A group of 39 athletes, coaches
and parents travelled to Birmingham last weekend for the
Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) under 15/17 Track & Field
Championships. These Championships have always been extremely competitive
with no guarantee of medals for the athletes, no matter how successful
they have been at home. Indeed, despite being the most
successful juvenile athletic club in Ireland for the past 3 years, it has
not been unusual for the club to return home empty handed. It
must be recognised however, that the Irish Championships took place
over a month ago and the clubs athletes have been trying to hold
form for these games, the last competition of the track season for
most of them.
Dayle Kennedy got the club off to a
great start on Saturday by finishing second in the discus, with
the winner throwing a championship best. Dayle's throw of 45 meters was
very encouraging for him and he has shown good improvement of
late.
Meanwhile, three of the girls, Mairead Murphy, Kalyn
Sheehan and Jessie Barr, all came through an opening round and semi
final to make the final of the 300 meter hurdles to be held on the
Sunday. No other club had three athletes in any final all
weekend.
Ciara Cronin eased through an opening heat and semi
final with Beth Walsh making the semi of the 800 meters. Again, the
final was on the Sunday.
Niamh Whelan, running against girls 2 years older than
her, as she is a week over age for the under 15 category, ran bravely
in the 100 meters to come through the opening round and into the
semi final. This was unexpected and although she
progressed no further, she can make the final next year if she
continues to improve.
Mairead Deevy ran well in the 300 meters to make the
semi final and just missed out on a final place. John Francis and
Niamh Ryan both made the 1500 meter final on Sunday with Niamh
particularly impressive.
Sunday began with the sprint
hurdles. Gavin Kennedy and Alan Corcoran both made finals with Gavin in the shake
up for a medal but the photo finish eventually showed him
in 5th place. Mairead Murphy won her heat but Kalyn Sheehan wasn't
so lucky. While leading, she hit the 6th hurdle, landed badly, and finished just
outside the qualifying. Mairead Murphy, despite an extremely slow
start which saw her in sixth place after three hurdles, pulled her
way back into the race and came through strongly to finish 2nd in a
new personal best time.
Jessie Barr was in third place in the high
jump when beaten by the girl in 4th on her last attempt at
1.71m.
The latter part of Sunday saw finals of the 300 meter
hudles where the Ferrybank trio finished out of the medals with
Mairead Murphy the best placed in 4th, missing out on a second medal
by 1/100th of a second.
John Francis and Niamh Ryan ran well in the 1500
meters but found the pace too much in the end.
Highlight of the weekend was Ciara Cronin who stormed
to a 50 meter winning margin when she destroyed a shocked field with
two bursts of pace, first after 250 meters and then again 250 meters
from the finish line. It was the biggest winning margin of any event
all weekend and her win was warmly appreciated by the large
attendance.
More photos at www.ferrybankathleticclub.com
Photos