The final Munster Indoor Championship took place in Nenagh on Saturday last and what a way for the club to finish out the season with your youngest competitors winning two individual medals and one set of relay medals in what was a hot bed of competition.
Competing at any level of competition is daunting but this fourteen strong group of young athletes never let the occasion faze them and with an average of between 60 and 70 athletes in all competitions it was going to take a mighty effort to claim any medal. Meadhb Hall and Lily Murphy certainly put in that effort as they came away with second in the U/9 Long Jump and third in the U/9 60mts, respectively. To cap a wonderful day for the club the Girls U/9 4 x 100ms relay team of Annie Ely, Órlaith Costigan, Lily Murphy and Meadhb Hall finished second.
In the U/9 60mts the Moyne vest was very much to the fore as Annie finished second in her Heat in 11.35, Órlaith second in her heat in 11.43 and Lily first in her heat in 10.53 which as already mentioned saw her finishing third overall. In the 300mts Meadhb kept the club colours flying by also finishing second in her heat in 1.05.47 but on time was just outside of the top three medallists. She more than made up for that with a great jump in the Long Jump finishing second in her Pool with a leap of 2.90mts which as mentioned above saw her finish second overall in the competition. Lily finished second in the same pool with a jump of 2.81mts which saw her finish fifth overall.
When it came to the relay, the girls gave an impressive performance finishing second in their heat in 1.13.83 and it was then a long wait for the other heats to finish but the wait ended in glory as they came through for second place overall from the twelve teams that competed.
Leo Cullen, Geoffrey Morrissey, Senan Phelan, Daniel Delaney and Darragh Maher represented the club in the U/10 category and as with the girls they all gave terrific performances. In the 60mts Darragh finished fourth in his heat in 10.58, Geoffrey 5th in his heat in 10.75, Daniel 5th in his heat in 10.36 and Leo 7th in his heat in 11.44. Senan took on the longer 500mts and gave a great performance to finish fourth in his heat in 1.51.34. The boys also took part in the Long Jump with Geoffrey our best performer with sixth in his heat with a jump of 3.20mts. Darragh finished seventh with a leap of 3.12 while Senan jumped 2.72 to finish 14th, Leo 2.46mts for 15th and Daniel 2.40mts for 23rd.
The boys then concentrated on the relay and with a massive twenty-one teams taking part it was a long wait for the boys as they finished second in their heat in 1.12.01. While this was an excellent time it was not quick enough to get amongst the top three, but 12th place overall is a great return from these young boys.
Eva Maher and Doireann Quinlan also competed at U/10 level with both doing the 60mts and Long Jump competitions. Eve finished fourth in her heat in the 60mts in 10.91 and 13th in her group of the Long Jump with a leap of 2.68mts. Doireann finished sixth in her heat of the 60mts in 11.38 whilst also jumping 2.07 in the Long Jump to finish 17th in her group.
At U/11 level we were represented by Faye Murphy and Cathleen Cussen and again the 60mts and Long Jump were the favoured competitions. Faye finished third in her Heat of the 60mts in 10.41 but with a further nine heats she was unlucky to miss out on a medal. She also finished ninth in the Long Jump in Group 2 with a leap of 2.97. Cathleen finished fifth in her heat of the 60mts in 11 secs and 19th in Group 1 of the Long Jump with a jump of 2.49mts.
Athletics can be a very individual sport but the comraderie shown by the athletes on Saturday particularly in the relay events where each of the athletes fought so hard for each other was great to see. Competing so well in such a competitive environment will certainly stand to these young athletes in the future.
Thanks must also go to John Flynn who coaches the athletes each week and to all the parents for their support.
