It was a roller coaster weekend for our Juvenile athletes, We had it all !! Individual titles for Emma O’Brien, Natasha Rolland, Sarah O’Brien, Sarah Healy, Pappy Tucker and Denis Gilevskiy, photo finishes, cry off’s, injuries, athletes returning to club colours after some time, a bit of controversy and above all…… Official/ Electronic timing in place!!……what was all the fuss about ?
Well done to the Dublin County Board on the use of official/ electronic timing over the weekend. It was great to see the various athletes, coaches and spectators comparing their times in heats and qualification opportunities. Surely this has to become a permanent fixture moving forward. It can only help all involved.
So take a deep breath and hopefully you’ll get a true sense of how exciting and climatic the last three days were as our Season enters the final lap and a well deserved break edging ever closer:
U10/11’s: Not content with a great club performance the previous week, a few of our U10/11’s have the bug!! and were back for more. They were first out of the traps on Friday evening in the 500m races with Daniel Schwer, Luke Mason, Eoin O’Driscoll and Robert O’Brien all running very well against some strong competition. Well done to this group.
U12’s Girls & Boys: It’s still the latest and the greatest athletics fashion accessory…..The Turbo Javelin!! And our success continued over the weekend when Sarah O’Brien (following in her Dad’s footsteps in the throws events) won a hotly contested U12 TJ Competition with her good friend Natasha Rolland finishing in third spot. Doug Walshe (who never leaves home without his TJ) was an equally impressive second place in the boys U12. Lucy Schwer also made the final round of throws. Well done to all….It’s time to campaign for it’s inclusion in Rio!!
Isabel O’Brien ran a great 600m finishing in 3rd place but that only tells half the story after a brave run for most of the race. She followed this up with a fine 5th place finish in the sprints finals. Natasha Rolland took a great Gold medal (her first for the club) in the Shot Putt and Simone Towns and Lucy Schwer ran extremely well on Friday evening to qualify for the 600m final where Sarah O’Brien just missed out. Abby Connaughton also performed well over the weekend. Well done to the girls who are itching to get a crack at the relays in two weeks time.
He can run, jump, play squash better then most of us and likes the camera…or does he?!! Denis had his full array of skills on display over the three days. After a convincing victory in the boys U12 600m, Denis leaped to another impressive win in the LJ (where Doug Walshe also jumped well) before serving up an exciting photo finish in the boys 60m sprint final. Only the camera could separate them and he had to settle for second place! The camera never lies !! What a race!! Well done Denis.
Oliver Coffey produced a great run on Friday evening over the 600m and he was one happy young man whilst the ultra enthusiastic and competitive Tom Cosgrove had fine outings in the Sprints and Field Events. Both Lorcan Martin and Alex Mason gave it their all on Friday evening over the 600m and it was great to see the lads performing at this level.
The U12’s are on a roll !!
U13/14’s: These age groups had it all going on!! In the U13’s Emma O’Brien won another title over 80m and also had a great third place in the Shot Putt and a fourth place in the HJ. Well done to Emma…Is Combined Events on the agenda for next year?
Rachel Walshe in her first official race for the club picked up a Silver medal in the 80m sprints. Welcome to the mayhem Rachel !! Cara Brady also showed up very well making the finals in various events and Maria Coffey continues to improve over the shorter distance with Kate Cowman also showing up very well. The girls are looking good for the relays next week.
Spare a thought for Laura Gallagher….the All Ireland silver medalist over the hurdles breezed through her first heat in some style before crashing down at the first hurdle in the semis. To her credit she managed to somehow get up and carry on only to be placed fifth and out of the final. Chin up Laura and well done on a very brave effort after the fall and a speedy recovery from the injuries sustained.
In the girls U14 Aoibh Brady had a busy schedule across lots of events and did well in them all whilst last year’s middle distance winner Ellen Cheung was back running with the club in her first individual event for nearly 12 months. Ellen qualified with ease in one of the fastest times on Friday evening but the illness that she had been struggling with in the lead up to the weekend put paid to her running in the final. Rotten luck for Ellen but great to have her back in the club colours.
Meanwhile a fantastic run by Pappy Tucker on Friday evening gave him another individual title over 800m. Pappy’s form of late has been sensational and the turn of pace with 300m to go was electric. Well done Pappy on a fine win and and his time 2 min 17 secs showed how quickly he wanted to get to Irish College on Sunday!! Evan Walshe continues to put in consistent performances over the hurdles with a fine 4th place in the final and both lads will finally compete together again in the relays in a few weeks. It’s been too long gents!!
U15/16’s (To all of our U15/16’s at Irish College, I hope this article reads well as Gaeilge!!):
Welcome back Sarah Healy…..Sarah has spent the last six months blazing a trail in the Junior Schools competitions with a string of National and Provincial titles and representing Ireland. We finally got to see her in the Blackrock vest over the weekend and of course she didn’t disappoint with two very classy performances in the 800m to take yet another Dublin title. Well done Sarah. Lara Gilespie also performed very well in this race and was unlucky not to finish in the top 3 in what was a typical championship race with a sprint finish deciding the minor places. Well done Lara..
In the boys U15/16’s, Jack Moraghan, Oisin Kelly, Ruairi Moore and Will Hickey had some of Ireland’s top athletes for good company and acquitted themselves very well with further good performances on Saturday and earlier today.
And last but not least AmyRose Farrell was also back in the club colours after a hugely successful schools campaign which also included international honours. AmyRose was a very close second place in the U15 800m on Friday evening with a quick time of 2.23 along the way. Well done AmyRose….she is improving with every race.
All of those athletes who finished in the Top 3 in the U12 ‘s and older will now have the opportunity to go on and represent the club in Tuallmore in July. Congrats to all
(if we are missing any info from the above please send it on to us)
