia she got a PB of 26:20 and on 5th May she got another massive PB of 25:47. Congratulations Aoife on a super performance. Sincere thanks to Perri Williams, St Joseph’s AC and Kilkenny County Board for organising this great event.
FAYE ON THE TRAILS
It was a big week for Faye O’Riordan also on the trails. On Wednesday Faye finished as first female in Garryduff Woods with dad Dave taking another category win. Well done also to Helen Roche who won her category. However, for Faye this was a warm-up for the main event as she competed in the Irish trials on the Wicklow Way for the U18 World Mountain Running Championships which take place in Spain in June. Faye ran a well-paced race, steady on the uphill sections before using her downhill running skills to come through as second female qualifier in a super time of 28:54 for the 5.7km course. Huge congratulations to Faye on another great performance.
ANNUAL GAA 5K RACE
On Wednesday, 1st May we had a massive turnout of 57 members supporting Carraig na BhFear GAA in their annual 5km race. There were some fine individual performances but too many to name individually given the excellent turnout. Special mention to Allie Phillips, at just 12 years of age Allie made the podium as 3rd female overall with a super time of 21:49, congratulations to Allie who has put in some great work over the winter months!
In the Midleton 5-mile race over an undulating hilly course Brian Hawkins put in another super performance, his time of 29:35 good enough for 25th place overall and 1st Junior male in a very competitive field of 347 runners. Congratulations to Brian. Peter Hawkins is also making good progress with a time of 33:11 with Richard Hawkins completing the course in 33:52.
Further afield, we had 2 athletes competing in the Regeneron Great Limerick run 6-mile event. Good running and excellent finishing times from Siobhan Walsh (44:44) and Orla Coffey (50:49).
LOOK AHEAD
Best of luck to all our athletes competing in the South Munster Schools Track and Field on Wednesday 8th in Castleisland, Co Kerry. The Championships kicked off last Thurs
day in Kilworth with Joshua Judd (St Colmans AC Midleton) winning the silver medal in the Intermediate boys hammer with a best throw of 33.90m. The County Championships for U9 to U14 age groups will be held in Banteer on Sunday 12th May. (Report by Richard Hawkins and Martin Hurley.)