Celbridge AC enjoyed a very successful day in Athlone IT Indoor sports arena on Sunday 21st Jan for the Kildare Indoor championships by bringing home a number of medals. Celbridge AC were represented brilliantly across all age groups and were cheered on by a brilliant turnout by parents, friends and fellow athletes.
In the Juvenile ranks, Meabh McDonagh went out in front early on in her 600m timed heat (no semi finals or finals, winners are those with fastest time in heat) and stayed in front to dominate her race, Meabh ended up being the fastest across the 3 Under 13 girls 600m races and took home gold. We had great representation across these races with really strong runs from Ava Connors, Zara Newman Smith, Saoirse Kennedy, Rachel Kearns, Deirdre Cronin and Ruth Elliot, it was great to see the improvement on times compared to last seasons Kildare Indoors.
Meabh McDonagh also took home a silver in the final of the 60m, with some really strong competitions across this event from our neighbouring clubs. The Under 13 race walking was dominated by Celbridge AC, with Ava Connors taking the lead early and holding on in a gripping finish to lead home a 1 2 3 for the club, Saoirse Kennedy finishing a brilliant 2nd followed home by Abbie Murphy, a great achievment for the girls considering it's there first real season race walking, and proving once again how impressive the coaches Sandra O'Connor and Tracy Minnock are at developing our kids at race walking.
In the Boys Under 13, Sam Kelly & Vuyo Mosea once again dominated the sprints with both lads finsihing on the podium for the second successive year, Vuyo taking gold closely followed home by Sam Kelly. Both Sam and Vuyo also picked up medals for the Long Jump after some impressive jumping, silver for Vuyo and Bronze for Sam.
In the Under 12 girls, Aoibheann Russell was unlucky not to make the medals in both Long Jump and Sprints with strong efforts in both, and the improvement was clear to see with strong runs in the sprints from Kristiana Silava, Mia Dalton, Laura McCullen, Laragh Martin, Abbhie Murphy and Saoirse Carraher. The Relay team of Aoibheann, Laragh, Kristiana and Mia also made the final of the 4 x 100m relays and were pipped for a medal in a very competitive final.
Daniel Connolly also had a great day in the Under 11 sprints and 600m, picking up medals to add to his glittering start to a very promising athletics carear. Daniel, Daniel Costigan, Evan Kennedy and Adam Bradley also made the finals of the Boys Under 11 4x100m relay finals, and were pipped in to 4th and just missed out on a medal, a great run from the lads.
Once again the race walkers dominated the Under 15/17 age group with medals for Rhea Donnelly, Leah Murphy and Rebecca Carroll, the girls proving once again that they are the best in the County.
Ria Kelly once again proved how strong she is with a stunning performance in the 60m sprints picking up Gold, another medal to add to her haul from 2017. Another notable performance was the perfectly timed run from from Amy Byrne to win the 800m and take Gold, a performance that was truely deserved from a very dedicated athlete.
The Grant brothers had a great day bringing home the bacon in a number of events, John winning Gold in the senior 200m & 60m sprint, while Michael collected silver the long jump, 60m and hurdles, superb work from the guys, proud Mammy Adrienne Grant :)
The McGraths proved tough to beat once again with Eoghan taking gold in the 60m Under 17 sprint and gold in the 200m event, WOW.
Hannah Aspell, once again proved how tough she is picking up silverware in the 60m and 200m, an athlete that the Juvenile girls relaly look up to, and Emma Thompson came home strong to pick up Silver in the 800m.
Vivian Fleischer picked up more honors across High Jump, Long Jump and 60m to once again prove she is one of the best in the country and this level.
The relay teams once again proved the hard work in training with Michael Tynan and Steffen bears fruit with medals in the relays at the tail end of the day. There were plenty more medal winners and all results will be available to view online very shortly on the Kildare Athletics website.
Well done all, lets keep up the good work and move on to Leinsters.