The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Medal haul at Community Games national finals
THE first weekend of the All Ireland National Finals took place at the weekend on Saturday at the Sports Ireland National Sports Campus in Abbottstown, Dublin.
Over the two Festival, approximately 8,000 children will take part from all over Ireland in our Nationals Finals. Kerry was represented by children by 194 children in Badminton; Basketball; Cross Country; Draughts; Futsal; Futsal; Quiz; Marathon; Middle Distance Relays; Swimming; Judo and Gymnastics - and all the hard work definitely paid off. Kerry came home with plenty of medals of every colour and excellent performances by all our children competing. Some of our children may not have been lucky enough to come home with a medal but they can be extremely proud of themselves for representing their local community, area and county so well.
Final Results: 8 individual gold medals; 6 silver; 4 bronze and 3 pewters. In team events – 6 gold; 1 silver; 1 bronze and 1 pewter.
BADMINTON
Well done to our two Badminton teams who brought Silver National medals back to Listowel and Kerry. The boys team (Shane Gleeson; Eddie Healy; Phillip Healy; Sean Mahony; Jack McElligott; Nikolai O’Callaghan) won their semi-final against Bawn Latton (Monaghan) 3-0; and were up against Myshall, Co Carlow in the final. Congratulations to the girls (Madison Carter; Grace Guiney; Aoife Murphy; Deina Vesko and Kiana Walsh) who had a great first win against Four Roads (Co Roscommon) 3-0 and played Kilcormac Killoughey (Co Offaly) to claim the silver medals.
BASKETBALL
Fantastic results for our Basketball teams who came away with Gold in U-11 Mixed; Girls U-13; Boys & Girls U-16 and bronze in the Boys U-13. A huge achievement for the players, and their managers, coaches/mentors - the hard work and hours of practice paid off.
Basketball U-11 Mixed – Gold (Castleisland) Isaac Brosnan; Gerard Costello; Killian Dennehy; Tomas Jones; Amelie Kerin; Tara Kerin; James Kerins; Katie Kerins; Mollie O’Mahony; Ellie Mai Walsh.
Boys U-13 – Bronze (Fossa) Tom Cahillane; Sean Dineen; Cian Doyle, Eddie Moroney; Darragh O’Brien; Matthew O’Connor; Darren Ryan; Rocco Sheehan; Shea Weldon.
Girls U-13 – Gold (Castleisland) Chantelle Broderick; Blathnaid Casey; Ciara Casey; Hannah Herlihy; Emma Kerin; Abbie O’Mahony; Muireann Rahilly; Rebecca Reidy; Shauna Tagney; Muireann Walsh.
Boys U-16 – Gold (Currow/Currans) Gearoid Coffey; John Curtin; Aaron Fleming; Padraig Fleming; Padraig Hilliard; Daniel Kelly; Darragh Kelly; Nathan O’Callaghan; Tadhg O’Shea; Garry O’Sullivan.
Girls U-16 – Gold (Castleisland). Abbie Brosnan; Ellen Collins; Aoife Dunlea; Gemma Kearney; Brid Moriarty; Emma O’Regan; Kate O’Connor; Sadhbh Prendiville; Aine Sheehan; Grainne Walsh.
CROSS-COUNTRY / MIXED DISTANCE & MARATHON
Fantastic results for U13 Cross Country with Cian Spillane winning an individual gold and the Country Team receiving the Bronze Medals – Abbie Dunlop (Kenmare); Aoife Dwyer (Dromid Caherdaniel); Lola Eager (Kenmare); Jimmy Kelliher (Kenmare); Timothy O’Donoghue (Kenmare); Conall O’Mahony (Firies); Laura Reilly (Spa Fenit Barrow); Kathryn Ryan (Glenflesk); Cian Spillane (Milltown Listry); Donagh Stephenson (St Brendans Oakpark). Well done also to our Mixed Distance relays teams – many who got into the finals but unfortunately were not in the final medal placings; and to our Marathon Runners who competed strongly but unfortunately not making the final medals
Boys U13 1200m - Gold Cian Spillane Milltown/Listry
Cross Country Mixed U13 1200m (County team) - Bronze
DRAUGHTS
Ballyheigue won gold in the U-14 Draughts competition. They had a convincing win over Donoughmoyne (Monaghan) and went on to beat Bennekerry Tinryland (Carlow) to become National Champions. The team is Adam Dineen; Dara Donnelly; Charlie Fitzgerald; Dara Kearney; Denis Lynch; Oisin O’Regan; David O’Sullivan.
