Athletics 2012-13

TRACK AND FIELD

All-Ireland Finals June

A fair bunch of eager and talented athletes made their way to Tullamore in June for the All-Ireland finals, and once more we were extremely proud of their achievements on the day. Pride of place went to third year student Samuel Samson, who, despite a poor start, ran very strongly in the closing stages of the race to secure a bronze medal in the Inter 400m Hurdles. Sam is underage for this event again next year so hopefully this experience will stand to him in the coming year. Peter Francis jumped very steadily to take 6th place in the Triple Jump, while another excellent performance came from Andreas Binder in the Inter Javelin, where he eventually finished seventh, and Connacht Champion Seán O’Reilly who finished 6th in the Junior javelin. Isaac Francis jumped well to finish in the top ten in the intermediate long jump, while Gabriel Garwe gave a sterling performance in the Inter Discus. Both the Junior and the Senior Relay teams competed well on the day but unfortunately finished outside the medals.

Sam and Isaac both competed for Connacht in the Inter-Provincial Tailteann Games at the end of July, with Sam showing that his earlier success was not just a flash in the pan when he secured the bronze medal once again.

Sams Race Video Link (2min 50sec in!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connacht Finals, Athlone, May

Congratulations to all the St. Mary’s athletes who once again pulled out all the stops to emerge as the best team in Connacht athletics for the seventh year running. We felt that this year our backs were really up against the wall as the standard of athletics across the province has been steadily improving, and more and more schools are entering. However, as usual the question ‘how many points have we got?’ was on everyone’s lips, and as the day progressed we saw that things were gradually beginning to go our way.

In the end we emerged victorious in the Junior and the Senior shield competitions, and lost out narrowly by one point in the Inter competition.

There were some great performances on the day, chief amongst them the winners, and new Connacht Champions:

Samuel Samson 400m Hurdles, in a new Championship Best Performance, Gabriel Garwe, Inter Discus, Sean O’Reilly Junior Javelin, Peter Francis, Junior Triple Jump, the senior 4x100m relay team of Dylan Duffy, Gabriel Garwe, Kevin Cunningham and Moise Assogba, and last but not least, winning his first senior title Alan Murtagh in the Hammer.

there were a number of other medal winning performances on the day from Tomas Griffin (2nd Inter 2000m Walk), Padraic Creaven (2nd U-16 Mile), Tomas Donovan (3rd Senior 2000m S/C), Andre Ferreira (3rd Junior 80m Hurdles), Samuel Samson (2nd Inter 400m), Bradley Mugova (3rd Senior 110m Hurdles), Evan O’Ceallaigh (2nd Senior 400m Hurdles, 2nd 800m), Ronan Higgins (3rd Inter triple Jump), Dylan Tierney (2nd Junior Hammer and Discus), Andreas Binder (2nd Inter Javelin), james McMahon (3rd Inter Javelin) , Isaac Francis (3rd Inter Long Jump), Henrique Nkolovata (2nd Senior Triple Jump), Dillon Browne (2nd Senior Walk, 3rd Senior Hammer), Shane Traynor, Peter Francis, Kelechi Asonye, Bryan Ndego (2nd Junior 4x100m Relay)

Well done all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CROSS-COUNTRY

All-Ireland CC Belfast, March 9th 2013

Well done to all the lads who made the long (long!) journey up to the University of Ulster north of Belfast for the All-Ireland Cross-Country on Saturday March 9th. Although we had no success in terms of medals it was a great day’s racing, and a lot of valuable experience was gained. Best on the day were Ryan Traynor in the Minor race and Rory Owens in the Junior. Padraig Creaven was looking well and in line for a good race when he unfortunately lost a spike less than half way through. Consequently, it was a battle to retain his footing in the treacherously muddy conditions (see the photos), and all hopes of a place on this year’s international team faded rapidly.

