Double Gold and a Silver for Finn Valley at National Indoors

The second weekend of the National Juvenile Indoor Championships were held in Nenagh last weekend with the Finn Valley juveniles bringing home two Gold and one Silver medal plus many excellent performances with ten of our athletes finishing in the top six in the Country.

Aoife Whelan was our first Gold medallist of the weekend with an excellent defence of her title winning the U15 1000m Walk in a time of 5.01.6, 12 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed athlete. Aoife took the race on from the start and looked very impressive indeed displaying excellent technique throughout. Clara Dunnion also competed very well in this race finishing 8th in a time of 5.42.

Nikki Alcorn was our second Gold medallist of the day with a terrific display of race walking. Nikki was also defending her title and did so with ease finishing in a new p.b. of 7.36.25 for the 1500m distance, an improvement of 13 seconds, with Aoibheann Prendeville, Estuary A.C. 2nd in a time of 8.02.41 and Amy Drew, Mullingar Harriers 3rd in 8.46.46.

Shauna Guthrie competed in the U16 1500m Walk putting in a very strong performance to win the Silver medal in a new p.b. of 8.16.82 closing down on the leader in the last lap. Natasha Duffy also competed well finishing 8th in this race in a time of 11.27.24.

Geraldine Kelly was unlucky in the U19 Triple Jump just finishing out of the medals in 4th place with a best jump of 9.77m. Pauric Feely also competed in the U19 boys Triple Jump and finished in 5th place, 11.73m just 29cm off a Bronze medal.

Breda McGinty put in a great effort in the final of the 800m U16 having won her heat earlier in the day but despite a great run and a new p.b. of 2.24.4 finished in 5th place in a very high standard race for this age group with the winner running an excellent 2.14.2.

Laura Friel was also unlucky in the U16 High Jump clearing every high at the first attempt up until 1.50m when she went out and finished in 5th place. Fionnuala Bruton was also a 5th place finisher in the U17 1500m Walk in a time of 8.03 with team-mate Maeve Culhane 7th in this race both girls competing very well.

Joe McGinley was unfortunate not to qualify for the final of the U19 200m due to a mishap on the first bend missing a final place by 1/10th of a second when he finished 2nd in his heat; Joe's time of 24.44 was 6th fastest overall. Bronagh O'Doherty ran well in the U16 200m heats finishing 3rd but failed to qualify for the final.

Niamh Doherty and Karen Ferguson contested the U14 800m heats both running very well with Niamh missing out on a final place by just one position. Niamh was unfortunate in that another athlete fell and nearly took Niamh with her but that is the nature of middle distance running. Stefan Connolly also competed in the 800m heats but despite his best efforts was unable to qualify for the final.

On Sunday our U19 boys relay team was in action and ran very well in their heat to qualify for the final. The final was a very closely contested affair with Joe McGinley running a superb first leg to hand over to Stewart McClean who ran a storming 2nd leg and passed the baton to Pauric Feely who drew on all his experience and competitive spirit to keep the team in first place despite very little training this year due to college exams, Pauric passed the baton to Eoghan McNeill a new addition to the team who ran very well for the first 150m but despite his very best efforts was unable to hold off the fast finishing rivals with Leevale taking the Gold in 1.36.82, Dooneen the Silver in 1.37.60, Bree A.C. Bronze in 1.38.35 and Finn Valley 4th in 1.38.87. However, despite the disappointment these boys will make up an excellent 4 x 100m Relay in the National Championships in July as both Pauric and Eoghan are much more suited to 100m.

National Senior and Masters Road Relays

Our Senior and Masters athletes travelled to Dublin on Sunday to compete in the National Road Relays with our Masters Men's Team finishing in 4th place just beaten by 3 seconds for the Bronze medal. Gerard Bogle had the fastest lap time of the day with 4 minutes 51 seconds with James McMahon running an excellent 10 minutes 19 seconds for the 2-mile lap and Dominic Bonner also running very well for the final 1-mile lap in 4 minutes 52 seconds. The B Team of Mark Connolly, Pat Hegarty and Drew Doherty also competed very well. In the Senior Men's race Frank Chaney ran a very good time of 10 minutes 10 seconds for the 2-mile lap.

Newsletters by Bernie Alcorn, Club P.R.O.