FUTSAL
Glenflesk and Ballyduff won gold medals. The U-13 Boys from Glenflesk won their semi-final against Magheracloone (Monaghan) and went on to fin the final against St Brigids Newbridge (Co Kildare). The team is Callum Cronin; Luke Crowley; Gearoid Healy; Eoghan Kelly; Evan Lucey; Dara O’Connell; Ignatius O’Leary; and Ben Switzer.
The Ballyduff U-15s defeated Crawford of Donegal 6-3 in the Semi-finals and beat Islandeady of Mayo 6-1 in a thrilling final. The team is Martin Brosnan Mannix, Adam Farrell, Kevin Goulding, Nathan McGrath, Sean McGrath, Andrew Murphy, JP O’Carroll and Darragh Slattery.
GYMNASTICS
Kerry’s gymnasts did themselves and the Kingdom proud. This year saw the gymnasts performing new routines and a change in the rules meant the U-11s to U-15s had to compete in both floor and vault. Despite the extremely high standard, four of our gymnasts took home medals.
Alex Rochford won gold U-9 while his brother Luke secured the silver U-13. Rón O’Neill came first U-15 while Cathy Dwyer took the bronze in the U-15 girls.
Gymnastics Boys U-9 - Gold Alex Rochford (Ballyduff)
Gymnastics Boys U-13 - Silver Luke Rochford (Ballyduff)
Gymnastics Boys U-15 - Gold Ron O’Neill (Spa Fenit/Barrow)
Gymnastics Girls U-15 - Bronze Cathy Dwyer (Blennerville/Ballyard)
JUDO
Judo had another great day at the Nationals bringing home medals of all colours. Congratulations to the children, their managers, coaches and mentors on such high achievement at this level.
25 KG Boys U-16 - Gold Sean Barry (St Brendan’s/Oakpark)
25 KG Girls U-16 - Gold Liadh Forde (Kilcummin)
30 KG Boys U-16 - Silver Oran Horgan (Glenflesk)
35 KG Boys U-16 - Gold Luke Costello (Firies)
35 KG Girls U-16 - Bronze Ali O’Donoghue (Spa Muckross)
40 KG Boys U-16 - Bronze Sean Murphy (Abbeydorney/Kilflynn)
40 KG Girls U-16 - Silver Laura Flynn (Firies)
45 KG Boys U-16 - Silver Christopher Palmer (Firies)
45 KG Girls U-16 - Silver Zara Ozalan (St Brendan’s/Oakpark)
55 KG Girls U-16 - Silver Brid Flynn (Firies)
Open Boys U-16 - Gold TJ Palmer (Firies)
SWIMMING
A squad of 40 swimmers travelled to the National Aquatic Centre to represent Kerry in 29 different events in the National Finals of the Community Games – some were representing Kerry for the first time and a number were “old hands” having participated in the finals on previous occasions. This year was different for everybody in that both the boys and girls events were held on the same day and after the heats the top ten swimmers advanced to the finals. Competition was, as always, very stiff and all the swimmers performed brilliantly and represented Kerry with pride.
Of the 29 events, Kerry swimmers qualified for the final in 20 which an outstanding achievement was given the very high standard. Congratulations to all swimmers – and their parents and families who travelled to Dublin to support them.
Girls 1 Length Backstroke U-10 - Bronze Aisling O’Connell (St Brendan’s/Oakpark)
Boys 2 Length Freestyle U-12 - Pewter Padraig O’Halloran (Castlegregory)
Girls 2 Length Backstroke U-14 - Bronze Pia Hickey (Killarney)
Girls 2 Length Breaststroke U-14 - Pewter Sara Lucid (St Brendan’s/Oakpark)
Girls 2 Length Freestyle U-16 - Pewter Erin O’Halloran (Castlegregory)
Girls 4x1 Length Freestyle Medley U-16 - Pewter (St Brendan’s/ Oakpark) represented by Gillian Lane; Alexandra Perez; Kim McTigue; Grace Reidy; Niamh Higgins and Liah McLysaght.
TABLE QUIZ
Our Table Quiz team were unlucky not to make the medals finishing in fifth place after being within two points at one stage. Well done to our Kenmare Quiz team and hope to see you back competing again next year.