The return home from Belfast was momentous for Gabriel Garwe’s (Snoop Horsey Horse (GG!?)) excellent rapping and the queue to buy mammy’s day cards and presents on the stop home (aaaw!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connacht Championships, Calry , Sligo, February 20th 2013

Congratulations to each of the St. Mary’s teams that participated in the Connacht finals in Sligo on Wednesday 20^th. All-in-all it was another very successful for the

 

College’s athletes as we once again emerged as the best overall school in Connacht by virtue of winning team medals in each of our four races, along with an individual gold and silver for third year student’s Rory Owens and Padraic Creaven.

St. Mary’s results:

Minor (U-14)

3^rd team (in order of finishing, Ryan Traynor, Gabriel Dossen, Jamie O’Neill, Dion Walsh, Lee Nolan-Keogh, Ruari O’Connor,  Daniel Healy, , Darragh Daly)

Junior (U-15)

Individual winner Rory Owens.

2^nd Team (Rory Owens, Eoghan Kelly, Diarmuid Mulkerrins, Tommy Molloy, Matthew Flaherty- O’Connor, Charlton Conroy, Landau Ndombasi, Aaron Hrehorow)

Inter (U-17)

Second place individual Padraic Creaven

2^nd team  (Padraic Creaven, Sean Kelly, Gabriel Garwe,Samuel Samson, Darragh Mulkerrins, Kamil Szymaszek, Jason Costello, Isaac Francis)

Senior (U-19)

3^rd team (Evan O’Ceallaigh, Nathaniel Lydon, Matus Filo, Dale Creaven, Eamon Buckley, Tomas Donovan, Dillon Brown)

South Connacht Championships, Loughrea, January 2013

St. Mary’s achieved their primary aim of qualifying a team in each of the age groups at the recent South Connacht CC championships. First into action were the Minor (U-14) team, this year under the stewardship of Ms. Maura Geoghegan. They showed considerable promise when from a field of 16 teams and over 120 competitors they ran excellently to secure the team title. We had 29 minors competing and each of them did their level best in what were very tough conditions, the ground remaining practically frozen throughout the entire day!

The lads who comprised the winning team, and the top ten Mary’s finishers were Ruari O’Connor, Gabriel Dossen, Lee Nolan-Keogh, Ryan Traynor, Darragh Daly, Jamie O’Neill, Daniel Healy, Francely Lomboto and Matthew Griffin.

The Junior (U-15) team faced some stern opposition from Oranmore but they put in a great day’s work to finish in second and fourth place in the team event, thus qualifying 16 athletes for the Connacht finals. Rory Owens, despite suffering badly from a virus, ran very well to finish in 6th place , closely followed by Shane Traynor one place behind. Matthew Flaherty O’ Connor and Eoghan Kelly provided the able backing to ensure that we took the silver medal position.

The Intermediate (U-17) race saw a welcome return to form from Junior Champion Padraic Creaven as he ran a commanding race to win comfortably. He was well supported by Sam Samson, Kamil Szymaszek, Emmanuel Aina, Jason Costello, Tomas Griffin, Paul Wynne, Isaac Francis and Tooey Bamroongklang to finish in second place.

Our Seniors faced a gruelling 5000m over treacherous conditions but were not found wanting. Nathanial Lydon led his team home to the gold medals, ably supported by Matus Filo, Shane Walsh, Michael Naughton, Nathan King, Dillon Browne and Moise Assogba.

Each of these teams now go on to compete at the Connacht finals in Sligo on February 20th.

St. Mary’s College Invitational Cross-Country 2012

Congratulations to the very large cohort of runners from the College who participated in this year’s race. Every single athlete was a credit to the college in the manner in which you conducted yourself, and in the way you all completed your race regardless of how far back you may have been. For some it was a tough hard race but everyone can be proud of their performance. Well done all.

Although the going was tough we did have a fair measure of success, winning the Junior (U-15) and Senior (U-19) team events. We also won two individual medals by virtue of a brilliant run from Rory Owens, who took second in the Junior race, and Padraig Creaven, stepping up in age to win the Senior race. We also finished in second place in the other two races behind very strong Oranmore teams. Full result, and photos, can be found by clicking below.

