Part 1- County, Leinster and national honours for Kilkenny stars

Andrew Cooper (Gowran) was an international award winner

placeholder image — Andrew Cooper (Gowran) was an international award winner

This month has been a time to celebrate the accolades of the athletes in the county. From county to Leinster and on to national level, there has been a period of prolific award ceremonies.

Top of the pile was Kilkenny City Harriers (KCH) athlete Molly Daly, who was the recipient of the Athletics Ireland Juvenile athlete for Kilkenny. Jordan Knight (St Joseph’s), Molly Daly (KCH) and Andrew Cooper (Gowran) were honoured with Athletics Leinster awards, while a host of athletes were honoured at the annual Kilkenny Athletics Award ceremony, with six individuals inducted into the newly-established Hall of Fame.

Juvenile Star

Molly Daly (KCH) was honoured with the Kilkenny award at the Athletics Ireland Juvenile Star Awards. Thirty-two athletes, one from each county in Ireland, came together at the Park Hotel in Mullingar for the first time in over four years after the pandemic - last weekend’s ceremony was the first time in four years that the traditional face-to-face version returned.

The athletes are chosen based on their performances in national competitions, using a points-based system. Daly was chosen for the award on the basis of being double 200m national champion indoor and outdoors.

Daly, like all the other athletes, has had a trail of accomplishments for 2023. In April the KCH athlete won the under-16 200m All-Ireland indoor championships in Athlone in a time of 25.32, three-tenths of a second ahead of Erin Friel (Letterkenny AC). Her coaches had decided to limit her events to just one event per competition for 2023, thus making a choice between Daly’s specialty of hurdles or sprinting.

Moving into the track and field season, the All-Ireland schools track and field Daly chose to compete in the long hurdles. The intermediate girls compete over a distance of 300m for the long hurdles. Competing for Loreto Secondary School, Daly once again took the gold medal. Finishing with a time of 43.51 Daly had a half a second to spare over Lauren Duff of Gort Community College.

Two weeks later the Tailteann Games were held in Carlow. The Tailteann Games are the selection grounds for an Irish team for the SIAB International. In a very closely contested race, Daly marginally lost out on the gold medal to Caoimhe Byrne (Lisdoonvarna) by eight-hundredths of a second. Her second place finish earned her a spot on the Irish team.

At the All-Ireland Track and Field in Tullamore, Daly once more chose to participate in the 200m. She took the gold medal in a time of 25.31, thus becoming the indoor and outdoor 200m national champion.

Leinster winners

The Athletics Leinster Star awards are decided on the basis of a points system that totals an athlete’s achievement in the Leinster cross-country, track and field and indoors. The more top three places an athlete achieves in all of these competitions, the more points they accumulate. There are three awards available for each county: best juvenile male, best juvenile female and best senior athlete. The Kilkenny award-winners were best juvenile male, Robert Cooper (Gowran); best juvenile female, Molly Daly (KCH); best senior athlete, Jordan Knight (St Joseph’s).

Jordan Knight is no stranger to Athletics Leinster awards. The St Joseph’s AC athlete, in his juvenile days, received no fewer than three juvenile male awards. Knight is known for his versatility, having the ability to compete over 400m, hurdles and jumps, which as a juvenile translated into him being an excellent multi eventer. His 2023 Leinster award was based on his gold medals in the indoor and outdoor long jumps.

At the Leinster Senior Indoors, Knight won the senior long jump with a leap of 6.53, six centimetres ahead of Eoghan McGrath (Celbridge). Knight took part in the long jump at the Leinster track and field in Carlow, where he once again took the gold medal, improving upon his indoor performance to record a new personal best of 6.90m.

Molly Daly (KCH) was a Juvenile Star award winner

While the Leinster Senior Award only considers the Leinster performances, it should be mentioned that Jordan Knight took his place amongst the best at national level. In January 2023 he won the national under-23 indoor long jump with an indoor best of 6.93m. Subsequently in September he was selected to compete for Leinster in the World CSIT Games in Italy where he took gold in the long jump and was part of the Leinster team that took silver in the 4x400m relay.

The Athletics Leinster juvenile male award went to Andrew Cooper (Gowran) on the basis of his under-18 national indoor and outdoor shot-put gold medals, along with his outdoor wins in both the hammer and discus.

