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Reports - July 2013


30 July » 23 July » 16 July » 9 July » 2 July »

30 July 2013

The premier event of the domestic Irish athletics season took place last weekend with the staging of the National Senior Track and Field Championships at the Morton Stadium in Santry, Dublin. St Peter’s AC had two athletes in action on Sunday and, despite the torrential rain, it turned out to be a great day for the club as both of them finished in the medals.

Emily Rogers almost exactly replicated her performance in these championships last year when she took silver in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.65m. The only difference was that this year she was the outright silver medallist while last year she had finished in joint 2nd place. Emily’s height on Sunday equalled her season’s best, which was excellent going in the difficult conditions.

The other two medallists also recorded best jumps on the day of1.65m, with the winner Shannon Dawkins of St Joseph’s going clear on her first attempt at this height, while Emily was successful on her second attempt and bronze medallist Neasa Murphy of Ferrybank required the maximum three attempts to clear it.

Niamh Fussey has been having a superb season and she certainly did not disappoint in the 100m Hurdles in Santry. Her 15.79 seconds clocking was her second fastest ever and earned her a richly deserved bronze medal. Sarah Lavin of Emerald won the race in a time of 13.61, while Shannon Dawkins ran 14.86 to add hurdles silver to her High Jump gold.

St Peter’s also had several athletes in action in the second round of the Louth Juvenile League in Ardee last Tuesday night. Among those who performed particularly well were Elizabeth Bell, Gabriel Bell, Judith Bell, Niamh Brady, Ronan Dearey, Sarah Larney, Pádraic McGinn, Leo Meenan, Craig Murtagh and Dean Murtagh.

The Dromiskin-based club is also celebrating the news that Mark Rogers has been selected to represent Ireland in the Under 18 400m Hurdles in the Celtic Games. This is an annual triangular international match between Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which this year will be staged in Colwyn Bay in Wales this coming Saturday.

In addition, club coaches Kathleen McConnell and Angela McDonald are honoured to have been chosen once again be part of the Irish Celtic Games management team.

There was further good news for Mark Rogers last week when his recent performance of 5135 points in the Octathlon at the Woodford Green Meet in London was ratified as an Irish Youths’ (Under 18) national record.

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23 July 2013

The latter half of last week was a busy period for St Peter’s AC with no fewer than 21 athletes from the Dromiskin-based club experiencing top-class championship competition at county and national level.

Lauren Finegan reached the lofty pinnacle of being crowned Irish champion when she won the U17 Javelin (32.06m) in the National Juvenile Championships in Tullamore on Sunday. Later the same day Mark Rogers also mounted the podium to receive the bronze medal for the U18 High Jump (1.85m).

Four other St Peter’s athletes performed very well in the throwing events against the best this country has to offer. Chloe Finley finished 5th in the U16 Shot (10.26m), as did Emma McDermott in the U14 Shot (10.42m). Martin McGrane finished 7th in the U16 Shot (10.24m), while Liam Fussey finished 8th in the U17 Javelin (36.08m).

The Irish Juvenile Relay Championships were staged in Tullamore on Saturday and three club athletes were in action on Louth teams in the inter-county 4x100m events. Gabriel Bell helped the U13 Boys’ team to joint 4th (56.43), Ciara Murphy ran on the U15 Girls’ team which finished 5th (53.48) and Katie Murphy was part of the U13 Girls’ team which came home 7th (58.22).

Meanwhile the Louth Junior, Senior and Masters’ Championships were staged in the Lourdes Stadium, Drogheda last Thursday night. Niamh Fussey had a very impressive double in the Junior 100m (13.52) and 200m (27.57), and also ranked 1st across all the female categories in both these events.

Ranking 2nd overall in their events were Aaron Finley, who won the Junior Javelin (40.01m), and Tom McGrane, who took silver in the Senior Shot (9.86m). Daniel Finley’s silver in the Junior Javelin (37.22m) and bronze in the 100m (12.29) both ranked 3rd overall, as did Maria Duffy’s brace of gold medal performances in the O45 Shot (6.99m) and Javelin (20.85m). Daniel also won the Junior Shot (10.19m) and claimed bronze in the Long Jump (5.29m).

David Finley won a treble at O50 level, taking the 100m (14.52). Long Jump (4.21m) and Shot (8.94m) titles. Andrew Rogers made his debut for the club, winning gold in the O55 200m (33.42) and silver in the 100m (16.62).

There were several other fine performances in the Junior age group, including silver for Eamonn McManus in the 1500m (4:49.45), and bronzes for Liam Fussey in the Javelin (35.78m) and Philip Larney in the 200m (27.64). Pádraic McGinn and James Meenan also impressed in the Shot (7.09m) and 100m (12.68) respectively.

An excellent night’s athletics was rounded off by the St Peter’s relay team of Daniel Finley, Aaron Finley, Brendan Rogers and Philip Larney finishing 3rd overall in the 4x100m (52.82).

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16 July 2013

The Louth Senior Men's and Women's athletics teams made the long trip across the country to Sligo last Sunday to contest the second round of this year's National League. Three athletes from Dromiskin-based St Peter's AC made a tremendous contribution to the overall points totals, as the county teams strove for qualification for next month's Division One final.

