St Peters AC land memorable gold medal treble at Leinster Championships

The Leinster Indoor Juvenile Track and Field Championships took place in Athlone last weekend. The highlight from a St Peter’s point of view was undoubtedly a 20-minute period that will live long in the memory of those present.

Sean Reilly, who was running his first race since a bad ankle injury he received towards the end of last year, ran in the U18 boys 800M. Sean’s run can only be described as braveness of the highest order, putting himself in the mix from the gun in what was a really tight race.

However, it was Sean that dug deep and romped home to a fantastic victory, racing up the track over the final 200M to take the gold medal and the Leinster title.

The club supporters barely had time to take a breath when the next race was off, which was the girls under nineteen 800M. Niamh Brady, who had already won a bronze medal on Saturday in the U19 1500M, shot herself into a great position going into the final lap.

And as the bell sounded she pulled away from her opponents to race clear of the chasing pack to an emphatic victory and just like Sean in the previous race she also took the gold and claimed the Leinster title.

Next up was the boys U19 800M event. This was a brilliant race from start to finish, where Cian Gorham got his tactics to perfection.

He made his move with two laps remaining and held onto the lead to claim an unbelievable three in a row of 800M Championship titles for the St Peter’s club. In doing so Cian also set a new Championship record of 1:55.71.

While the middle distance runners of the club were providing three Gold medals over a memorable 20 minute period, Niamh Allen was also in action in the under 14 Long Jump.

And while all others in the club present were losing their mind with excitement because of the track proceedings, Niamh kept her calm leaping to a new Personal Best of 4.37M to finish in third place to take the bronze medal, her first podium at the Leinster level.

In the last event of the day for the club, Judith Bell took bronze in a very keenly contested girls U19 60M hurdles race, which had very little between the three podium positions.

This took the total medal haul for the Championships to six, which for a small club was a great achievement.

In addition to the medal haul, Conor Duff ran a brilliant time in the heats of the boys U13 600M event, finishing in second position. Although finishing outside the medals in the final, he can be really proud of his performance.

Saidbh Sheelan also had a really strong performance in her fist ever 600M race, finishing very strongly in the final 200M lap.

Orla McLoughlin made her return to competitive action and it was clear for all to see that Orla will be a force to reckon with by the time the outdoor season comes around.

Sean Allen also made his return to track action when he ran in the boys U19 400M final, just finishing outside the medals. But with some fine tuning, he will be a force to be reckoned with during the outdoor track season.