Harriers take pole position in juvenile and senior shields

It was another weekend of competitive action for athletes with the Belfast Milers meet and the second day of the county track and field championships took place.

In Belfast there was much to celebrate as records tumbled, qualifying standards were achieved and new personal best performances were clocked. Former St Joseph’s athlete Sophie Becker delivered a powerful win in the 400m, crossing the line in a time of 51.13 which is inside the European qualifying standard for the 400m.

Kilkenny City Harriers (KCH) once more dominated the county championships, stretching their lead in both the juvenile and senior shields even further. One of the biggest turnouts of the day was for the under-13 race-walking competition where close to 30 athletes took part.

Irish Milers

The Belfast Irish Milers meet is a competition that is favoured by many athletes. Famed for its fast times and amid the beautiful setting that is the Mary Peters track, entries are always filled within 15 minutes of opening. It is the second of two Irish milers meets held in Ireland, following hot on the heels of the Dublin IMC event in Santry.

This year’s event produced plenty of excitement, none more so than the victory of 17-year-old Phoebe Gill in the international 800m race. Gill not only recorded a new European under-18 record of 1.57.86 but also set the second fastest time in the world this year for 800m, achieving the qualifying time for Paris. Closer to home, former St Joseph’s athlete Sophie Becker, now competing for Raheny, surprised even herself as she achieved an individual European qualifying time for the 400m.

Becker has just returned from the Bahamas where the Irish women’s 4x400m team qualified for the Olympics. She will now join team-mates Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley on the starting line of the individual 400m in Rome.

There were several athletes from the county taking part mostly in middle distance events. Cathal O’Reilly (KCH) led the group in terms of fast times recorded. O’Reilly, who had experienced a lull in performance recently due to illness, completely turned things around and recorded a 3.45.71 to win the men’s 1,500m A race. His time would have been good enough to compete in the international race. O’Reilly had to dig deep over the final 100m as Juan Ignacio Pena (Dublin Track Club) mounted a considerable challenge for the ultimate victory. It was fought all the way to the line with the KCH athlete just getting in front by hundredths of a second.

In the girls’ 1,500m A race, there were three athletes from St Senan’s - Eve Dunphy, Charlotte Carpendale and Caoimhe Phelan - in action. All three young athletes set new personal bests. Eve Dunphy recorded a time of 4.39 to finish in sixth place.

There were also further personal bests set by Eoin Aylward (St Senan’s) in the 800m and Ruairi McEvoy and Myles Hewlett (KCH) in the 1,500m.

Returning to action after an injury sustained last year was Cliodhna Manning. Manning was forced out of competition with an injury sustained while competing at the All-Ireland 400m event last June. After a solid winter’s training and a move to a training group in Cardiff, she competed in the 400m A race last Saturday in Belfast. Her season opener will be followed with a race in Brussels next week.

County Track & Field

While most of Kilkenny were gearing up to rock out in Nowlan Park with Bruce Springsteen, athletes young and old - oblivious to the hype building up just down the road - were competing in the second day of the county track and field championships at Scanlon Park. There were large fields of athletes in the younger age groups with smaller numbers in the junior and senior events.

This year’s most popular event was the under-13 walk. Newly introduced at the Leinster Championships this year, Kilkenny Athletics immediately put it on their fixture list. Thirty athletes lined out to take part in the event, coming on the back of the very successful Kilkenny race-walking Grand Prix a week ago. The winners of the under-13 walk were Ellie May Aylward (St Senan’s) in the girls’ race and Tadgh O’Callaghan in the boys’ event.

Caoimhe Phelan, Eve Dunphy and Charlotte Carpendale all achieved personal bests in the 1,500m race at the Belfast IMC

The senior, junior and masters competitions were held in the morning, kicking off with the junior, senior and masters 3,000m. Callum Barron (KCH) was the winner of the junior men’s event with Caoimhe Barry (St Joseph’s) winning the junior women’s title. These athletes then went on to run the junior 800m an hour, later repeating their medal success.

After two days of competition, and with just the hurdles to complete the 2024 championship line-up, it looks like Kilkenny City Harriers will take the County Shield for the best senior club in the county. Gowran AC are in second place with Brow Rangers in third.

There were so many KCH performances that impressed on Sunday that it is difficult to pinpoint just a few. Their dominance in events such as long jump and relays continued to feature. They won half the relay events and won every boys long jump from under-12 to under-16. Similarly, the club won all the girls sprinting events from under-12 right through to under-15s. Ellen Daly, Aoibheann Kelly and Ellen Ryan impressed in these events with Daniel Greene and Cillian Croke impressing in the boys.

Brow dominate

Brow Rangers continue to dominate the throwing events as they extend their score towards the final championship event of the season. They won five out of the six weight for distance events on offer. Eli Dunne was once again in action, scoring a double in the under-19 discus and hammer. Caoimhe O’Brien and Meave O’Donovan made their contribution to the scores in the female throwing events, winning the weight for distance titles.

The Thomastown girls’ under-12 athletes are an impressive group of athletes as they push the boundaries with their under-12 colleagues. Their girls’ under-12 relay team had a stunning performance. Mia Brennan and Zoe Beck continue to impress in the girls’ under-14 and 15 with both athletes recording a win in the high jump. Zoe McKenna was second under-14. Luke Hanlon was joint first in the under-10 300m. Alisha Farrell retained her shot-put title with an impressive win at under-11 level. Sarah Collins took gold in the under-11 80m with her clubmate Jessica Mackey third.

Lucy Cunningham and Kate Hayden (Gowran) had impressive wins in the 1,500m with their under-10 relay team taking gold. Oren Denieffe and Dean Hutton made light of their javelin efforts as they took gold. Rachael Gardiner and Anna Kelsey both scored doubles as they won the shot and discus under-19 and under-15.

St Joseph’s continue to take the race-walking event by storm with victories by Emma Walsh in the under-14 race and Evan Walsh in the boys’ under-17. Lily Ryan took the under-27 girls’ title and Richard and Ellen Melbourne the under-14 and under-16 titles respectively. Aisling Mullally scored a double in the under-16 discus and shot-put with Ellen Melbourne winning the under-16 100m and finishing second in the 1,500m. Tom Doherty had another runaway victory in the 800m. The boys’ under-12 team were very impressive as they took gold in the relay.

Ingrid Tierney (Barrow Harriers) won her first ever county medal. She finished second in the under-15 walk. Toby Walsh won the under-10 turbo javelin. Darragh Phelan ran a very good 800m to take bronze in the under-13 800m. This was a competitive event, where the medals were not easy to win.

Once again Lewis Morgan and Finn O’Neill (St Senan’s) were impressive winners of their respective middle-distance events. Morgan won the under-15 800m with O’Neill winning the under-16 800m. It was a good day for Morgan as he also took silver in the long jump. His younger brother Huw was a joint winner of the under-10 300m. Denis O’Hanlon won the under-13 javelin with an impressive throw. Keelin Duggan, in her final year of competitive juvenile action, won the under-19 walk. The under-16 relay was won by St Senan’s.