Clonmel athletes shine at national juvenile championships

Clonmel athletes were in top form at the All Ireland juvenile championships at the weekend.

Grainne O'Connor was competing in the girls under 15 2000-meter walk and was in flying form coming into these championships with great expectations.

She had won silver in the Munster Juvenile Championships in a time of 12 mins 8 secs and was keen to improve on this performance.

She settled well from the off, positioning herself on the shoulder of the Munster Champion Maeve O’Connor from Waterford. As the pace picked up Grainne held her composure and her position finishing in a personal best performance of 11 mins 43 secs earning her the Bronze medal in a race she will take a lot from.

Grainne has matured into a fine athlete and is one to watch out for the future.

Sam O’Sullivan was the next of the Clonmel athletes in action on day 2. Sam was walking in the Under 14, 2000 meter walk. Sam like Grainne positioned himself well walking on the shoulder of the National Indoor champion Andrew Glennon with Aaron Mcloughlin from Moyne keeping both of them company.

He was maintaining good progress when he fell foul to some rather harsh judging resulting in his disqualification. Sam like Grainne is an athlete at the top of his game and will definitely be back to fight another day. It will be some consolation to Sam that his Munster winning time of 11 mins 22 secs would have got him gold on Sunday last as the event was won in 11 mins 31 secs.

We also had a very good performance from Connor O’Gorman. In the Boys under 13 600m he qualified for the final and here he ran very well when finishing 9th in 1 min 43.57 secs.

In the Girls under18 800m final Caitlin Napier competing in her first All-Ireland Championship put in a great performance when finishing a close 9th in 2 mins 30.89 secs. In the boys Under 19 800m Colin McCarthy ran very well when finishing in 2 mins 8.63 secs.

The All Ireland B Track and Field Championships took place recently. Here Killian Whelan put in a great performance in the Boys under 14 Long Jump when finishing 4th in the Long Jump. Earlier in the day he qualified for the final of the 60m where he ran very well when finishing 8th.