Loughnane the shining light

ANNE LOUGHNANE (St. Raphael’s, Loughrea), set a new national junior and senior schools record in the 3,000m walk at the Kit Kat Irish Schools Championships at Tullamore on Saturday when the girls set three records.

Sister of Olympian Olive Loughnane, she underscored the strength of Irish race walking with a sparkling performance that carried her to a 13:45.89 record on a day when Lucia Reynolds (Marian, Mohill) set a new junior schools record at 5:32.8 in the 1200 metres walk.

Rachel Akers (Scariff CC) had three throws in excess of the old record before settling for a record breaking throw of 51.32m in the senior girls’ hammer and went on to complete a notable double by winning the discus with a throw of 34.39m.

Ciaran O’Connell (St. Macartan’s, Monaghan) also recorded an impressive double when winning the senior boys’ 800m in 1:51.26, just short of the record, and then went on to win the 400m in 49.01s.

He was the raging hot favourite to win the 800m title as last year he posted 1:50.36 at the Dublin International and finished second at the BUPA Cork City Sports in 1:51.10 and, this year, he ran 1:53.1 at the AAI Games in Navan before recording a 400m/800m double at the Ulster schools, when he turned to the 400m for the first time.

Erin Kinnear (Victoria College, Belfast) went into the pole vault as the hot favourite following her performance in the Ulster championships a week earlier when she broke her own national senior record with a best of 3.77m.

This time, however, she did not reach such heights but ended up with an Irish schools record with a clearance of 3.65m.

A former gymnast, she represented Northern Ireland throughout the UK and Europe and still coaches gymnastics but is set to go on an athletics scholarship to Alabama later this year.

It was a day of close finishes and the closest of all came in the senior boys’ 1,500m where Richard Byrne (North Monastery, Cork) beat hot favourite, Colin Costelloe (Gormanston) by two one hundredths of a second in a flying finish.

The young Meathman has completed a post Leaving Cert course at North Monastery and will go on scholarship to dePaul University in Chicago in September.

This was the Gormanston lad’s first defeat in schools competition.

And Danny Darcy (Pres/DLS, Bagenalstown) justified favouritism when he led all the way to win the intermediate boys’ 1,500m while David McCarthy (St. Augustine’s, Dungarvan) was a very impressive winner of the junior boys’ title.

Jamie McCarthy (Kinsale CS) was a stylish winner of the senior boys’ 5,000m in 15:30.08 while Gary O’Leary (Glanmire CC), who was ill during the week, put in a storming finish to win the intermediate boys’ 100m before going on to anchor the relay team to victory in the 4 x 100m.

Another impressive double was recorded by the former Eritrea athlete, Azmera Gebrezgi (Dominican, Cabra) who won the senior girls 800m in 2:12.38 and then the 1,500m in 4:34.44 and Elizabeth McWilliams (Loreto, Coleraine) outsprinted Catriona Cuddihy (Loreto, Kilkenny) to win the intermediate girls’ 300m after winning the 800m title in 2:12.14.

In the Irish Milers’ Club events staged in conjunction with the competition, James Nolan (UCD) returned to his home track to win the 1,500m in 3:42.71 while another local athlete, Ann Marie Larkin, in a rare run over the distance, held off the challenge of former national champion, Maura Prenderville (UCC) to win the 800m with Niamh Beirne, bronze medallist, in last year’s national championships, third.