Munster U/12-U/19 Track & Field Championships – Day 2 & 3

Castleisland will hold special memories for our Girls U/18 4 x 100mts relay team as they not alone captured the Munster silver medals but also broke a 28-year-old club record in the process.  Run at the end of a long day of athletics and in driving rain the quartet of Aisling Dwyer, Katie Bergin, Rachel Butler and Jessie Newman along with squad members Emma Gleeson and Leona Maher showed true strength and character to produce a terrific performance.  The girls were only overhauled on the last 50mts to finish second, but disappointment soon turned to happiness as their time of 53.22 saw them break that long standing club record.  The previous record stood at 54.80 from June 1991 with a team of Annette Phelan, Ann Purcell, Eithne Madden, Monica Campion and Louise Maher – no mean athletes themselves

.  No doubt with the right conditions that new mark will be under threat again.  While this rightly gets the accolades, we cannot take from some other terrific performances from our young athletes.  Katie Bergin was our star performer with two silver medals in the U/18 100mts (13.08) and 200mts (26.57).  Jack Hickey finished 2^nd in the U/19 200mts (24.4) with Sean Burke finishing 3^rd in the same event with a time of 25.40.  Jack also competed in the final of the 100mts where he finished 5^th in 12.11 and in the 400mts finished 3^rd in his heat with a time of 55.98.  Sean was also in action in the 400mts and finished 5^th in his heat in 58.61.  Dylan McLoughlin finished just outside the medals in 4^th in the U18 1,500mts with a time of 4.29.00 while Aisling Dwyer finished 6^th in the final of the U/18 100mts in 13.95.  Leona Maher finished 4^th in her heat of the Girls U/16 100mts in 13.08 to qualify for the final where she finished in 8^th place with a faster time of 13.74 secs.  Louise Hickey finished 5^th in her heat of both the U/15 100mts (14.36) and 200mts (29.07) while finishing 6^th in the final of the 250mts hurdles in 42.95. The top four qualify for the National finals to be held in July so it is great to see that the club will be well represented at these prestigious championships.