(Report by Michelle Pilkington)

It was an early, cold and wet start to the day, our ladies were busy in the Kitchen making the sandwiches, cakes and boiling hot water for our competitors.

With all that being done, Declan was on the infield setting up the throwing areas for our competitors.
As the competitors arrived to register and check-in the weather started to pick up, with the sun making an appearance.

At 10am, the Men’s Shot Putt and the Women’s Hammer kicked the day off with a bang.
In the U23 Women’s Hammer, we had Cara Kennedy from Ferrybank AC taking first place with a whopping throw of 57.31m and in second place, we had Lynsey Glover from Lagan Valley with a great throw 38.20m.

In the Women’s Masters Section, we had three very classy ladies, who in the Hammer threw a combined total 66.15m in a very close competition.

Eileen O’Riordan from Gneeveguilla AC, Kerry took first place, Orlaith Reid from Donore Harriers taking second place and our lovely Frances Mansfield taking third place. What a lovely bunch of ladies.

In the U23 Men’s Shot Putt, we had Colm Tierney from Dunboyne AC throw 10.92m to take the title for this year.
It was a great performance by Colm after an up and down winter season of training.

Also in the Men Masters Shot Putt, we had Pat Kennedy from Ferrybank, Cara Kennedy’s father, with a good series of throws, taking first place with a great throw of 9.98m.

At 11.30am these two events swapped around and the women took their turn in the Shot Putt whilst the men showed us their skills throwing the Hammer.

In the Men’s Senior Hammer, we had five strong lads contesting for the top three places.
With that, we had Brendan O’Connell from Lifford AC take the lead with his first throw of 59.37m and right behind him was Thomas Furlong from DMP AC with a throw of 57.04m and hot on their tails were Adam King from Iveragh AC, Simon Galligan from Clonliffe Harriers and Ciaran Donnelly.

In the second round Thomas Furlong took the lead with a throw of 60.87m and in the fifth round extended his lead to 61.55m. Straight after him Brendan O’Donnell took the lead with a throw of 62.65m.

So after a well fought Men’s Hammer competition, Brendan O’Donnell took first place with a throw of 62.55m, in a well earned second place was Thomas Furlong, in third place was Adam King with a throw of 58.32m, in fourth place was Simon Galligan with a throw of 55.09m and in fifth place with a throw of 41.35m. Well done lads.

In the Masters Men’s Hammer, again we’d a fabulous serious of throws from Pat Kennedy. He took first place with a throw of 35.11m, a meter up on last year’s performance. Way to go Pat…

In the U23 Women’s Shot Putt, we had Isobel Mullerney from Rathfarnham WSAF, throw a good series of throws winning herself a gold medal with her best throw of the day at 9.53m.

In the Masters Women’s Shot Putt, after throwing in the Hammer the hour previously, Eileen O’Riordan threw an outstanding series of throws, winning her category with a throw of 7.70m.

So to the last competition of the day, the women started off the Discus with four top class throwers.

We had Chantal Tanner from Switzerland, Meggan and Noelle Lenihan from North Cork AC and Niamh Fogarty from North Westmeath AC.

Chantal took the lead in the first round with a throw of 37.48m and right behind her with a throw of 28.88m was Megan Lenihan. In the second round things started to unravel, Niamh took the lead from Chantal in the second round with a throw of 44.48m even though Chantal had improved by a few meters of her first attempt. Noelle and Megan were now hot on their heels.

In the third round Niamh extended her lead to 47m whilst Chantal saved her best throw of 45.88m till the last and final round.

Niamh took first place with a throw of 47m, in second place was Chantal with a throw of 45.88m, in third place was Megan with a throw of 33.30m and in fourth place with a throw of 29.67 was Noelle.

In the Masters Women’s Discus, we’d two excellent throwers who brought laughs and giggles throughout the day.

Eileen O’Riordan took first place with a throw of 22.47m and Frances Mansfield came in, in a marvellous second place with a throw of 11.98m.

In the U23 Men’s Discus, we had Eoin Sheridan from North Westmeath AC and James O’Neil from Gowran AC. Eoin threw a good series of throws by taking first place with a throw of 47.38m and James hot on his heels with a throw of 42.79m taking second place.

I would like to say well done to all of the competitors who took part and who travelled from Europe and all over Ireland, both North and South.

I would also like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Michelle Wall and her catering crew for the lovely Sandwiches, Cakes, Tea and Coffee.

Also I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Declan and his throwers for helping me out.

Another BIG BIG THANK YOU to Noel Leddy for running around the mucky infield retrieving Hammers and Discus’s. I did give him plenty of breaks but insisted he needed the workout. Fair play to you Noel. You’re on track for the next Olympics.

I would like to say THANK YOU to David Sweeney from Athletics Ireland, keeping an eye on me making sure I was doing my job by the book.

Last but not least, I would like to say a BIGGER THANK YOU to Teresa Cooney Smith, the Chairperson of Dunboyne AC for letting me organise this event.

HAPPY THROWING EVERYONE.