Success at home and abroad for Kilkenny athletes

University Indoors, AAI Indoor Games, Schools Regional Cross Country championships and Race Walking in Spain, gave athletes across Kilkenny a great competitive array to choose from.

IUAA Indoor Championships
Jordan Knight is the in-form long jumper at the moment. A victory in the National Sports arena on Jan 8th was followed up with a win in the u23 National Indoors two weeks ago.

Last Saturday Knight made it three wins out of three for the month of January as he took the Irish Universities Long Jump title.

His winning leap of 6.67 came from his third-round jump. From the onset he was the leading jump and was never surpassed.

Knight also competed in the pentathlon for DCU, an event he favoured in his earlier juvenile years. It was the turn of Forde to take the gold.

It was not an easy gold as Knight had several leading positions including the 800m and Long Jump. It was Forde’s superb Shot Putt throw that was the gold medal decider.

Sophie Jackman had to be content with yet another silver. While Jordan Knight may have had a triple gold for the month of January, it was triple silver for Jackman.

The St Senans athlete competing for Trinity College, similar to the u23 All Irelands two weeks ago, held off the challenge of Trinity team mate Caron Hayes on the final straight to take silver. There was however a surprise win by Shauna Leydon.

Cathal O’Reilly finished 2nd in the 1500m. Swapping his KCH singlet for the Blue and Yellow of DCU, O’Reilly ran 3.57 to take the silver medal.

This is O’Reilly’s first University Indoor podium medal.

AAI Games
At the AAI Games in the National Sports Arena, Cliodhna Manning (KCH) dropped to the 200m on this occasion and ran 24.53 to finish second.

Cliodhna has been going well in training of late and is focusing on a few shorter races ahead of her season opener at her specialist event the 400m.

Flying the flag in Spain
Last weekend 19 athletes from across the country travelled to Gaudix in Spain to take part in the Andulasian Race-Walking Championships.

Amongst them Keelin Duggan (St Senans). Duggan was competing over the longer distance of 5km, a distance she first stepped up to a month ago in Raheny.

In a field of over 45 finishers, she finished a very creditable 10th place, knocking 13 seconds off her former personal best.

Schools Cross Country
Carlow Town Hurling Club was the venue for the South Leinster Schools last Wednesday where Kilkenny Schools as usual did very well with teams from St Kierans College and Loreto qualifying for the Leinsters on the 8th of February.

The presentation Kilkenny minor girls were 2nd with the team of Sally Power, Moya O’Shea, Lauren Skehan, Sarah Forde, Eve Byrne and Zoe Beck.

The Junior Presentation girls went one better to take gold with the team of Clodagh O’Callaghan, Katie O’Shea, Amy O’Shea, Rayna Thompson, Aine Foely and Grace Hickey, now representing their school at the Leinsters in Santry.

No Kilkenny school managed to secure a team prize in the Inter girls but Christina Campton and Pia Langton (Loreto) did secure individual qualification.

Loreto, Kilkenny took the gold in the Senior girls race, with a team of Pia O’Grady, Hannah Kehoe, Alexia Albertin, Niamh Houlihan and Isabella Bourke.

In the boys it was Kierans College who took the first team prize of the day as they secured gold in the minor boys. The team consisted of Kyrell Mtinsi, Paul Millea, Max Edwards, Rory Rhatigan. Sam McAviney, Enda Cunningham, Oisin Maher and Patrick McDonald.

Individual qualification came from Robert Coogan (Kilkenny CBS) and Kyle Bolger (Good Counsel).

Kierans College picked up another prize as they finished 2nd in the Junior boys with the team of Paddy Cuddihy, Conor Carroll, Dan Carroll, Jack Rhatigan, Cillian Dumphy, Tomas Carroll, Mikey Barron and Joe Healy.

With a gold and silver team in the bag already, there was yet another gold to add to the collection for the Inter boys.
The team of Matthew McEvilly, Ruairi McEvoy, Oisin Marry, Chris Delaney, Louis Fitzgerald, Rory Phelan, Ross Gormley and Cathal Rossiter will now head to Santry on February 8th.

Joining them will be Paddy Kelly from Kilkenny CBS.

There was more good news for Kierans College as their senior team took silver. They were led by David Williams in 2nd place and followed by Tom Lodge, Paul Mahon, Luke Phelan, Sean Maloney, Aidan Cashin, Jack Holohan and Noah Walsh.

County Intermediate Cross Country
St Senans AC hosted the county intermediate cross country in Kilmacow last Sunday. There were large turnouts in both the mens and ladies races.

The ladies in particular had one of the largest fields in recent times.

The ladies winner was Orla McPhillips (KCH). Orla was content to stick at the back of the group of four that broke away from the field in the very early stages of the race.

With 300m to go she moved past Kate O'Brien (Gowran), Joanne Fitzpatrick (Thomastown) and Claire Doherty (KCH) to a convincing victory.

The men's race was dominated by John Cody (Gowran) in the initial stages.

His lead was reigned in by Ray LaHart (Gowran) and JP Vereker of St Josephs.

These three athletes remained in the top three throughout the race, oscillating between the various placings.

JP Vereker looked like he might stamp his name on the overall victory with just over 2km of the 8km race remaining.

However, LaHart was having none of it and moved up a gear to remain in the lead to the end.

Gowran were the winners of the team event.