Athletics- Harriers clinch the county indoor crown
The Kilkenny City Harriers reigned supreme when they won the Fr Nicholas Flavin Shield after being crowned the best juvenile club at the county indoors on Saturday. The city club racked up a massive score of 249 points, finishing over 170 points clear of their nearest rivals.
While the juveniles experienced the relative luxury of being back indoors after the cross-country season, some of the seniors were in action at the national senior indoor championships in Dublin.
County indoors
Athlone was the unusual venue for the Kilkenny county indoor championships on Saturday (with just three indoor tracks in Ireland, most counties look to Athlone, Dublin or Nenagh to host their events). There was a terrific buzz about the stadium as athletes from the nine clubs in the county tested their indoor form, in the first of the juvenile championships for the 2023 indoor season.
Kilkenny City Harriers (KCH) had a large contingent of athletes competing. Amassing over 200 points they were runaway winners of the Fr Nicholas Flavin Shield for the best juvenile indoor club.
Numbers, of course, helped and the sheer strength of depth the city club sent to Athlone was evident, especially in the relay events, where they had multiple relay teams in each age group. While so many athletes had wonderful performances, there were plenty of highlights from the day’s performances.
The Daly sisters (KCH) took home a collection of gold medals. Irish international Molly, the eldest of the three girls, won the under-16 60m, 200m and hurdles. The 2022 national indoor 60m hurdles champion, Ellen, took gold in the under-14 hurdles and added a silver in the 60m. The youngest sister Julia won gold in the under-11 60m and silver in the 400m. All three girls also won medals with their respective relay teams.
The girls’ under-14 800m saw twins Ella and Sinead Cormack (KCH) finish first and second. Incidentally twins Isabel and Lauren Walsh (St Senan’s) finished third and fourth. Kyrell Mtinsi (KCH) had yet another win to add to his collection of gold medals of late. He led the Under-15 800m from start to finish, hardly taking a puff of air in between.
Callum Barron (Barrow Harriers) added another medal to the All-Ireland B cross-country honour he won the previous weekend. Barron had no problem clinching victory in the under-18 1,500m. Lewis Morgan (St Senan’s) took the under-14 800m title by over 100 metres.
The girls’ under-13 600m was a hard-fought battle as Katie Byrne made her way from fourth to second over the final 100m but did not manage to pass Emma Kelly who, after a glance over her shoulder, managed to avoid a late charge by Byrne to take gold.
The St Joseph’s pair of Lily Ryan and Evan Walsh were magnificent in the walks, winning their respective age groups by huge margins. Similarly, Lucy Aylward and Tadgh O’Callaghan (St Senan’s) looked flawless as they crossed the line to take gold in the under-13 and under-12 race-walking events.
Rachael Gardiner (Gowran) has been a gold medal winner in her age group since first taking part in the indoors as an under-12 athlete. On Saturday she had no problem winning the under-17 shot. Libby Murphy (St Senan’s) powered the shot down the mat, as she too clinched a shot-put gold.
Brow Rangers had multiple shot-put winners. Doireann Haughney and Eli Dunne demonstrated their experience as they both putted to victory with ease under the watchful eyes of their coaches Joe and Murty Kelly.
The Steiger sisters Aibhe and Aoibhinn (Gowran) won their high jump events with Ailbhe also taking the long jump gold. Zoe Beck (Thomastown) jumped a new personal best to win the under-14 high jump while Caoimhe Barry (St Joseph’s) had no problem taking under-17 gold.
The KCH boys’ under-18/19 contingent of Adam Slawinska, Noah Gilmore and Conor Byrne added a touch of class to the long jump event with the spectators marvelling at the distances they jumped.
Daire Casey-Power (St Senan’s) won the 200m, shot-put and long jump, taking plenty of gold back to Kilmacow.
Events like the indoors don’t just happen by themselves. It was good to see all clubs sending officials to assist with the running of the various events. Over 40 officials helped out on the day.
