David Harper winning the Junior 1500M at AIT 2014

Video courtesy of Alan Kearins

Championship Success

David Harper, Sligo AC - Junior 1500 Champion

Sligo AC was well represented last weekend, with the Masters Championships on Saturday, and, the Under 23 and Junior Championships on Sunday in Athlone IT.

The highlight on Saturday had to be the double gold achieved by John Mc Dermott over 200 and 400 meters. Approaching the over 70 category, John achieved a time of 64.8 seconds for the 400 meters as he won in a canter and he won the 200 meters in similar facile fashion.

Henry Rowan took a high jump gold while Trish Foy 1500 meters, and Kevin Mc Gloin took silver medals over 1500 meters and 800 meters respectively, while Ramsay Slott, a Scottish member of the club was fourth over 60 meters and 3rd over 200 meters. Alan Kearins had a good time in a competitive 1500 meters and will be pleased with his performance.

On Sunday attention turned to Juniors (Under 20) and Under 23s. David Harper produced the outstanding performance by winning the Junior 1500 meters by a wide margin. Emily Burns took a bronze long jump medal, but encouragingly many younger Athletes took the opportunity to get valuable experience at a top level.

Stacey Kerr was rewarded with a qualification for a final over 200 meters, as was Aaron Cadden, as both had done well over 60ms and were running against older competitors.

Similarly Graham Kerr 60 meters and 200 meters, Graham Burke 200 and 400 meters, and Orlaith Delahunt 3k walk were competing against older Athletes but will have learned a lot from the experience.

Orla Mulvihill 1500 meters and Rianne McHugh 800 meters were pitched in against International competition and came away with personal best times well ahead of previous performances.

Zak Irwin won his qualifying 60 meters heat in the fastest time of the day and in a blanket finish in the Final, where the top five Athletes were covered by 5 tenths of a second, he was just denied a podium finish. Such was the competitive nature of the Final that the European Junior Representative in 2013, Marcus Lawlor from Tullamore was relieved to take home a Bronze one tenth of a second ahead of the Sligo Athlete.

Colm Burke, long jump 4th and Triple Jump, was in top form and will look forward to a good season.

2014 Membership

Registration Forms for 2014 are now available to download here:

• Juvenile Registration Form
  
• Senior Registration Form

We will be having our annual 2 mile club run in Hazelwood on St Stephens day at 12 where memberships will be taken for the new year. Id like to thank you all for your support in 2013 and look forward to seeing you all in 2014. Wishing you all Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Seamus Somers
Club Chairman

Well done Cathal!

Cathal Corcoran made a brave effort to take gold in the National under 13 Cross Country in Waterford on Sunday. He eventually finished third which is a great achievement as this is only his fourth serious race this Season.

Cathal is a product of the John Hughes inspired Geevagh National School team and gave the School its first Connacht medal this year by finishing third in this years event.

Gold in the Connacht under 13 qualifiers showed steady improvement and this National medal is the icing on the cake. Cathal also led Connacht to silver in the team event.

In the girls under 13 Ailbhe Morgan ran brilliantly to finish 54th in a field of over 150 and as 7th scorer for Connacht just missed a team silver but is showing great promise for the future.

At under 19 Orla Mulvihill had her best ever National performance and will do well in the Indoor Season

National Novice Cross Country

There were good performances from Sligo Clubs in the older age groups and Novice Men and Women Cross Country in Waterford on Sunday. David Harper 7th and James Mc Geough 30th competed at under 19 Boys with Orla Mulvihill well up at under 19 Girls. Sarah Doohan of South Sligo made top twenty in the Novice Women and North Sligo had a large entry in both Novice Men and Women, with Fintan Whelan the sole Sligo AC entry in the Mens race.

Christmas Racers

Well done today to Alan Kearins who finished 2nd overall in the Belleek Castle 10k in Ballina and to Richard Gorman who also finished 2nd in the Carrick AC 5mile Christmas run.

Also well done to Seamus Somers, Jonathan Hill, Damien Kennedy, and Roy Kelly who finished 4th 5th 6th and 7th in Carrick to take the team prize.