Week commencing Mon. May 8th
Athletics Success.
The Regional Connacht School's Athletics were held in Dangan, Galway on Wed. of this week. Portumna Community School sent a team of no less than sixty athletes to compete in a wide range of events. The qualification for athletes in this region is difficult as it includes two regions in Galway. The Portumna contingent did themselves proud with twenty eight athletes qualifying for the Connacht finals to be held in Tullamore on may 24th next.
The ladies team had 19 qualifiers and included in this were three relay teams: Minor girls; Maria Rooney, Aoife Royston, Carmel Conway and Martha Gorman. the inter girls which achieved second place were Stephanie Power, Emma Keane, Aoife McNamara and Aoibheann O' Brien. The senior relay team also qualified and this team included; Aoife Duffy, Edel Haverty, Denise Carty and Joan O' Brien. Good individual performances came from Sioban Burke who came second in the minor girls long jump. In the junior girls Emma Keane was 4th in the javelin. Maeve Moran and Maria Rooney were 3rd and 4th respectively in the high jump. Laura Roche qualified in the 1500M and Stephanie Power in the 80M hurdles. Anne-Marie Murray did well in the triple jump and Denise Carty qualified in the 100m hurdles, long jump and javelin.
In the junior boys Paul o' Hara qualified in the discus and javelin with Owen Hilty winning the competition with a superb throw. Francis Larkin qualified in the 3000m with Gerard Burke 1st in the 200m and second in the 100m. the inter boys relay team got 2nd (Austin O' Toole, Tony O' Hare, Leon Downey and Gerard Burke). Tony O' Hare and Leon Downey both qualified in the 100m hurdles. Brian Campbell qualified in the shot and Paraic O' Rourke jumped 1.6m to qualify for the senior high jump.
Notable performances came from Denise Carty in the relay. She is hurdling very well this year and has put a lot of work into the technical aspect of her performance. So too has Tony O' Hare and is showing aggression in his performance. Owen Hilty is a good technician in the execution of his javelin throw, already throwing 34m this season so far. Siobhan Burke jumped 4.65m in the long jump and is showing natural flair for this event. Gerard Burke is now maturing into a quality sprinter and despite injury problems this year it is great to see him at his best again.
James Coughlan and Shauna Murphy, who coach the athletes, were delighted with team's performances. they both feel that with a little more work quite q number of athletes from portumna will win all Ireland medals in the next year or so.
People in Need total reaches over £2,780.
Pictured above are some of the prefects (and those that took part in the sponsored head shaves) with the cheque for people in Need which has now reached £2,786.
Ronan Duffy, third year, with his completed hovercraft which was made for his Junior Cert metalwork project.
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