Mark Rogers won no fewer than three individual events - the 110m Hurdles (17.39), 400m Hurdles (59.27) and High Jump (1.85m). Both his hurdles performances were new personal bests. He rounded off a great day by anchoring the Louth team to victory in the 4x400m relay (3:34.68).

Tom McGrane was in good form in the throwing events in Sligo, as he won the Hammer (17.63m) and finished 2nd in the Discus (19.25m).

Emily Rogers had a busy day across a range of events. She won the High Jump (1.60m), finished 3rd in the Hammer (16.20m) and came 6th in the 100m (15.41). For good measure she also ran the second leg for the Louth 4x100m relay team, which crossed the line in 5th place (1:00.11).

Meanwhile, closer to home, St Peter's AC's Liam Fussey was in action in the Dunleer AC 4 mile Road Race, in which he recorded a 32:36 clocking.

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9 July 2013

Six young athletes were in action for St Peter’s AC last Saturday and Sunday, as the first weekend of this year’s Irish Juvenile Championships took place in Tullamore. Once again they did the Dromiskin-based club proud as they won three gold and one bronze medal, and registered four new personal best performances. Indeed each athlete returned home with either a national medal, a PB or, in some cases, both a medal and a PB.

Niamh Fussey set the tone for a fantastic weekend on Saturday morning with a blistering 15.34 clocking to claim gold in the U19 100m Hurdles. This was Niamh’s first national title after many years of trying and she destroyed her previous PB of 15.81 in the process.

Mark Rogers was equally impressive on Sunday when he took the U18 400m Hurdles title in a very competitive race. For good measure he knocked a huge chunk of his old PB of 57.36 as he stopped the clock at a very fast 55.71.

Conor Durnin added the U18 Triple Jump title to the U18 and Junior national indoor titles, and the Irish Schools’ title, which he won earlier this year. His winning hop, step and jump of 13.23m on Saturday afternoon was a little below his best but left him well clear of the rest of the field.

After a slightly shaky start in the U13 Shot Putt on Sunday afternoon, Katie Murphy showed her competitive mettle to secure the bronze medal with her best throw of 10.56m coming in the last of the six rounds.

Gabriel Bell was in the form of his life on Saturday when he added an unbelievable 14cm to his old PB when clearing 1.50m in the U13 High Jump. This was the same height as achieved by the winner of the competition, but Gabriel had to settle for 4th place on countback. He went on to finish 6th in the Long Jump with a fine leap of 4.51m.

Martin McGrane was in action in the U16 Hammer on Sunday morning and he obliterated his former PB of 19.65m with a throw of 26.42m, which earned him 5th place in the event.

Earlier last week, on Tuesday night, several St Peter’s AC athletes were in action in the first round of the Louth Juvenile League at the Bush track. In very wet conditions there were a number of eye-catching performances, not least a PB of 4.57m for Gabriel Bell in the U13 Long Jump and a welcome return to form for Nikayla Hamill, who clocked 2:39.8 in a gun-to-tape victory in the U16 800m.

It was also a heartening to see the club represented by several newcomers, among them Amy Banjeree, Sinead Cooney, Ronan Deary, Niamh Fanning, Aoife McQuillan, Keala O’Connor and Katie Toal.

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2 July 2013

More national and provincial medals came the way of St Peter’s AC last weekend, as the Irish Junior (Under 20) and Under 23 Championships took place in Tullamore on Sunday and the Leinster Pentathlon Championships were staged in Navan the previous day.

In the Irish Championships Emily Rogers cleared 1.65m to win silver in the Junior High Jump. Her cousin Frances Rogers produced a best throw of 9.68m to claim bronze in the Under 23 Shot Putt.

Mark Rogers, Emily’s brother, took the Under 18 Pentathlon title in the Leinster Championships. He recorded performances of 5.65m in the Long Jump, 24.49 in the 200m, 12.37m in the Shot Putt, 1.90m in the High Jump and 2:58.45 in the 1000m to amass a total of 3469 points.

Jack Reilly was 4th in the same event with a total of 2581 points, having registered performances of 4.62m in the Long Jump, 26.16 in the 200m, 9.45m in the Shot Putt, 1.54m in the High Jump and 3:05.27 in the 1000m.

Earlier last week, on Wednesday night, Tom McGrane was also in action in the colours of the Dromiskin-based club. He finished 2nd in both the Shot Putt and Discus in the Dublin Senior Championships in Tallaght with throws of 9.87m and 21.65m respectively.

Two club athletes represented the Leinster Schools’ Under 17 team in the Tailteann Games Interprovincial in Tullamore on Saturday. Chloe Finley leapt 9.82m to finish joint 7th in the Triple Jump and Lauren Finegan threw 27.00m to take 8th place in the Javelin.

The week’s action concluded in Clogherhead on Sunday afternoon when brother and sister Liam Fussey and Niamh Fussey recorded respective times of 48:55 and 59:52 in the Seaside 10K Road Race.

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