Thursday, July 6, 2023

June 2023

 



On the June bank holiday weekend Kevin and Niamh O’Shea competed in the All-Ireland school’s championships. Both did very well with Kevin finishing 3rd in the junior discus and 6th in the Javelin. Niamh O’Shea finished 6th in the Intermediate girl’s discus. On the bank holiday Monday the Munster championships were held in Templemore in the extreme heat. Michael O Connor won the 5K walk in a very fast 32.43. Sean O Shea won the Discus and Dermot Dineen came 3rd in the 800m in 2.18. Natasha Myers came 4th in the 200 metres and 6th in the long jump.

Castleisland was the venue for the Munster U9-U-13 Munster Championships on the 10th and 11th . The crowds were up on last year with many events having over 60 competitors. We had 4 athletes competing. Most were competing at this level for the first time where they all did the club proud. Hazel Culloty competed in the girls U10 long jump and sprint recording an new personal best in the sprint.

Mollie O Connor did exceptionally well to come second in her heat. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough for a medal in a competition that had 70 competitors. Fionn Hogan was hoping to improve on his 5th place last year. He came 4th adding 2 metres on to his PB from the county championships ending up in 4th just place 70 cm off a medal. He did however qualify for the National Championships in July. Fionn also ran in a very high quality 600m.

Star of the show has to be Roisin Hogan who came 3rd  in the U9 Turbo Javelin out of a very large field. Congratulations to Roisin on this massive achievement from all in the club !

The Munster U 14-U19 championships were also on in Templemore on the 17th and !8th. We had 5 athletes competing. Ryan Vickers was the first athlete in action in the 800M. In a great race he came 2nd finishing 2 seconds inside the exiting Munster record.

Shortly afterwards Kevin O Shea came second the U 15 Javelin with very consistent throwing of just under 40 metres. Afterwards he lined up in the discus and with a big throw in the 3rd round won the competition with a throw of 37 metres. Finally, Ryan Vickers lined up in the 200 metres where he won his heat. Again he came 2nd  in another really quick time of 25 seconds.

On Sunday Niamh O’Shea came 2nd  in the discus missing out on gold by just 15 centimetres. Ryan Vickers ran the 80 metres and for the 3rd time he brought home silver. This time just losing out by just 3/100ths of a second. Roisin Daly won her heat of the 100 metres and came 4th in the final just missing out on a medal. However she still qualifies for the National Championships next month. Conor McCarthy was competing in the 1500 metres. Conditions were tough by he still managed to come close to his seasons best.

The final weekend of the month saw Fionn Hogan representing the club in Templemore at the Munster B championships. Fionn competed in the U 12 Javelin and 600 metres. After coming 4th in the A championships, Fionn hoped to medal this time. In an exceptionally close contest he came 3rd with less than 30 cm covering the top 3 athletes. He also added in a PB in the 600m for good measures finishing in 7th position. Niamh O'Shea competed for Munster in the Tailteann Games in Carlow on the 24th . Niamh added 2 metres on to her personal best where she finished 5th just over 1 metre outside the medals. We also had many athletes competing in Castleisland on the same weekend where many won medals and will now go on to represent Kerry at Munster and All-Ireland level. Over the month we were well represented in the local parkruns.
Ethan and Amelia O Sullivan are regulars in the Tralee junior Parkrun along with Sophie O Brien and Roisin and Fionn Hogan. Tiernan and Jessie Lynch run in the Inch Parkrun, Michael O Connor and the Vickers brothers run the Killarney Parkrun