Full Results:

Minor (U-14)

1. Matthew Barrett (Oranmore)
2. Oisin Doyle (Oranmore)
3. James Cahalane (Oranmore)

Teams:

1. Calasanctious Oranmore (10 pts)  2.St. Mary’s (47 pts) 3.Bish (57 pts)

Junior (U-15)

1. David Browne (Mercy Woodford)
2. Rory Owens (St. Mary’s)
3. Jack Clarke (St. Enda’s)

Teams

1. St. Mary’s ( 22 pts) 2.Bish (33 pts) 3.St. Enda’s (39 pts)

Inter (U-17)

1. Jamie Spelman (Oranmore)
2. Damian O’Boyle (Oranmore)
3. Nicholas Sheehan (Oranmore)

Teams

1.  Calasanctious Oranmore  (10 pts) 2. St Marys ( 40 pts) 3. Glenamaddy (58 pts)

Senior (U-19)

1. Padraig Creaven (St. Mary’s)
2. Colin Hanberry (St. Enda’s)
3. Christophe Kadlec (St.Enda’s)

Teams;

1. St. Mary’s (19 pts) 2.St. Enda’s (31 pts) 3.Bish

All-Ireland Combined Events 2012

Four athletes rose early on Saturday morning to make the long trip up to Santry to represent the College at the All-Ireland finals, with the promise of a great days athletics and some IKEA meatballs on offer! And so it proved to be as Sam Samson lived up to his billing to emerge with the Irish Bronze medal after a fantastic performance. With fourteen athletes competing the Junior event was the toughest competition of the day, and Sam fought hard to stay in contention throughout the day, and but for a disastrous opening event when he failed to clear a decent height in the High Jump he would have been in contention for the Gold and the title of Ireland’s best all round Junior athlete.

In his other events he had a lot of ground to make up but took to his task with great heart, finishing third in the 80m hurdles, third in the Long Jump, joint second in the 200m and fifth in the Shot Putt, leaving him lying in fifth place going in to his specialist event , the 800m. A quick calculation of the points showed that Sam had to win the race by more than 13 seconds to get a medal, and so he took to the track with a clear target in mind. The opening stages of the race were cagey as he forced the pace to tire out the other athletes, and then with about 350m to go he hit for home, pulling away from the field with every stride. He eventually crossed the line, and when the second place athlete finished 15 seconds behind we knew that Sam had achieved a remarkable feat, and was well deserving of his bronze medal.

Samuel has now qualified to compete for the Irish Schools team at the Home Countries International in Scotland in December and we wish him the best of luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connacht Combined Events 2012 September

The College entered their largest ever team in this seasons Connacht Championships and achieved a great measure of success on the day. We entered four athletes in the minor boys event, all of whom were competing in their first ever championships. Best on the day was Shane Traynor, who missed out on a bronze medal by a mere one point, the equivalent of one tenth of a second in the 800m. Diarmuid Mulkerrins, Tommy Molloy and Landau Ndombasi also performed excellently on the day each athlete finishing in the top ten from a 29 man field.

In the Junior event we had our star of the day in Samuel Samson. Sam competed brilliantly and consistently in all six events throughout the day and eventually emerged as the overwhelming Connacht Champion. Kamil Szymaszek also competed excellently in his first finals to finish in seventh place from a field of 36 athletes.

In the Intermediate finals our best performer was Dylan Duffy who finished in fourth place, just beating out his teammates Gabriel Garwe and Darragh Mulkerrins who finished in 5th and 6th places out of the 34 athletes who competed.

Moise Assogba had a running battle with his teammate Kevin Cunningham in the Senior event and when the points were finally totted up he emerged as the Senior Connacht Champion with Kevin doing brilliantly to take the silver medal.

Well done all!

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