Galway City Harriers U-13 Boys’ 4×100 relay team set new Irish record

Date Published: 07-Apr-2011

It was a day of mixed results for Galway athletes at the National Indoor Championships in Nenagh at the weekend, with the medal haul slightly down on previous years, but with some noteworthy highlights.

One such highlight came on Sunday with the Galway City Harriers boys U-13 4×100 relay team just edging an astonishing finish with a valiant Menapians AC of Wexford. The GCH team of Liam Costello, Luke O’Shaughnessy, Sean Kilmartin, Jack Dempsey and Colin Murray ran 53.16 seconds to Menapians 53.43 seconds. Both times were inside the old record, which was held jointly by Craughwell AC and Letterkenny AC.

The GCH U-18 boys team also put in a superb performance in winning the 4x200m title in 1 minute 33.92 seconds, missing out on the record by just one tenth of a second. The team consisted of Ben Cooney, Darragh Whyte, Ronan Dobey, Evan McGuire and Sean Kyne.

The U-16 boys of James Fleming, Simon O’Shaughnessy, Owen McDonnell, James Mitchell and Geoff Dempsey produced a silver medal winning performance in the 4x200m relay. They were leading the race by 10 metres when disaster struck and they dropped the baton, but they showed great character to recover to finish second in a time of 1 minute 44.53 seconds.

A pleasant surprise for the club was the silver medal that its U-14 boys 2x200m team won. The team of John Maher, Fiachra O’Cochlain, Colm Trill, Cillin Greene and Jack Dempsey ran 1 minute 55.04 seconds in a brilliant race behind winners Leevale AC of Cork.

The GCH U-16 girls team won the final bronze medal in the 4x200m relay. The team of Elisabeth Maher, Laura Ann Costello, Maebh Brannigan, Roisin Dobey and Alanna Lally ran a superb race behind Tir ConnAill AC, Donegal and Emerakd AC, Limerick in a very close race in a time of 1 minute 29.02 seconds.

There were also many successes for Galway athletes in the individual events on Saturday.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.