Report by Richard Hawkins and Willie Walsh.
Day 2 of the Cork County Juvenile Track and Field Championships was another successful outing for Carraig Na BhFear AC as our young squads are gaining race experience. Aoibhe Dunlea came through the heats and semi-finals of the U15 girls 100m but crucially kept her best performance of the day for the final where she clocked 13.45s to claim the silver medal, congratulations Aoibhe! Emma Johnson (5:29.2) and Allie Phillips (5:29.7) finished 3rd and 4th respectively in Heat 1 of the U15 girls 1500m which was run on times. Hannah Coffey ran in heat 2 in a time of 5.36.8. Laura Moore is having a great start to the track season and won silver in the girls U19 1500m in a time of 5.18.8. Daniel Hogan was a clear winner in the boys U15 long jump with an impressive, best effort of 5.35m. Daniel followed that up with a silver medal in the U15 boys 100m in a fast time of 12.84s. Hannah Coffey placed 5th in the girls U15 high Jump with a clearance of 1.30m. Travis De Souza won bronze in the under 14 high Jump clearing 1.3m. Travis also qualified for the final of the U15 boys 80m, finishing in 7th place in 11.58s. Showing her versatility, Hannah Coffey placed 3rd in the girls U15 Javelin with a throw of 15.84m. Siofra Nott progressed to the semi-finals of the girls U12 60m running 9.65s in a very competitive event. Dylan McCarthy claimed another gold medal winning the boys 400m hurdles in 1:11.5. Mary-Kate Dawson won silver in a tight final of the girls U15 250m hurdles in 41s.
The South Munster Schools Track and Field Championships Day 1 was held in MTU on Thursday May 1st in very hot conditions for the athletes, well done to all the athletes who competed. Hannah Coffey (St.Angelas) had an impressive brace of medals, firstly winning bronze in the minor girls high jump (1.30m) before moving up to the Junior grade to win the girls pole vault competition on Friday, well done Hannah! Coaimhe Gray-Walsh (Loreto Fermoy) continued to impress in the 400m, on this occasion winning bronze in the Senior girls race in 63.57. It was a clean sweep for our racewalkers, Aoife Martin (Colaiste An Chroi Naofa), Robyn Maher (Loreto Fermoy) and Anna Mullins (St.Angelas) filling the podium places in the Intermediate girls race. Ruairi Boyle (Colaiste an Phiarsaigh) completed an impressive double win in the senior boys 400m (53.91) and 400m hurdles (59.00). Fine running also from Faye O’Riordan (St.Angelas) competing in her first Steeplechase event finishing 4th in 5.38 and Peter Hawkins (Bruce college) with a pb time of 10.00 to finish 5th in the Senior boys 3000m. Three Carraig girls were on the Colaiste an Chroi Naofa minor girls 4 X 100 relay team that took a terrific bronze medal. Amelia O’Donovan, Aoibhe Dunlea and Rebecca McCarthy will now advance to the Munster final with ambitions to get to nationals. The three girls also raced the 100 meters with Aoibhe making the final and narrowly missed a medal finishing fourth in the final. Three other girls represented their respective schools on relay teams in the ultra-competitive competitions. Hannah Coffey stepped up to junior with her St Angela’s team, Allie Philips raced on the St Angela’s minor team and Emma Johnson on her Scoil Mhuire minor team. All were competitive but didn’t feature amongst the medals with 30 minor and 23 junior teams competing for the six medals. Lily O’Keeffe , also Colaiste an Chroi Naofa, doubled up in the junior sprints running 100 & 200 meters getting to the semifinal of the 100 and narrowly missing the final of the 200. Belle Quinlan also raced the minor girls 100 for Colaiste na Pairsaigh getting into the semifinals and narrowly missed the final.
Other News: Jamie Buckley had an excellent marathon debut in the Regeneron Great Limerick run with a finishing time of 3:13:20, well done Jamie! Siobhan Walsh had another good performance in the 10k race in a time of 45:32. On Bank Holiday Monday Rachel O’Callaghan finished 28th overall in the Burnfort 5 mile running 41.22. Among the 530 runners in the BHAA Stryker 4-mile race were Siobhan Walsh (28.59), Lauryn Murphy (34:42), Megan Murphy (37:09) and Daisy Horan. Orla Coffey was first female home in the Glen River parkrun on Saturday in a course pb of 24:03. Well done to everyone on some great running!
Look Ahead: Day 3 of the Cork County Juvenile Championships will be held in MTU on Sunday 11th May, preceded by Day 2 of the South Munster Schools Track and Field Championships on Thursday 9th May. Also, Carraig Na BhFear GAA will hold their annual 5k Road race starting in the village at 19.30hrs on Wednesday 7th May.