Cooper’s Leinster championships opened with an excellent win in the under-18 shot-put, where he set a new championship best performance. His 17.03m surpassed the old mark of 15.70m set by Darragh Gaffney (North Westmeath) in 2016.

With such a massive early season effort, the stage was set for Cooper to blaze through 2023 smashing records at all levels in the process. Following his victory in the All-Ireland shot-put, Cooper faced the track and field season as the under-18 favourite.

Prior to the Leinster Track and Field, Cooper took a few more victories: the All-Ireland schools title and the Tailteann Games title which qualified him for the SIAB International. With a host of magnificent performances the young Gowran athlete also achieved the qualifying standard for the European Youth Championships, competing as part of the Irish team.

At the Leinster under-18 championships in Tullamore Andrew Cooper became a triple Leinster champion, winning the shot-put, discus and hammer. In his signature event, the shot-put, he threw 15.96 to take the title by almost four metres.

In her second awards ceremony of the season Molly Daly was awarded the Athletics Leinster female award for Kilkenny. Daly won the under-16 200m in March with a time of 25.18 and subsequently won the All-Ireland indoor title.

In June she once again reverted to the 200m, taking gold as she stormed down the home straight to take the title from the much-improved Eimear McGrath (Celbridge).

Kilkenny Awards

The Kilkenny Athletics awards night was held recently at Langton’s Set Theatre. Similar to the national awards, this was the first time in a few years that face-to-face awards were held.

Jordan Knight (St Joseph’s) was honoured in Leinster

The Kilkenny awards are calculated on a weighted points system based on achievements in the county, Leinster, national and international competitions. Nominations are provided from each club and a panel appointed by the county board selects the award winners based on the points they achieved. Kilkenny City Harriers picked up six of the 10 awards on offer, with two going to St Joseph’s, one each to Gowran and Brow Rangers. The following athletes were recipients of the 2023 awards:

Juvenile T&F: Adam Slawinski (KCH). Juvenile XC: Daniel Greene (KCH). Senior XC: Cathal O’Reilly (KCH). Junior: Noah Gilmore (KCH). Eamon Costelloe Shield: John Murphy (KCH). Senior T&F: Adam Kelly (Brow Rangers). Road: Claire Dermody (KCH). Sally Forristal (St Joseph’s). Masters: Verena Fenlon (St Joseph’s). International: Andrew Cooper (Gowran). Walks: Evan Walsh (St Joseph’s).

Adam Slawinski (KCH) competes over the sprinting events and won the Leinster indoor and outdoor 200m and 100m, taking a bronze in the All-Ireland outdoors 100m and silver in the All-Ireland 200m indoors. Slawinski has won numerous county juvenile and junior titles along with taking Leinster Junior medals over the sprinting events.

Daniel Green (KCH) proved to be a versatile athlete taking numerous county titles along with the gold medal for the under-12 hurdles, 600m and cross-country. At national level Green finished second in the All-Ireland under-12 cross-country.

Cathal O’Reilly (KCH) finished the cross-country season with personal bests over many distance events along with taking his first county senior cross-country medal, finishing second behind Eoin Everard. O’Reilly was placed fifth in the All-Ireland under-23 cross-country and was unlucky to miss out on selection for the under-23 Irish team for the Europeans.

John Murphy (KCH) was awarded the Eamonn Costello Shield for winning the county 100m sprint.

Noah Gilmore won the junior award for his multiple county medals in the junior championships along with his All-Ireland silver in the decathlon and silver Leinster junior medals in the long and high jumps and gold in the discus.

Adam Kelly (Brow Rangers) is one of several throwers in Brow Rangers who were awarded county medals in the throwing events. At the Leinster senior championships Kelly was second in the javelin and third in the shot-put.

Claire Dermody (KCH) and Sally Forristal (St Joseph’s) were jointly awarded the county road award for their performances in the county four mile and 10 mile events.

Verena Fenlon (St Joseph’s) has won multiple county gold medals at masters level, winning shot, weight for distance, discus and hammer medals at the county championships. Fenlon won a set of medals at the Leinster Track and Field, taking gold in the shot, silver in the weight for distance and bronze in the hammer.

The international award went to Andrew Cooper (Gowran). Cooper represented Ireland in the SIAB international and the European Youth Olympics.

Evan Walsh (St Joseph’s) won the under-16 county, Leinster (indoor and outdoor) walks and was second in the All-Ireland under-16 walk.