Days 3 (boys) & 4(girls) of the Munster u12 to u19 Championship took place in Corks MTU stadium last weekend and Clonmel AC were well represented and came home with 6 medals.
Our first athlete up was Darragh Walsh and competing in his first Munster championship put in a fantastic performance in the u17 400m in a time of 54 s to clinch the bronze medal and book a place in the National Championships. Next up was Conor Flaherty competing in the u18 1500m and he ran a great race to clock a time of 4.41 to finish in 8th place.
In the u12 boys which had 6 heats we had 2 competitors Rory Hennessey who finished 4th in his heat and Adam Prout who qualified for the final as the fastest loser. In the final Adam pulled out all the stops and clinched the Silver medal in a brilliant time of 8.57 s a big PB and another qualifier for the Nationals. In the u13 80m sprint Harry Weymouth put in a great race to finish 5th in the heat. Then we had Jack Boland competing in the u17 100m and Jack narrowly missed out on a place in the final with a time of 12.63s.
The girls competed the following day and first up was Gillian Hughes in the 400m which saw her take the Silver medal in a time of 1.02.69 only losing out on her second Munster title by 0.02s. Onto the 1500m and here Muireann Duffy u17 added to her Munster Title from 2 weeks ago by finishing 3rd in a time of 4.57. In nearly a mirror image of results Emma Murray who also had a Munster Title 2 weeks ago finished 3rd in the u19 in a time of 4.56. Next up were the u12 60m and Caroline Smith who continues to improve in training was drawn in a very fast heat when finishing 3rd in a time of 9.26s. Our Final competitor of the weekend and our standout performance was that of Cara Ryan who won the u12 long jump with a distance of 4.54m nearly a half a meter ahead of her closest competitor. Cara also won the u12 high jump after her 3rd jump and continued for 10 more jumps chasing down a Munster record and only missing out by 3cm but her exertions and the heat of the day meant she narrowly missed out. Her achievements in both of these events must surely put down a marker for the other provinces to take note for the Nationals. As always I would like to thank the athletes, parents, team managers and coaches for their continued support without which none of this would be possible.