April 2023

 

The final session of the All Ireland indoor championships took place in Athlone on the 1^st and 2^nd April. Ryan Vickers was the club’s sole representative in the 60 metres and 800 metres u-14. After finishing 2^nd in both events in the Munster championships, there was a very good chance of him competing for medals. In the 60 metres he qualified for the final comfortably but a bad start in the final left too much ground to catch up and had to settle for 5^th place in a very fast final.

The following day he also qualified for the final of the 800 metres. In an exceptionally fast race he let the eventual winner build up too much of a lead going into the final lap. He closed the gap all the way to the line but fell short by just under a metre to finish in 2^nd. He had the consolation of beating the existing record by more than 2 seconds with a time of 2 minutes 9 seconds. With the outdoor season around the corner he will surely edge closer to the magical 2-minute mark.

At the end of the month it was time to honour the county’s outstanding athletes at the County Award ceremony in Listowel. 3 club athletes received awards. Niamh O’Shea our first winner won county, Munster and All-Ireland medals in the Shot Put and Discus. Ryan Vickers had an outstanding season winning All-Ireland medals in sprints, middle distance, cross country and relay. His double in winning the All-Ireland championships in the U-13 80m and 600m was an outstanding achievement. David Kenny was our final winners. David already an Olympian, represented Ireland in both European and World Championships.

Juvenile training returned in the middle of the month for the outdoor season in Firies NS. As usual a lot of our members made use of the local park runs, with Fionn Hogan setting a notable PB in the 2K event.