Champion athlete Ciara Kearns takes her biggest leap yet into An Garda Síochána
Ciara Kearns, a talented athlete who won World and European Masters medals in 2022, is part of Intake 253 currently undergoing training at the Garda College in Templemore
Ciara Kearns has been used to successfully jumping and she took a long jump of a new kind when enrolling in An Garda Síochána.
Kearns, a talented athlete, is part of Intake 253 currently undergoing training at the Garda College in Templemore.
Having previously worked as the Academic Technology Manager for the IICP College in Dublin, Kearns spotted an advert seeking new Garda recruits with a new age limit.
“I jumped on it straight away,” she says. “I’m really enjoying the course content. It’s really interesting. The instructors are all really helpful and patient. I love the fitness element. I have a background in sport, which helps.”
In 2022, Kearns, while competing at Finn Valley AC, won gold in the W35 long jump at the European Masters Championships in Braga, jumping out to 5.39m. Later the same year, she took silver at the World Masters in Tampere, going out to 5.55m.
In her youth at Cellbridge AC, she had been an athlete of some note and she competed at the World Youth Championships in Debrecen in 2001.