Kilkenny trio win medals at Irish National Athletics Championship

The 38th national senior indoor championships took centre stage in Abbottstown over the weekend. Both days were sold out events, with the elite of Irish athletics looking to compete, medal, set new personal bests (PBs), with some targeting B standards for the upcoming World Indoor Championships this month.

The weekend certainly didn’t disappoint with heated finals, stumbled finishes on the line and down to the wire jumps, with only the narrowest of margins separating athletes in some events.

There were three national medals won over the weekend by Kilkenny athletes. Molly Daly (Kilkenny City Harriers, KCH) won silver in the 200m, Shane Power (St Joseph’s) won silver in the men’s pole vault while Pia Langton (KCH) won another senior bronze in the 800m.

Daly, following on from her Leinster gold in the under-19 400m a fortnight ago - where she also set a new championship record of 54.44 - got off to a great start as she won her 200m heat comfortably earlier in the day. Having set a new PB of 24.07 in the 200m back in January at the AAI games, Daly ran another super race, holding her own just behind Sophie Becker to finish in 24.07 again and take second place on the podium.

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Shane Power (St Joseph’s), who was fourth in the top 20 to watch in the pole vault going into these championships, once again had a great afternoon of jumping. The current Leinster indoor champion, Power came in at 4m to start his competition, and got to 4.40m with ease. This was to be his max height to jump on the day, but was enough to clinch the silver medal, going one better than last year’s senior bronze.

Pia Langton’s 800m heat on Saturday was her first 800m race this indoor season, having made her debut in the one mile in Dublin, where she set a PB of 4:49.36 back in January.

On an afternoon of racing that saw bunching, tangled legs and unfortunate falls in the men’s 3,000m race, the senior women in the 800m were conscious not to follow in the footsteps of the previous race. The group, although bunched at the break in, eventually fell into single lane, where Langton held her own in fourth place for the first 400m.

Sticking in behind Hannah Seagrave (Clonliffe Harriers) and Emma Moore (Galway City Harriers) on the inside, Langton moved into third place when they broke for the last 200m. Her well-timed run paid off with another senior bronze in the women’s 800m final.

Congrats to all who competed on the day, especially those debuting in the senior championships.

Cross-Country

The Leinster schools cross-country event finally got underway in Navan on Friday. The championships had been postponed twice in the last few weeks due to bad weather and the fact the Phoenix Park was still waterlogged after the deluge of rain throughout the month of February.

With National Schools taking place on the weekend of March 7 the Leinster Schools had no choice but to relocate at the 11th hour to the Navan Adventure Centre. Kilkenny secondary schools were well represented with excellent running delivering individual and team honours for many Kilkenny athletes. Daniel Greene (Borris College) stormed to victory in the minor boys’ race, finishing in 0:07:10. Kyrell Mtinsi (St Kieran’s College) also won his intermediate boys’ race in fantastic style, running 0:15:35 while leading his team to third place.

There were numerous top 10 qualifying places with Laura Aylward (Scoil Aireagail) finishing 10th in 0:5:44 in the minor girls’ race. Emily O’Keeffe (Loreto) also finished 10th in the junior girls’ race in 0:8:00 to clinch her spot in the All-Irelands next weekend. Sinead Cormack (Presentation), running in the intermediate girls’ race, qualified after a solid run saw her finish ninth in 0:11:53. Shannon and Eleanor Doheny (Loreto) placed ninth and 10th respectively to lead the Loreto senior girls’ team to first place and cement their slot in the Nationals in Newtownabbey.

Sam Woodcock (St Kieran’s College) led his team home to a fourth place finish, placing eighth in the junior boys’ race in 0:11.03. Good luck to all heading to Newtownabbey, Co Antrim at the weekend.

Munster Schools

The Munster schools cross-country championships were held in Tramore Valley Park on a rare sunny day. Athletes from St Senan’s and St Joseph’s were in action, representing Abbey Community College and De La Salle, Waterford. Zak Fenton led the way, qualifying for the nationals in the intermediate boys’s race.