The athletes can now look forward to the Leinster Juvenile Indoors, which will be held at the same venue on March 4 and 5.
National Seniors
The National Senior Indoors were held in Abbotstown at the weekend.
Jordan Knight (St Joseph’s) was unfortunate to miss out on a bronze medal as he finished fourth, just one centimetre short of the bronze. Knight, who recently won the under-23 national long jump, had four no jumps before finally managing a leap of 6.45 to take fourth place.
At this time of year long jump and triple jump athletes often struggle with their starting mark, something Knight is finding problematic at the moment. No doubt, as the season goes on he will rectify this and start moving beyond the 7m mark he achieved last year.
There were two more fourth places for Kilkenny athletes over the weekend. In the women’s 400m Cliodhna Manning (KCH) won her heat after a close call with Bandon’s Lauren McCourt, claiming an automatic spot in the final.
Racing against the in-form Sophie Becker, Manning admitted that her focus was not on the indoors.
“I don’t like racing indoors,” the KCH athlete said, “I prefer the outdoors and am just using the races to get in some racing practice for the outdoor season.”
True to form, the former St Joseph’s athlete Becker won the final, finishing almost a second ahead of Phil Healy with Carrick-on-Suir under-23 athlete Miriam Daly in third place. Manning was half a second behind Daly in fourth place in 54.95. Finishing under 55 seconds was her target time for the race.
The senior men’s race was one of the most exciting races of the weekend. Mid-Ulster’s Nicholas Griggs was in a head-to-head duel with UCD’s Darragh McIlhenny. Both athletes have had considerable national and international success, with both being silver European cross-country individual medallists and European track and field medallists.
McIlhenny, three years the elder, has had an up and down time of it in the past few months. He came into this race to win back that confidence and to face Griggs in a battle for the title. Griggs has already achieved the European Junior standard for the 3,000m and has a sub 7.50 under his belt already in 2023.
The early pace was set by Griggs, who left no stone unturned in his bid for success. McIlhenny chased him. Behind McIlhenny was KCH athlete Eoin Everard along with Griggs training partner Callum Morgan and under-20 star Jack Fenlon.
As the athletes came to the bell McIlhenny found another gear and stormed past Griggs, powering down the final 200m in an astonishing 25 seconds to record a time of 7.49. Finishing six seconds ahead of Griggs it was enough to secure the gold medal.
Behind these two an exciting race was unfolding for third place, where Eoin Everard was being challenged by Callum Morgan.
Better known as a cross-country athlete, Morgan managed to pass Everard and beat him by a meagre three-tenths of a second. Everard recorded a time of 8.16. In the same race Cathal O’Reilly finished in a time of 8.39.
The women’s 3,000m race was another exciting affair. Pre-race favourite Michelle Finn looked all set to take yet another indoor title with 100m to go, but St Abban’s Cheryl Nolan found another gear with 30 metres to go and passed Finn on the line to take the gold in a time of 9.22.32. She had just three-hundredths of a second to spare over the more experienced Finn. KCH runner Hannah Kehoe finished 11th in 10.27.
Shane Power (St Joseph’s) had a mixed day at the pole vault. He easily cleared 4.05 on his first attempt and opted to pass 4.15. He clipped the bar on 4.25 on his first two attempts but was 15 cm above the bar on his final attempt to advance to the next round. At 4.35 - a height he usually navigates with ease - it proved not to be his day. He had three attempts that almost made it, but finished in sixth place.
Barcelona Half
Ger Forde looks fit. The KCH athlete, who is county senior and Leinster novice champion, has come off the back of a brilliant cross-country season. Lean and fit, he has set his sights this year on doing a decent 10,000m later this summer.
For now, the Wexford native will test his ability over a half marathon, having indicated he wanted to go for a 65 half marathon. Forde was right on target in Barcelona last Sunday as he recorded a 65.32 half marathon to finish in 38th place. Forde was the second Irishman home with Conor Duffy (Glaslough Harriers) just one place in front of him. In the final 5km he gained two places with a negative split helping him along the way.