Part 2- County, Leinster and national honours for Kilkenny stars

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.

Hall of Fame

The County Board has introduced an athletics hall of fame award. From this year, one individual will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. For the inaugural ceremony, six individuals were chosen: Perri Williams, Marita Walton, Ed Williams, Sean Lynch, Liam Keely and Margaret Dillon.

Ed Williams

Ed Williams was the founder of St Senan’s AC back in 1977. For two decades he was the driving force behind the club. Under his remit, athletes achieved Leinster, national and international accolades, with the club winning the shield for the best juvenile track and field club in Leinster twice in the early 1980s. Williams coached athletes who won national titles at cross-country, middle distance, throws and jumps.

At county level, Ed served as chairman of Kilkenny County Board for several years from the end of the 1970s and well into the 1980s. Along with Liam Keely he was instrumental in the building of the first synthetic track in Kilkenny – Scanlon Park. For over four decades he acted as a starter at county track and field and cross-country events and was a well-recognized and respected figure in county athletics.

In the 1970s athletics was growing within Kilkenny and it was through the efforts of the Kilmacow man that development opportunities were brought to clubs throughout the county. From coaching to equipment, William guided the Kilkenny County Board through this development process.

Ed also served athletics in Leinster and at national level and officiated regularly on the track and cross-country events both as a starter and a judge.

Liam Keely

Liam Keely (Gowran) is a well-known figure in athletics at all levels. As an athlete he was introduced into athletics at the age of 18, making his cross-country debut in Castlecomer during the cross-country season. Four weeks later he won his first ever county medal when his team finished second. His first win came the following year when he won the county junior cross-country.

Sean Lynch was named in the Kilkenny Athletics Hall of Fame

At track he won titles at multiple distances from 400m to 5,000m in the county and was third in the over-50 All-Ireland indoor 3,000m. At national level he was also second in an All-Ireland three-mile road race.

From an administration perspective Liam served as county board secretary for many years when Ed Williams was chairman. He also served as county PRO for many years along being vice-chairman of Athletics Leinster.

For four years, Liam Kealy managed the Irish cross-country teams for world and European championships. Under his guidance Ireland won medals in the European junior men’s race (Garrett Turnbull was third), while the women’s team were medal winners at three world cross-country championships. Liam was the founder of the modern Gowran AC and was club coach for over four decades, taking athletes to Leinster, national and indeed international honours. His coaching abilities extended across multiple disciplines from endurance, race-walking, hurdles, jumps and throws.

Sean Lynch

A native of Westmeath, Sean Lynch (KCH) came to Kilkenny to teach at the Vocational School. He was first introduced into athletics through his daughter Aine, who joined KCH. Since that time, Sean has been travelling the country with first his children and then his grandchildren, supporting and officiating at athletics competitions.

Lynch in his senior years is still involved in athletics and has on many occasions been seen setting up courses in the Castle Park for county and club cross-country events. He has served on the KCH committee for several decades and has been a mentor, coach and organiser.

It was while coaching that he felt at home in athletics. Several nights a week were spent in Scanlon Park or at the Castle Park at the weekends where he created a competitive and safe atmosphere where kids could thrive in athletics. Under his tutelage athletes have gone on to win Leinster and national honours and competed at International level. He is grandfather to Peter Lynch (KCH) and current Irish international 400m athlete Niamh Murray (Bray). His daughter Martina serves on the KCH committee.

Perri Williams

The former St Senan’s AC star was the first athlete from any Kilkenny athletics club to qualify for the Olympic Games. In 1992 Williams competed in the 10km race-walking event at the Barcelona Olympics. In the following year she competed at the World Track and Field Championships in Germany.

Williams had an international career that spanned over a decade and competed not only at the Olympics but also world and European events. She was first introduced to athletics in 1977 and throughout her juvenile career won medals in 800m, 1500m and cross-country at juvenile and junior levels. It was not until her final year of juvenile athletics that she took up race-walking. Williams set scores of national records at varying race-walking distances and won over 20 national titles between road, track and cross-country at senior level. Perri Williams currently holds the accolade of having the most senior cross-country titles than any other athlete in the county.

Since her retirement from competitive athletics, Perri has coached athletes to Leinster and national titles in a plethora of events that range from middle distance, cross-country, walks, hurdles, throws and jumps. She has also coached athletes to European and world championships and has coached track at middle and high school level in the USA.

Perri’s first foray into the administrative side of athletics came at 18 when she served on the national senior activities committee as an athlete representative. Since then, she has served as the chairperson of St Senan’s for six years and has been county PRO for several years. She has assisted through the years at many county, Leinster and national events.

Marita Walton

Back in the 1970s and the 1980s Marita Walton (KCH) was one of Ireland’s best female shot-putters and still holds the national senior indoor and outdoor shot-put records. Her indoor record stands at 17.06m from 1982 while her outdoors record of 16.99m was set in 1983. She also won the under-12 100m in the national Community Games in 1971 and a silver medal in the under-16 All-Irelands.

In 1979 she was the first Irish woman to be awarded a sports scholarship to a US-based university, the University of Maryland. Initially regarded as a sprinter, when she started athletics at the age of 11, it was her twin sister Marguerite that was the shot-putter. It was not long before Marita switched to shot-put and blazed a trail of gold in Irish athletics. After leaving secondary school she worked in Dublin where she joined Crusaders AC and was coached by Phil Conway. It was Conway who encouraged Walton to go apply to colleges in the US.