Kerry athletes win seven medals at Munster Juvenile Indoor Walking Championships in Nenagh

KERRY race walkers came home with seven medals from the Munster Juvenile Indoor Walking Championships held in Nenagh on Sunday for the older juvenile athletes, with Kerry’s successes owing a lot to the fantastic grassroots coaching that is happening in the clubs.

St Brendan’s AC picked up five medals with John McCarthy (Boys U13 1km) and Matilda Bolton (Girls U14 1km) taking gold, with Hannah Sheehy (Girls U13 1km) and Abbie Lane (Girls U17 1.5km) taking silver, and Cori Boylan (Girls U15 1km) bronze.

The experienced Lusai De Faoite (Kenmare AC) won the Girls U18 1.5km walk in an impressive 8 minutes 16 seconds, and Lily O’Shea (Killarney Valley AC) took silver in the Girls 1km walk.

Meanwhile, more than one hundred of Kerry’s youngest athletes made their way to Nenagh on Saturday for the Munster Juvenile Indoor Championships for under-9 to under-11, many of whom were getting their first taste of championship action. It was a jam-packed day of racing with up to a hundred competitors in every category and the young stars performed well with a lot of athletes placing well in their heats, running great times and making it through to semi-finals and finals.

Seona McElligott (Spa-Fenit Barrow) made her way through her heat and semi-final of the U-10 60 metres sprint to finish seventh in the final. She later showed her stamina winning her 300m heat and placing 11th overall on time.

Also making a sprint final in his first championships, was Kalin Georgeiev (An Ríocht) in the Boys U10 60m, finishing eighth in the final where 70 athletes started in the heats.

The closest Kerry athlete to a medal was Jack Sheehy (St Brendan’s AC) who finished joint-third in the Boys Long Jump but agonisingly missed out on a medal on count-back, where your second longest jump is used. His brother, James Sheehy, wasn’t far away either, winning his Boys U9 300m race with smart tactics and coming sixth overall on time.

Meanwhile, in Athlone, competing as a guest in the Leinster Indoor Championships, An Riocht’s Ger Cremin lowered his own M45 60m Hurdles national record, clocking a time of 9.07 seconds to win the race.