The Juvenile Striders completed their most successful Leinster Track & Field championships, in the clubs history, over the weekend, at Tullamore. Competing in all disciplines, over Saturday and Sunday, the squad put in great performances, winning lots of medals along the way. Ciara Kelly and Conor Murphy showed the benefit of training under Nicky Cowman’s tutelage, as both won bronze medals in the High Jump. In the Long Jump event, Myles Hewlett and Owen Lennon were very impressive against top quality opposition. National Javelin champion, Joshua Hewlett, struck gold with a throw in excess of 54m. Also in the Javelin event, younger brother Cosmo won bronze and with a throw just under 40m, Cian Flanagan won silver in a very competitive U16 age group.
On the track there was more success. Ciara Murphy won the first medal of the weekend, winning bronze in the 2km Walk. That was followed in quick succession, by Eve Byrne winning silver and Ryan Kielthy winning bronze in their respective 2km and 3km Walk events. In the sprints we had many strong performances from the likes of Patrick Doyle, Dawid Mlodzianowski, Daniel Wickham, Nic Walkden, Owen Lennon, Aoife Ni Eochaidh and Claire Doyle. The medals continued in the middle distance events. Aidan Shannon added the 1,500m Leinster outdoor gold to the indoor gold that he won earlier this year. In the same race Darragh Flannelly’s fourth place, earns him a trip to the National championships in July. Adam O’Connor performed well in his 1,500m event and even better in the 800m, winning silver. In the space of minutes, cousins Conor Murphy and Aedan Rogers scooped Leinster medals in their 1,500m events. Conor won u17 gold in a stunning time of 4:09, on his Striders debut and Aedan was 3rd in 4:17, in the next age group. Darragh Flannelly posted another impressive 4th place finish in Sunday’s 800m event. Louise Doyle was excellent, posting a PB in her 800m event. Rounding the day off were the inter county relay events and the Striders had Adam O’Connor & Owen Lennon helping Wexford to gold and Josh Hewlett & Patrick Doyle earning bronze for the county team.
