The Striders Juveniles sent their largest ever squad to Tullamore, this weekend and had a great time of it and plenty of success also. Thanks in no small part to the Hewlett brothers, this years medal count was very impressive. Saturday morning started with a bang for the Striders with four race walkers, winning four medals. Isabel Bawden competed in the biggest field and was a very impressive second place, beaten only by the national indoor champion, Bridin Doyle of Craanford. Eve Byrne and Ciara Murphy repeated their medal winning performances from last year. Ryan Kielthy, who had such a fantastic indoor season, earlier in the year, was very impressive, finishing second in a good field.
The Striders were also busy in the jumping events, with Patrick Doyle’s gold medal winning performance in the Triple Jump, being the standout effort. Patrick registered a second place finish in the Leinster indoors, in February and has progressed steadily since, working with coach, Vance, to become our latest provincial champion. Louise Doyle and Conor Murphy were only just outside the medals in the High Jump, with the cold windy conditions not really helping. Aoife Ni Eochaidh was our first long jumper in action and was very unlucky not to medal. Aoife Muldoon was a close up second place in her age group and collected another provincial medal. More success followed in the throws, with the Hewlett brothers, Cosmo and Joshua, making a mark. Cosmo won bronze with an impressive throw, just shy of 40m, in his age group, where Aidan Kehoe also excelled, but was just outside the medals. On Sunday, Joshua Hewlett retained his Leinster title with a monster throw of 50m.
In the sprint events Aidan Kehoe, Cosmo Hewlett, Oisin Mc Eochaidh, Patrick Doyle, Aoife Ni Eochaidh and Claire Doyle all did well at this high level. Nic Walkden came through his 100m heat smoothly and came fourth in a very pacey final. Aaron Browne impressed all in his first attempt at the 400m event, coming fourth and shortly afterwards was very competitive in the 800m. Adam O’Connor performed really well in both the 800m and 1500m, as did Finn Kelly, Aidan Shannon, Aidan Kehoe and Louise Doyle in their middle distance events. Darragh Flannelly continues to improve, year on year, and bagged two Bronze medals in the 800m and 1500m events. Undoubtedly the star of the weekend was Myles Hewlett, who won the 1500m event in very impressive fashion and followed up, on Sunday, by setting a championship record time to win the 800m, by a wide margin. With Myles setting his own pace in the 800m and this being only 24 hours on from a hard race the previous day, it was a magnificent performance.
To round off a fantastic weekend, Oisin McEochaidh, Darragh Flannelly, Aidan Shannon and Aaron Browne all won medals, representing Wexford in the inter county relay events.
