Kevin O’Shea smashes 25-year-old javelin record
A KERRY javelin thrower smashed a 25-year-old record at the Munster Schools Championships at the weekend.
Sixty Kerry athletes and seven relay teams competed in the Championships in Templemore, Co Tipperary after qualifying through the North and South Munster events, with the top three in each event securing a place in the National Schools Championships.
At the end of a long day, 28 Kerry athletes had qualified for the national finals along with five relay teams and within this there were three double gold performances and six Kerry athletes qualifying in two events.
The performance of the day was undoubtedly Kevin O’Shea (Mercy Mounthawk Tralee), who smashed a 25-year-old championship record in the Junior Boys
Javelin, throwing the 600g javelin a colossal 51m 65cm, nearly four metres ahead of the old record and a staggering 17 metres ahead of his nearest competitor. He also won the Junior Boys Discus by 10 metres with a huge throw of 48.03m.
Babatunda Smith (Killarney Community College) is in great form jumping a huge 1m 70cm to win the Junior Boys High-Jump and then running a new personal best to win the 80m Hurdles in a time of 12.58 seconds. The versatile Ryan Vickers (St. Brendans Killarney) did the unusual double of winning the Minor Boys 100m in 12.11 seconds and then the 800m in 2 minutes 6 seconds.
A big throw of 15.09m secured gold for Kieran Keane (PS Chorca Dhuibhne) in the Inter Boys ShotPut whilst the in-form Cian O’Brien (Presentation Milltown) won the highly competitive Senior Boys 200m in a time of 22.56 seconds and will go to the Nationals looking to improve on last years bronze medal.
The National Schools Championships will take place on May 31 and June 1 at Tullamore Harriers, Co Offaly.
National 5k Road Championships
AN Riocht’s Niamh O’Sullivan retained her F60 Masters Road 5k National title with another sub 20 minute 5k performance, running the fast Phoenix Park course in a time of 19:34 last Saturday.
Munster Schools Results
Ar thur, Holly (Pobalscoil Inbhear Sceine) Senior Girls 400m Hurdles (0.762m) 3rd Behan, Jack (CII Abbeyfeale) Junior Boys Shot Put (4kg) 2nd
Collins, Alex (CII Abbeyfeale) Junior Boys Triple Jump 1st
Crean, Conor (CBS The Green Tralee) Senior Boys Shot Put (6kg) 2nd
Crossan, Alannah (Pres Tralee) Minor Girls High Jump 3rd
Daly, Ruairi (Pobalscoil Inbhear Sceine) Inter Boys 400m Hurdles (0.838m) 3rd de Faoite, Lusai (Pobalscoil Inbhear Sceine) Senior Girls 3000m Walk 3rd
Duffin, Conor (St Brendans Killarney) Junior Boys 1500m 3rd
Har te, Aoibhinn (CII Abbeyfeale) Senior Girls Shot Put (4kg) 2nd, Senior Girls Discus (1kg) 3rd
Keane, Kieran (PS Chorca Dhuibhne) Inter Boys Shot Put (5kg) 1st, Inter Boys Discus (1.5kg) 3rd
Lynch, Oisin (St Brendans Killarney) Senior Boys 800m 1st
Malik, Eoin (Mercy Mounthawk Tralee) Inter Boys Triple Jump 1st, Inter Boys Javelin (700g) 3rd
McCar thy, Conor (CBS The Green Tralee) U16 Boys Mile 3rd
Ó Coileáin, Jack (Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí) Junior Boys 1500m 2nd
O’Brien, Cian (Presentation Milltown) Senior Boys 200m Sprint 1st
O’Callaghan, Dylan (St Michaels Listowel ) Inter Boys 400m Sprint 1st, Inter Boys 800m 2nd O’Regan, Oisin (CII Abbeyfeale) Senior Boys 400m Hurdles 2nd, Senior Boys Long Jump 1st O’Riordan, Mollie (Tarber t Comprehensive) Senior Girls 400m Sprint 2nd
O’Shea, Anna (Killarney CC) Inter Girls Pole Vault 3rd
O’Shea, Kevin (Mercy Mounthawk Tralee) Junior Boys Discus (1kg) 1st, Junior Boys Javelin (600g) 1st
O’Sullivan, Katie (St Brigids Killarney) Minor Girls High Jump 2nd
Rohan, Liam (Presentation Milltown) Inter Boys Shot Put (5kg) 3rd, Inter Boys Discus (1.5kg) 2nd
Smith, Babatunda (Killarney CC) Junior Boys 80m Hurdles 1st, Junior Boys High Jump 1st
Sow, Saliou (CBS The Green Tralee) Senior Boys Long Jump 3rd
Vickers, Isaac (St Brendans Killarney) Inter Boys 800m 1st
Vickers, Ryan (St Brendans Killarney) Minor Boys 100m Sprint 1st, Minor Boys 800m 1st Wasila, Dominik (St Brendans Killarney) Inter Boys Long Jump 3rd
Watson, David (CII Abbeyfeale) Junior Boys High Jump 2nd
Relays
Mercy Mounthawk Tralee , Inter Boys 4x100m Relay 3rd
St Brendans Killarney, Junior Boys 4x100m Relay 2nd
St Brendans Killarney, Minor Boys 4x100m Relay 1st
Pres Tralee, Minor Girls 4x100m Relay 2nd CII Abbeyfeale, Junior Boys 4x100m Relay 3rd