Monaghan Phoenix had a busy weekend at the Ulster juvenile indoor championships in the AIT arena in Athlone. Deirbhile Keenan took part in the Shot, long jump and 800m on Saturday and performed very well. Her season so far has been interrupted by illness but this talented young athlete is well on the way back to her best. Also on Saturday Eoin Sheridan took part in the U12 600m. Eoin continued his excellent form with a well-deserved silver medal. Eoin timed his run well to finish strongly surging across the line in second place. Patrick Keenan competed in the long jump,Shot putt and 600mtrs and again showed continued improvements with strong performances throughout the day. On Sunday we travelled in numbers to Athlone where our U13 girls, Daisy Walker, Leah Keenan, Caoimhe O’Neill, Kate McKenna, Ella Connolly, Katie Glynn and Aoife Connolly all took part in multiple events gaining valuable experience. Our relay team were particularly unlucky not to win a medal as a result of interference during a changeover but very well done to all our U13 girls. Tom Doherty had another outstanding performance with a silver medal in the U13 600m. Tom again ran a brilliantly tactical race and again will have learned from this experience moving on to the all Irelands. Ciona Barry, Aoife Maguire and Ella Connolly all had good runs over 800m and they were joined by Deirbhile Keenan to finish in 5th place in the 4×200 relay. Oran O’Caolain continued his improvement running well in the difficult 800 and 1500m events. This was Oran’s first Ulster indoor competition and he performed well. Sorcha O’Neill had an outstanding competition with an excellent performance in the U18 400m finishing in second place. Sorcha followed this up with another impressive run in the 800m finishing well to win a bronze. Andrew McKenna had a storming run over 800m to finish in third place and win a well-deserved bronze medal. Andrew ran a new PB of 2.12 in a tough final where he showed a lot of determination over the second half of the race.
Well done to Paul Peppard who followed up last week’s National medal with a superb victory and another Personal best performance of 49.84 in Abbotstown Dublin, where he was competing in the AAI games. Paul broke the 50 second barrier for the first time over 400m and continues to make great improvements. Well done to everyone who competed over the weekend. Thanks also to everyone who travelled in support of our athletes.
Monaghan Phoenix Athletic Club 