National Seniors and Munster Juvenile Indoors

Laura Crowe showed a return to form in the Odessey arena in Belfast last weekend when she finished in second place in a tactical womens 800 race in a time of 2.12.Laura ran the heats on Saturday evening and qualified comfortably for Sundays final by winning her heat with 7 other athletes.The final on Sunday started slow with alot of bumping but as soon as the pace picked up they became strung out with Laura sitting in second place behind eventual winner Ciara Everard of Kilkenny.Everard kicked earlier than she normally does with 350m to go with Laura chasing her all the way but on this occasion was unable to pass.With a long season ahead Laura will almost definetly go one better next time they meet.


   Four St Brendan's AC juniors also made the trip to Belfast to gain some valuable experience and all four came home with personal bests and top ten positions.PJ Galvin cleared 1.90m at his first attempt to get a new PB and finish in a credible fifth position.Ailbhe Courtney had two big indoor PBs when she finished 3rd in a very close 'B' final of the 200m in 26.3 seconds over 0.7 quicker than her previous best and 9th overall in the 400m in 60.8 which was 1.3 up on her previous best.Dylan Roche also made the 200m 'B' final which he qualified for in a huge PB of 23.4 seconds 0.6 faster than his best.Luke O Keeffe finished in 10th place in both the 200m and 400m again both in PBs of 23.8 and 52.5.


Kerry athletes Patrick Phelan and Peter Shallow were also competing for their Dublin clubs.Patrick made the 'B' final of the 400m but was unable to run due to illness.He surely would have made the 'A' final if he had not been ill.Peter Shallow finished in 5th place in a high quality 60m hurdles in 8.4 seconds in a race where last years national outdoor champion didnt even make the final.Well done to all.


The Munster Juvenile Indoor championships were held in Nenagh also last weekend.While the organisation of the event left alot to be desired due to the huge number of juvenile athletes entered Kerry clubs did reasonably well.Munster AAI must surely now look at some way of limiting the numbers entered by clubs especially in field events like long jump where nearly half of the athletes competing were not even of a county standard no mind Munster standard.The crux of the problem lies as ive always said that there are no competitions at this time of year for these athletes so clubs have no choice but to enter them in competitions above their standard! Anyway below are the results of the Kerry clubs-


Lios Tuathaill-
Sophie Lynch-1st 60m and 1st 600m U12
Girls U13 Relay-2nd-Alex Dowling,Ashling O Mahoney,Ciara Donegan,Niamh Cullen,Maria O Neill,Sophie Lynch


Gneeveguilla-
Brian Murphy-2nd 60m U12
Boys U12 Relay-1st
Boys U13 Relay-1st

St Brendan's-

Darragh Lowth-1st 600m and 2nd Long jump

Darragh Courtney-3rd Long jump

Eoghan McElligott-2nd High jump

Spa Muckross-
Sarah Leahy-1st 60m and 2nd Shot putt
Kianan O Doherty-2nd Shot U12

Star of the Laune-

Niall Carey-3rd 300m U9

Tralee Harriers-
Ciaran O Reilly-1st Shot putt U12
Sean Kennedy-3rd 300m


Shane :)