Dublin Juvenile Indoor Championships Report

Well done to all the Portmarnock AC athletes who competed in the Dublin Juvenile Indoor Championships at the new Sports Arena in Abbotstown at the weekend. This was the first truly 'indoor' championships in Dublin and it produced some great performances from our athletes.

Friday was relays night and our six teams competed with no less than 214 other teams from around Dublin. In the end (11.45pm to be exact!) Portmarnock AC went home with Gold in the u16 Boys 4x200m - Conor Archer, Ronan Patterson, Ciaran McCarthy and Michael Farrelly and Silver for the u14 Boys - Joshua Kelly, Jack O'Connell, Shane Archer, Shane Patterson.

Our only girls relay team was our u11s which consisted of Leah Treitlinger, Ava Cotter, Katie Archer, Cadhla Nigfhloinn and Ellan Morgan. The girls ran a great race with fine baton changes and were unlucky not to progress to the finals.

There’s strength in depth in our u13s Boys and we were able to enter two teams in the 4x100m relay. Both teams ran fine qualifing races. The U13 teams comprised of Sean Lynch, Harry Byrne, Callum Marshall and Alexan Oyeleye. The other u13 team had Charlie McKeever and Rian Morgan stepping up an age group to complete the quartet with Cormac Ryan and Robert Hussey.

Also stepping up to complete an u17 quartet with James O’Connell and Harry MacKeogh were Ronan Patterson and Conor Archer for the 4x200m relay. The lads made it to the final and ran superbly to finish 4th. It was a great race to finish the night off and although everyone at this stage was very tired (it was 11.45pm!) one spectator described the efforts of the Portmarnock team as ‘inspirational’.

On Saturday and Sunday more medals were won with Eoin Kelly getting the ball rolling with Gold in the U15 Shot.

In the U13 Boys 60m Portmarnock were well represented with Alexan Oyeleye winning Silver and Matthew O'Donnell, on his first competitive appearance for the club, won Bronze in the same event.

Another bronze was won by our u17 hurdler Harry MacKeogh in the 60m hurdles.

U14 boys Shane Patterson and Jack O'Connell produced great jumps in their long jump competition to take silver and bronze respectively. Jack then went on to run a great 800m - leading from the start, as he does - and finishing in Gold medal position.

Not to be outdone by their younger club mates, the U16 Boys added to the medals with Michael Farrelly winning no less than three Gold medals in the 60m, 200m and long jump. Not far behind him was Ronan Patterson who took Bronze in the 60m and the 200m.

All in all it was a great weekend of competition. Besides the medals there were great performances with many of our young athletes reaching finals.

Aswell as being a member of the u11 girls relay team Ellan Morgan ran in the u10s 60m and ran a fine 500m to qualify for the finals where she was just out of the medal positions.

Ava Cotter, Cadhla Nigfhloinn and debutants Leah Treitlinger and Megan Comiskey competed in the Girls U11 60m with Ava qualifying for the semi finals. Our middle distance runners in the Girls u11 were Carragh Kelly, Leah Treitlinger, Megan Comisky and Joanna Berry who all put in good personal performances.

Robbie O’Connell, Charlie McKeever and Rian Morgan were our u12s Boys representatives in the 60m with Charlie making it through to the semis. Rian also competing in the 600m and Charlie took part in the long jump.

There was plenty of activity with our u13 Boys with Cormac Ryan and Harry Byrne competing in the long jump. Cormac and Harry were joined by Sean Lynch and Callum Marshall in the 800m. Sean, Callum and Cormac all took part In the 60m hurdles with Sean and Callum reaching the final and finishing joint 5th to each other! Robert Hussey and Cormac Ryan also competed in the 60m.

Connor Reid and Shane Archer took part in the u14 long jump with Shane finishing 5th while Connor also competed in the 800m.

U15s Danielle McFadden showed her pace by qualifing for the finals of the 60m and u15 shot gold medalist Eoin Kelly ran the race of his life in the 800m to qualify for the final.

Roan Oyeleye took part in the u15 Boys 60m and just missed out on qualifying.

Our only u16 woman was Heather Marshall who ran well in both the 200m and the 800m. In the u17s Alannah Byrne also had a fine run in the 800m as did James O’Connell in the 200m and was also a finalist in the 60m. James then went on to claim 4th in the long jump.

So it’s a big ‘clap on the backs’ to all the Portmarnock AC team. You’ve all done your club, coaches, families and yourselves proud.