None Ace St Senan’s shot putter Tom Whelan turned in a devastating performance in the boys U/15 event, equaling the All Ireland record of 13.60m set by Jim Healy in 1998 in taking the title. Tom has put a hard effort over the winter under the guidance of coach Tom Prendergast and some of his throws in training have been phenomenal. With a host of All Ireland records to his credit Tom is one of the country’s most promising young field eventers and has a great future ahead of him in athletics.
Other athletes who performed well included Paul Manning of St Josephs AC who picked up a gold in the U/13 60m and also a silver in the U/13 600m after being unlucky to fall foul of the judges, which deprived him of gold. Other St Josephs athletes who performed well included Jack Saunders who won bronze in the long jump (5.90m), Claire Forristal 5th in the walk and the U/17 relay team of Jack Saunders, Eoin Power, David manning and John Murphy who took bronze.
Silver Lining for Fiona
Fiona Dennehey again showed that she is one of the leading race walkers in Ireland taking silver at the AAI Indoor championships in Nenagh last Saturday. Along with other talented walkers like Kate Veale of West Waterford she looks set to continue the fine race walking tradition in the country. Meanwhile we would like to extend our congratulations to Jamie Costin on his recent Irish 50K record. He is a remarkable athlete whose return to top flight competition is the stuff of Hollywood films.