Greystones Athletic Club
National Indoor Competition
Well done to all of the athletes who took part in the All-Ireland Indoors in Nenagh this year. Most of the athletes were competing during the first weekend of the event. In the girls U18, Katie Phelan was 5th in her heat of the 60m sprint and Kellie Ryder was 5th in the Shot Putt and 6th in the Long Jump. U15, Sean Ryder was 4th in the Shot with Ferdia Kenny coming 5th in the same competition. Ferdia was also 5th in the 60m and 7th in the Long Jump. Laura Boylan just missed out on her Hurdle final, coming 4th in her heat. Special congratulations go to Siofra Clerigh Buttner who ran an extremely mature and tactical race to come in 2nd in the 600m. She was also 5th in her 60m final.
Three of the athletes were in Nenagh for the second weekend. Ellie Hartnett finished 5th in her heat of the 800m, in a time of 2 minutes & 33.4 seconds. In the 1000m walk Niamh Kearney was 8th overall in a time of 6 minutes 13 seconds. Katie Phelan was 3rd in her heat of the 200m in 29.32 seconds. We would like to congratulate all our athletes on another successful indoor season.
County Road Race
Well done to all of the athletes who competed in the County Road Race on 5th April. We had a poor turnout for the Childrens Fun Race, but the athletes who attended all ran extremely well. Siofra Clerigh-Buttner finished 6th, Cathal McGee was 9th, Amy Howard was 11th. Finishing places were not taken for the rest of the athletes so the rest of the athletes in alphabetical order are: Cormac Brennan, Claire Connor, Orla Connor, Scott Howard, Isabel Kenny, Naomi Kenny, Isobel O'Grady and Aoife O'Regan.
In the 5k race several athletes ran as guests as they are too young for the Junior competition. Ferdia Kenny was 21st overall with a time of 20.05. Ellie Hartnett (30th overall, 20.40) and Niamh Kearney (32nd overall, 20.46) both ran excellent races. If they had been old enough to qualify they would have been 2nd and 4th respectively in the Junior Women competition. All of the other athletes ran extremely well finishing in the following order – Sophie Gummerson (53rd, 23.26), Aisling McGee (57th, 24.14), Laura Boylan (58th, 24.20), Claire Hill (59th, 24.21), Ciara Stuart (72nd, 29.39) and Katie Phelan (73rd, 29.39).
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Leinster Indoors
21 exhausted souls arrived back in Greystones on Sunday night after a hectic weekend in Nenagh. We had one of our best indoor championships ever with top class performances from our athletes and we returned with a good selection of medals. In the girls U12, Siofra Cleirigh Buttner had a terrific race in the 800m winning her heat comfortably and going on to take the silver medal in the final. She also finished 4th in her sprint final. Shona Flynn, competing for the first time at Shot Putt, had a great competition and won the bronze medal.
Leah Doyle finished 5th in the girls U14 hurdles and Laura Boylan won the gold medal in the U15 hurdles with Aisling McGee finishing a close 4th. Laura also won the bronze in the high jump and Ellie Hartnett put her heart and soul into the 800m to take a well deserved bronze. Ellie finished 5th in her sprint final and jumped a new PB in the long jump. Niamh Kearney and Isabel Malley were attempting the 1000m Walk for the first time. Niamh put a tremendous effort in to come away with the bronze with Isabel finishing in 5th place.
The girls U15 relay team of Ellie, Niamh, Isabel and Aisling won their heat and after a great start in the final, looked in with a chance to take medals when Ellie was sent crashing to the ground towards the end of the first leg. Despite being cut to ribbons, she got to her feet and continued and the other three girls gave everything they had and pulled back a lot of ground. We can only commend them for their commitment and determination.
In the U15 boys Ferdia Kenny had a great weekend coming home with three silver medals in the sprint, long jump and shot putt with Seán Ryder bringing the bronze in the shot putt.
In the girls U17 Ciara Stuart finished 7th in her sprint final. U18 Kellie Ryder set a new PB in both the shot putt and the long jump earning herself two silver medals and Katie Phelan took the silver in the sprint.
There were some fine performances from Sophie Gummerson, Claire Hill, Amy Howard, Kate Brooks, Ciara Croke and Aisling Delaney, who were all taking part for the first time.
We hope all the athletes will keep up the hard work and commitment and we wish them all the best in the National championships.
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January Notes
Well done to all who competed over the last few weeks. The indoors in Nenagh saw some fine competition and congratulations go to Katie Phelan who got a bronze medal in the U18, 200m. She also got a silver on the Junior relay team and finished 4th in the Junior 60m. Kellie Ryder finished 4th in the Junior shot putt. Junior level means that the girls are competing against athletes up to Under 20 and using heavier weights, so well done to both girls.
Next day we were off to Athlone for the All Ireland “B” Cross Country and the Inter County Relays. Amy Howard had a great run in the U11 where she finished 40th. After a poor start in the boys U11, Cathal McGee ran a great race to finish 60th with Conor Randles a little further down the field in 96th. Megan Randles and Leah Doyle had a good run in the girls U13 finishing 87th and 94th and Michael Lockhart was 83rd in the boys race. The highlight of the day for us was the girls U15. Once again the girls were all running out of their age group and with Ellie Hartnett and Niamh Kearney ineligible and Laura Boylan sick we had a very depleted team. The girls as always rose to the occasion and put in a terrific performance. Aisling McGee had a terrific run to finish in 10th place and win herself an individual medal. She was backed up by Isabel Malley in 30th, Sophie Gummerson in 62nd and Claire Hill in 69th to give the girls 4th club team and help the county to 5th place. Sean Ryder, also running out of age, finished 55th in the boys U15 helping the county team to 5th here also. Kellie Ryder, after a busy day at the indoors the day before, had a great run in the girls U17 to finish 37th.
In the relays, Siofra Cleirigh-Buttner ran a great leg in the Girls Under 12, gaining ground all the way. In the U14 Ellie Hartnett and Niamh Kearney both had a great run and Wicklow finished just out of the medals in 4th place.
On Friday 27th January several of our athletes took part in the East Leinster Schools CC and did very well. In the minor girls Niamh Kearney was 4th and Aisling McGee 15th with their team taking silver. In the junior girls Ellie Hartnett was 5th and Isabel Malley was 13th with their team also taking silver and Claire Hill was 23rd. Michael Lockhart had a great run in the minor boys to finish in 13th place and his team took gold.
On Sunday the 29th January we were in ALSAA for the CC relays and we had only three teams competing. The U12 team of Siofra Cleirgh-Buttner, Amy Howard, Kate Brooks and Erin Horan ran a great race and, as they were all out of age, we hope they'll be back to take medals in this event next year. We had two teams in the girls U14 and our first team of Ellie Hartnett, Aisling McGee, Sophie Gummerson and Isabel Malley took silver medals with our friends and rivals from Inbhear Dee just beating them to the line. Most of our second team were moving up an age and they put in a very creditable performance to finish 10th. Well done to all of these athletes.
The Leinster Schools Cross Country took place on the 8th February in DCU. In the Minor Girls Niamh Kearney was 10th and Aisling McGee was 28th. In the Junior Girls Ellie Hartnett was 13th and Isabel Malley, who unfortunately was unwell, persevered to finish in 68th.