Aidan Strikes Gold at Nationals!

Day 1 of the National Championships kicked off in Tullamore on Sunday 7^th July. Carraig Na BhFear AC had just one competitor on the opening day but Aidan Maher made it count with a National title in the U19 steeplechase over 3000m. Aidan controlled the race from the start, pushing the pace and hurdling efficiently to stretching out what soon became a group of three. Aidan used his kick on the last lap to open a gap and although he came under pressure at the end he had judged it nicely to take the National title in 10:15:85, congratulations to Aidan!

National leagues qualifying round on Saturday the 6th in Athlone Technical University.

As part of the East Cork Athletics Division teams in the inter county league we had 6 athletes competing. Five on the women’s team & one on the men’s. Ruaidhri Boyle raced the 400 Hurdles, winning his race but subsequently getting disqualified for breaking the horizontal plane of one of the hurdles on the back straight. An overly officious decision that didn’t hamper him dusting himself off and running the third leg of the 4 X 100 relay and finishing in 3^rd place shortly afterwards.

Lucy Lynch did a mini multi-events morning with 2^nd place in the high jump, 7th in shot putt and ran the second leg of the relay also. The other members of the relay team were all Carraig Na BhFear AC with Isobel O’Meara leading off the team and Siofra Boyle and Abigail Geary stepping up to race their first ever senior competition. Caoimhe Gray Walsh was another making her East Cork senior team debut ran the 400 meters coming in 4^th place against some seasoned senior competitors.

Job done from the Carraig crew with now both men’s and women’s team qualified for the final on the 28th of July in Tullamore where the women are defending champions and the men will be hoping to break into the podium for the first time.

We had three athletes travel to Templemore on Saturday 6^th for the Juvenile Munster ‘B’ Championships with outstanding performances from the athletes. Aoibhe Dunlea, running in Heat 2 of the girls U14 80m sprints clocked the fastest time of the day in 10.96 to win the gold medal! Allie Philips finished 4^th in Heat 2 of the Girls U14 800m in a very good time of 2:38:52 and finished 5^th in the U14 High Jump. Travis De Souza had a big PB jump of 4:52m to win the boys U13 Long Jump and placed 5^th in the 80m. Well done to these athletes!

IMRA: Double delight for our IMRA stalwarts (and Newbie) this week with two local races. In Warrenscourt Forest (Kilmurry) on Wednesday 3^rd, Tadhg Crowley had his 2^nd consecutive 3^rd place race finish in 28:32, a nice habit forming! Faye O’Riordan was 2^nd Female in 32:13 with David O’Riordan finishing as 1^st M55 in 35:31. In Curragh Woods on Sunday 7^th, Rian O’ Luasa made an impressive debut, quite at home on the technical course finishing 7^thoverall in a time of 41:55. Faye O’Riordan was 2^nd female home again in 10^th place overall running 44:09 with Dave O’Riordan finishing 1^st in Category again in 49:59. Very well done to all on great results!

BHAA Sterling 5k: A good turnout again from the club amongst the 395 finishers. Great running from Rian O’Luasa (18:24) equalling his recent PB and Peter Hawkins (18:28), just 4 seconds outside his PB, very impressive given that the undulating course and strong wind was much more challenging than their previous race so great progress from these lads! Good running from Conor Kelly in 39^th place (18:49) and Darragh O’Keeffe (19:04), Darragh having just completed a gruelling ascent of mount Kilmanjaro!

Look ahead: Best of luck to Ruaidhri Boyle and Katie Walsh who will compete in the 400m hurdles at the National AAI Games next weekend in Morton Stadium, Dublin.

Featured Image: Carraig ACs Tadhg Crowley, Faye O'Riordan, and David O'Riordan at the IMRA Warrenscourt Forest trail race