Irish indoor titles for Breathnach, Farrell and Burke in Athlone

THREE Galway athletes came up trumps at the National Senior Indoor Championships in the Athlone IT Arena last weekend.

First Galway winner of the championships was up and coming race walker Veronica Burke of Ballinasloe and District who won the 3k walk, with an impressive 14.40 clocking, ahead of Siobhan Nash in second.

Cathriona Farrell of Craughwell completed a hat-trick of senior indoor titles when winning the high jump, also on Saturday. Farrell jumped an excellent 1.77m to win yet another National gold medal, while Sinead Touhy of Athenry took sixth with 1.55m.

On Sunday, a massive throw of 17.42m by Sean Breathnach of GCH in round four of the shot putt  saw him win Galway’s third National Indoor title of the weekend. This was yet another PB and stadium record for the Connemara man and boosts his 5th place ranking on the Irish all time list by a further 28cm on his last mark.

Also in action in Athlone was Conor Duggan of Craughwell AC , who made the semi final of the 200m and narrowly missed out on being a final qualifier, with a time of 22.83, while clubmate Damian O’Boyle ran strongly in the heats of the 1500m to record a time of 4.04.25 which is a new junior record for the club.

Niamh Hennelly of GCH continued her good run of form, clocking a time of 2.28 in a competitive 800m heat won by National champion Ciara Everard, but she missed out on a final spot.

Meanwhile, the annual Kilconieron 5 mile road race Sunday last saw over 170 runners and walkers compete around Carrabane in aid of Athenry Cancer Care, the designated charity this year.

Matt Bidwell of GCH took the honours running 27.22 in difficult conditions with Owen Byrne, also of GCH, second in 28.06 and Damien Larkin of Craughwell AC third in 28.20.

Jane Anne Meehan of Athenry AC added yet another road race win to take the ladies section, in 30.44, ahead of GCH athlete Sinead Brody and Deirdre Brophy of Athenry third.

Race organisers Patrick Forde and Niall Callanan must be congratulated on the 7th edition of this event, which has now raised nearly €35,000 for charity since 2009.