Finn Valley juveniles triumphant

Finn Valley juveniles recorded their greatest ever success at the national track and field championships last weekend in Tullamore, winning a total of 18 individual medals over the weekend.

The competition started early on Saturday morning and Aoife Whelan got us off to the perfect start winning the Gold medal in the U/15 2000m walk in 11 mins 26 secs to remain undefeated in her age group. Clara Dunnion put the icing on the cake by taking the bronze medal in 11:59 with a terrific effort and also a very strong performance from Paula Friel to take 5th spot with a time of 12:37.

Shauna Guthrie put in a terrific last 200m to come within a fraction of a second of the gold medal in U/16 2000m walk to take the silver. Fionnuala Bruton and Maeve Culhane finished 5th and 6th respectively in the U/17 3000m walk with Fionnuala recording an excellent new p.b. of 16:47.

In the U/18 3000m walk Nikki Alcorn gave a very courageous performance having just returned to training 3 weeks ago after a ten-week layoff due to illness. She fought hard throughout the race and was rewarded with the silver medal in 16:55.

Laura Friel was our next medallist in U/16 high jump, repeating last year’s performance taking the bronze medal with a jump of 1.50m. At the same time Laura Feely, U/15 was in action in the hammer area which is outside the main stadium where she had an excellent throw of 29.35m to take the bronze medal. Laura then went on to take the bronze medal in the shot put with a fine throw of 10.32m.

Paul Doherty was next up in the final of the U/16 100m hurdles, which turned out to be the closest race of the day. Paul and fellow Donegal athlete Christopher Britton had a neck and neck race to the line and it took the photo finish to separate them. Christopher was given the verdict with Paul winning the silver, his first individual all-Ireland medal in a new P.B. of 14.54 secs.

Gavin McCrudden had a throw of in excess of 40m in the U/16 javelin to win the bronze medal while back in the hammer circle Clive Heapes had an excellent throw of 41.93m to won the bronze medal in the U/15 hammer. Clive continued the good work on Sunday by taking the silver medal in the Javelin with a throw of 33.99m.

Breda McGinty was next to line in the U/16 1500m where she ran a very fast last 200m to get up for the bronze medal and a new P.B. of 4.48.98. Likewise Ian Ward put in a thrilling last 150m to go from being boxed in 7th place to 2nd in the U/16 1500m.

Stewart McClean was our final competitor of the day after easily qualifying from the heats many hours earlier in the day, ran a brilliant U/19 400m to won the bronze medal in a new P.B. of 51.3 secs to take our medal haul for day one to 13.

There were many other good performances on the day just outside the medals. Cormac Gallen who is making great progress this year was 5th U/14 hammer, 26.74m and 7th in the discus 29.91m. Geraldine Kelly had a new P.B. in the U/19 long jump 4.82m to finish 4th. Ciara Gallen also was busy where she competed well in the javelin and pole vault.

Laura Reid ran very well to make the final of the U/17 300m. Bronagh Sweeney also ran well in the U/17 300m. Jodie Stewart jumped 4.40m in the U/!4 long jump.

On Sunday Shane Bonner was our first athlete on the track where he set the ball rolling again by taking the silver medal in the U/16 3000m walk which was his first attempt at this event in the nationals with a time of 17.58, taking over 4 minutes off his previous best time.

Paul Doherty was in action again this in the longer 250m hurdles finishing 5th in the final. Aileen Brennan put in a great performance in the U/14 high jump finishing 4th and just out of the medals with a jump of 1.45m. Darren McGlinchey finished 5th in the U/16 3000m with a good time of 9:51 in very warm conditions. Alan Cavanagh also ran a brave race finishing 5th in the U/18 3000m with a time of 9.17.

Matthew Kelly added to his collection of national medals by winning the silver medal, just missing out on the gold but had a new P.B. of 35.53m in the U/14 javelin. Cormac Gallen took his second 5th spot of the weekend in this event with a new P.B. of 28.6m, exceeding his previous mark by 7-m.

Pauric Feely U/19 triple jump was in bronze position up to last jump where he lost out by a mere 2cm.

Kieran O Grady had a good outing in the U/17 shot put where he finished 6th.

Shareen McCrudden U/14 repeated last year’s performance by winning the gold medal in the Javelin, throwing a new P.B. of 30.12m.

Geraldine Kelly made it on to the winner’s rostrum taking the bronze medal in the U/19 triple jump, which was a great result for Geraldine in her last year as a juvenile.

Lorcan McMenamin competed in the U/15, 250m hurdles and had his first national competition in the pole vault where he finished a creditable 4th. His younger brother Aaron in the U/14 high jump cleared 1.45m and was unfortunate to finish out of the medals being in the bronze position until the final round.

Karen Ferguson had great run in the U/14 800m where she had an excellent new P.B. 2.32 to finish 6th in a very big field.

Stewart McClean finished off the weekend with an excellent run to finish 5th in the final of the 200m where he set a P.B. of 23.3 secs.

Well done to all the athletes who competed so well with quite a few personnel best performances, you have done yourselves, your families and your club proud.

Coaches

A special word of thanks for the coaches who gave so freely of their time and expertise trough-out the year, coaching and travelling with the athletes to competitions in order to make last weekends success possible.

English Schools

Further success for Finn Valley at the weekend when Kieran McConnell collected a senior English schools silver medal in the discus with a throw of 45.55-m a mere 21-cm down on the gold medallist. Well done Kieran.

Next weekend

The national juveniles track and field continues next weekend in Sligo where the under 9 to under 13 age groups and the national relays take place over Saturday and Sunday.

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