Munster Juvenile (U9 - U13) Indoor Championship

EVENT DATE - Sat 08/02/14 & Sun 09/02/14
Venue - Nenagh Olympic Indoor Complex
Uploaded by Garrett Moylan, based on Nenagh Guardian notes by PRO Ray Deering
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The Munster U9 to u13 Indoor Championships were held in Nenagh and local athletes enjoyed great success. By Sunday evening, after two long days of competition, our athletes had won a total of thirteen medals. The boys shone over the weekend winning a total of twelve including three provincial titles, while the girls won our remaining medal and it was a gold. If there was a worrying aspect to the weekend, it was the results of our girls but these things go in cycles and we're sure that the girls will put it up to the boys again, as they have done before. The story of the weekend is as follows:

Saturday 08/02/14
This belonged to the boys and many of them put in some fine performances, not only our medal winners but several who finished just outside the podium places. We won nine medals today and that included two golds as Cian Hodgins and Padraic Hassett were crowned Munster Champions.

U 10 Having risen from his sick-bed, Cian Hodgins ran a brilliant race to win the 500m. This race was on time only so you only get one chance at it and Cian took it. Despite not feeling 100%, like several of our athletes on the day, Cian came through the field in his heat and set a time that wasn't beaten by the rest of his competitors to fully deserve his victory and first provincial title. Jack O Callaghan narrowly missed out on a place in the 'A' final of the 60m but more than made up for it by taking bronze in the 'B' final in a very close race.

U 11 Oisin Pepper had a very productive day winning two silver medals in very impressive style. His first medal came in the Long Jump and later he reached the final of the 60m where he faced some very strong opposition but he came through with a great run and was narrowly pipped for the gold. Two fine performances Oisin and well done.

In the same 60m final, Tom McCutheon ran brilliantly to win the bronze medal with a great last 30m which saw him make up several places to claim the bronze spot.

Daniel Fogerty just missed out on the 'A' final with the lads but put in a great run to win bronze in the 'B' final and well done to him.

U 12 Padraic Hassett was the main man in this age-group winning a Munster title and also collecting a bronze medal. Padraic made it to the 60m final where he faced stiff opposition as the first three lads over the line were given the same time but Padraic prevailed because of his dip finish crossing the line. A short time later and Padraic would add a bronze medal to his collection when he jumped 4.03m for third place in the Long Jump and a great days work.

Jamie Kennedy won his first Munster medal when finishing third in the High jump and in doing so showed that he has potential to go higher than the 1.23m he jumped today.

Well done to the U12 lads.
U 13 Ted Collins won silver in what was an action packed 600m race. With the result being decided on times ran in heats, it was important to get out well at the start and this is what Ted did, (after some action at the start that would have gone down well in the Aviva Stadium later that day). Once Ted got out into the clear, he ran very well and was only beaten by one athlete on the day but we know that there'll be more in the tank when he gets to Athlone.

Sunday 09/02/14
The medals didn't flow as freely ons Sunday as they did on Saturday,  but the ones that were won were very well deserved.

Two of our boys u13 had fine performances and three medals to show for them.

Josh Egan began the day by qualifing for the 60m Hurdles final and then received some inspired coaching from our esteemed hurdles coach before the race that paid off as he powered off the final hurdle to claim the bronze medal. Josh would later compete in the Long Jump and in fact lead the event until the final round of jumps where he was pipped for the gold. An interesting fact was that all three medalists beat the previous Munster record for this event during the course of the competition, such was the standard.

Shane McShera Quinn saved his best throws until the end of the Shot Putt event and a putt of 10.80m was good enough to see him claim the Munster title and the gold medal. It is great to see Shane throwing so well and we hope he continues with this form into the Nationals.

Ellen O Shaughnessy was our only girl to win a medal over the weekend and she did so by winning the u11 B 60m final. Ellen narrowly missed out on the A final but put that behind her to claim gold in a race that saw her team-mate Amy O'Mahony finish in 4th place, great runs by both girls.