St Senan’s juniors were in top form at the Leinster Junior T&F championships in Tullamore last weekend, taking a haul of 12 medals including four gold. On Saturday our walkers showed that they are a force to be reckoned with as Fiona Dennehy won gold in the U/17 3000m, twins Aoife and Orla Butler won silver and bronze in the U/15 2000m, while Gemma Aylward won silver in the 2000m event. The twins also ran well in the 800m but finished outside the medals. Talented thrower Leanne Ivory was an impressive winner of the U/17 shot and also took bronze in the discus. Rosanne Kennedy showed good strength and an impressive freestyle as she won the U/18 steeplechase. She also placed 5th in the 800m and was part of the silver medal winning intercounty relay team. Other girls who performed well on the day included Ciara kennedy and Karen Costelloe in the U/15 discus, Bronagh Kearns in the U/15 high jump and Sarah Dollard who was 4th in the U/18 1500m. In the boys events last years All Ireland winner Tom Whelan showed that he is back in good form winning the U/14 shot putt. Conor Rochford continues to impress in the middle-distance events, taking silver in the U/17 3000m and bronze in the 1500m. Well done to all our juveniles on a great performance and they can now look forward to a trip to Antrim for the finals.

Windy Windfall

Adele Walsh and sister along with husbands Dave and Brian were among the starters in the ABC Jim Gibbons Memorial 5K in Chicago last weekend where Adele finished an impressive 4th place in the ladies section. They took in the race as part of their West Coast Cooler holiday, which took in San Francisco, Vegas and the windy city. Looks like our treasurer has the Midas touch as she broke the bank in Vegas with a big windfall on the slots. The devil takes care of his own as my mother used to say – the club cut is still 20%!! Welcome back to the lucky quartet.

Cait in Clashmore

Cait Caulfield was in fine form at the Clashmore 5 last weekend finished runner-up in the O/35 section behind Diane Behan of West Waterford in a time of 33.20. Also racing was the David Flynn sponsored PJ Dwyer who cut up the course in a time of 30.09 placing him 2nd in the O/50 section behind Lar Leacy of St Josephs. Andy Dollard was our final representative having a good run in 32.25. Winner was Sandis Bralitis of West Waterford with Corrina Walsh of the same club taking the ladies win. Next up is the Drmana 5 in Cappoquin on 27th June.

Junior High

At the junior international in Mannheim, Germany Niamh Whelan of Ferrbank AC set a new PB when winning the 200m in an impressive 23.91. Team mate Jessie Barr made no mistake in the 400m hurdles to win from clubmate Kalyn Sheehan and both their times qualifies them for the World Junior Championships. Ciara Everard of KCH also smashed her PB in the 800m with a time of 2:06.49 taking 4th place in a close finish.

Eileen Hammers ‘Em

Kilkenny hammer thrower Eileen O’Keefe continued her good form of late winning the event by a distance at the European Cup in Talinn last weekend with a best of 69.59m.

Also in action was Joanne Cuddihy who was part of the winning Irish 4 x 400m relay team, while Aoife Hickey of KCH gained some valuable international experience in the shot putt. Eileen has been attracting a lot of media attention in her build up to the Beijing Olympics in August and was featured in one of last Sundays main newspapers. She could well be one of Ireland’s best hopes of making a final, which would be an outstanding achievement for the popular Callan girl.

Kieran Fires ‘Em Up

Local playwright Kieran Stewart who recently took up residence in Listrolin set the audience on fire with his new play ‘End of Pirate Radio’ in Garter Lane last Saturday.

It seems a little birdie flew into the fuse box and shorted out the mains setting of the alarm and bringing the fire brigade rushing to the scene half-way through Act 2. The play is the third which has been produced recently for Kieran who along with son Darragh was among the finishers in the Little South Run recently.

Fun Run

Running is a great sport for young people, it builds healthy limbs, strong lungs and teaches team work and dedication. But better still its great fun and no matter what level you are at you can compete and be part of your local club. St Senans is always on the look out for new members and all budding athletes are welcome to come along and be part of the club. Training takes place on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.00pm in the Sports Complex in Kilmacow. Our recent school sports was a huge success and produced some fine performances on the night so there’s lots of new talent out there. Speaking of which well done to young Jordan Hearne who won his first medal when he romped away with his first race in St Declan’s school sports – apparently Jordan was well out in front as you’d expect!!

Fixtures May – June

27th June Dromana 5, Cappoquin

28th June Tailteann Games, Santry 11.30am

28th June Leinster Juvenile Team Event, Greystones

29th June AAI Junior & U/23, Tullamore

Quoteworthy

‘Running is like wrestling a rhinoceros – you don’t quit when you’re tired you quit when the rhino is tired’ – from the book Molum Memories by Maggie Lacey