Athletics- More national medals for county stars

There were more medals for Kilkenny athletes as the AAI Games and the national combined events were held at the weekend.

Evan Walsh (St Joseph’s AC) took gold in the walk while Noah Gilmore (Kilkenny City Harriers - KCH) won silver in the under-20 heptathlon. Katie Bergin (Moyne AC) took the AAI Games 200m title in yet another new personal best performance while, in the USA, Hannah Kehoe had a new personal best performance over the one-mile event.

Gold and silver

Evan Walsh (St Joseph’s AC) has truly stepped into the ranks of senior athletics. Two weeks ago, the 16-year-old was runner-up in the 3,000m walk at the national under-20 championships. Last weekend at the AAI Games, Walsh finished first in the 3,000m race walking competition. While just five seconds slower than his personal best, his technique was impeccable and was commended by the judges.

For the past number of years Walsh has been a regular on the medal podium at the juvenile championships - in fact, as an under-17 athlete he still has a few more medals to collect before leaving the juvenile ranks. His personal best is 24.25 and it is hoped he can dip under 24 minutes before the 2024 season has passed. 

Noah Gilmore has been in athletics for over 10 years. An all-round athlete who tried his hand at long jump and sprints he progressed through the ranks under the tutelage of May Hutt and Nichola Barron. A year ago, with the assistance of his coaches, Gilmore decided to try the decathlon, a tough event with 10 disciplines each different. For indoor competition this is reduced to a heptathlon with seven events in long jump, high jump, shot-put, pole vault, hurdles and 1,000m as the final discipline.

Held over two days, this gruelling event demands both focus and stamina. On day one Gilmore produced a personal best (PB) of 7.11 seconds over 60m to finish first. The long jump came next, where he finished second with a leap of 6.14m.

Following the long jump, it was directly over to the high jump, where Gilmore leaped 1.66m and finished third. The final event on day one was the shot-put, an event that Gilmore had paid a lot of attention to over the winter months in terms of perfecting technique and getting stronger. He produced a throw of 10.17, finishing second with a new PB to boot.

With two new PBs behind him, Gilmore was full of confidence entering day two. He finished second in the hurdles with a time of 9.58 seconds then switched to the pole vault. For many multi-eventers the pole vault is always a challenge, but the KCH athlete cleared 2.90 metres to record a new PB. The final event of the day, the 1,000m, saw Gilmore deliver a solid run with a time of 2.58 to finish second with yet another PB - he recorded five new personal bests over the seven events.

Unusually there was not much Kilkenny representation at last weekend’s AAI Games, which may come with it being sandwiched between the under-20/23 All Irelands, the National League and the National Seniors. Ross Daly (KCH) competed with distinction in the 60m and 200m while Katie Bergin (Moyne AC) was back in action again – this time in the 200m only.

Bergin came into the competition with two solid wins from the under-23 All-Irelands, the treble double, a feat ridiculously hard to achieve. One of four favourites for the 200m title, she was once more drawn in lane six. Running in heat two, the time to beat was 24.75, recorded by Madeline Whapples in heat one. Alana Ryan was another threat in heat four later on, as was Lauren McCourt (Bandon AC) who was in heat two and drawn in lane four. McCourt had a best of 24.16 (outdoors) which she recorded in 2021, compared to Bergin’s best of 24.30 (outdoors) which she ran in June last year. On paper it looked like McCourt would have the advantage.

Bergin started well and first out of the blocks with McCourt going well on her inside. Going around the top bend, Bergin looked strong and utilised the downward ramp into the home straight to pump for home. She won in the fastest time of the day, 24.46, and was four-tenths of a second clear of McCourt in second. This was a new indoor PB and marks her fifth PB from eight races over the past few weeks. Katie will race the Irish University Indoors in a fortnight’s time.

News from Abroad

Kilkenny was represented by two athletes at the University of Washington Invitational meeting - Meabh Richardson (University of Portland) and Hannah Kehoe (University of San Francisco).

Invitational meets precede the conference and regionals that lead to the NCAA Indoor finals and give the colleges a chance to try athletes over varying distances. For freshman students (first year) like Kehoe and Richardson, who are new to the college, the coaches will test their form and make a judgement call that will dictate their indoor season.

Both athletes were taking part in the one-mile race. One hundred and ninety-nine athletes took part in this race, split between 15 timed heats. Kehoe and Richardson were ranked in the top heats with Richardson in heat 10 and Kehoe in 12. Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan was in heat 15, the fastest. This gives some sense of perspective of how highly ranked the two Kilkenny girls were.

Hannah Kehoe finished fourth in heat 12 in a time of 4.48:23, a new PB, giving her an overall ranking of 25th across all heats.

The winner of heat 12 was Madison Knackley in 4.46:41. Meabh Richardson finished 12th in heat 10 in a time of 5.02:42 giving her an overall ranking of 70th. The outright winner from heat 15 was Jenn Randall in a time of 4.32:17 with Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan finishing third in 4.35:63.