All Ireland Indoor Juvenile Championships - Relays

EVENT DATE - Sat 29/03/14
Venue - Athlone IT
Uploaded by Garrett Moylan, with thanks to PRO Ray Deering
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Nenagh Olympic athletes brought home two sets of gold medals from this years A.A.I. Juvenile Indoor Championships Relay, 2 gold, 0 silver and 0 bronze.

The Summary :
Boys u13 4x100m : Aaron Walsh, Ted Collins, Aaron Morgan and Josh Egan - Gold
Girls u15 4x200m : Sadbh O'Mahony, Aoife Dunne, Ellen Lane(H)/Olivia Moylan(F), Alannah Deering, Lauren Moylan - Gold

The curtain came down on the Indoor season when Athlone I.T. hosted the Relay Championships and it was a day where we had two teams crowned All Ireland Champions and a number of decent runs by our other teams.

In the space of five minutes during the morning session, our boys u13 and girls u15 teams stormed to victory in their finals. These were brilliant performances by our athletes against the best competition in the country and the club is extremely proud of their achievements.

The relay day always provides great excitement, thrills, spills and disappointments and today was no different with drama all the way through to the end of what was a great day of athletics.

Boys u13 4x100m : Aaron Walsh, Ted Collins, Aaron Morgan and Josh Egan -
These were first in action and they set the tone for the day with a comfortable qualification in the heat. In the final the lads once again produced the goods with a super display of relay running. Aaron Walsh had another great start and he handed over to Ted who stormed up the home straight holding a good position before passing the baton to Aaron Morgan who flew around the bend and avoided the melee at the final changeover, then handing over to Josh. On the final leg, there are a few athletes that you would want and Josh is one of them and once he got a sniff of the lead he powered up the inside and was first cross the line in a time of 54.89, to the delight of the Nenagh support. Well done to the lads on this win and it gives great encouragement to all to see them imporving on their bronze in last years relays.

Girls u15 4x200m : Sadbh O Mahony, Aoife Dunne, Ellen Lane(Heat)-Olivia Moylan(Final), Alannah Deering -
As the boys were winning their race the girls u15 were on the infield awaiting their final and they must’ve been inspired by what they had seen as they too claimed the gold medal in the 4x200m race to add to their impressive relay haul. The ladies had safely come through the heats with fine runs and were well aware that going into the fina, very little separated themselves and several other teams. Sadbh lead the team and once again produced a super run showing great power at the end to hold off her nearest opponent before passing the baton to Aoife who did brilliantly against some strong runners to set the team up for victory with a super leg. Olivia Moylan came in for Ellen on the 3rd leg and showed her great experience when making room for herself on the bend before powering down the back straight and handing over to Alannah in the lead and it was a lead she retained for her team, as Alannah stormed around and in the end the margin of victory was very impressive, with a winning time of 1.49.72. This group of girls have always produced the goods when needed, also it was great to see their teammate, Lauren Moylan join them on the podium as she continues to recover from injury - we wish her well.

The morning session was not without its disappointments though and because of an injury and a withdrawal, two of our teams didn’t progress from their heats. Our girls u17 team which was to consist of Amy White, Leah Farnan, Emma Hennessy and Ciardha Maher had to be withdrawn just before their heat due to a set of unfortunate circumstances. Our boys u19 team of Michael Quilligan, Liam Finn, Micheal Hogan and Daniel Keating were going well in their heat when Daniel suffered a leg injury coming into the final bend causing him to lose momentum and unfortunately they missed out on a fastest loser spot in the final. We wish Daniel a speedy recovery.

We had only one team in the afternoon session, our girls u18, and after a good showing in the heat by Amy White, Ciara Cummins, Leah Farnan and Aoife Deering the team progressed to the final. Ciardha Maher came in for Leah but the opposition proved too strong for the girls and they finished in 6th place but as a consolation their times were faster than what they had ran in the Munsters.

As we have reached the end of the Indoor season, a season which was very successful for the club and our athletes, we would like to thank everybody helped in any way to make it the success it was.

Photos to follow...