Creavin becomes first Galway athlete to win Boys' Junior schools title

Padraic Creaven of St Mary’s College in Galway City produced one of the finest cross country performances by a Galway juvenile by winning the Aviva All-Ireland Schools championships on his own school grounds last Saturday.

The Junior title had never before been won by a Galway athlete, but if he felt pressure in wearing the number 1 on his singlet, Creaven gave no indication as he controlled the race from start to finish with a masterful display of front running.

By the last lap he was 16 seconds clear of nearest challengers Cathal Doyle (Colaiste Choilm, Swords) and Jack O’Leary (Clongowes). Creaven was cheered on by a large home crowd, which included many greats of Galway running including former European Silver medallist Paul Donovan, former national Cross Country champion Paul McNamara and current Olympic hopeful Gary Thornton among others.

The presentation College Athenry also had an excellent result in the minor girls event, taking an historic bronze. They were led home by Shannon Lee in 19th position, followed by Eimer Keane in 28th and Grainne McDaid in 37th, who just pipped her teammate Niamh Keane who finished in 38th.

Another notable performance came from Oranmore and Craughwell AC teammates Matthew Barrett and Oisin Doyle who finished 18th and 19th in the Minor boys event.

Talented Conor Gillen of Athenry VS bravely went with the leaders for the first half of his 4.5k Intermediate boys event. It didn’t work out for him on this occasion as he faded, but still held on to finish in 24th overall. Hazel Kilkelly of Presentation Athenry had a similar run, finishing in 23rd in the Senior girls event.

In international action, Craughwell AC sent a large squad over to Glasgow to compete in the Scottish National Indoors recently, with a total of 17 athletes competing. Highlights of day 2 were the pair of gold medals won by Aisling Keady-Cummins in the U14 girls high jump and by Ciara Greene in the U16 girls 1500m.

The highlight performance of the first day came from Conor Gillen who took silver in the 1,500m in a time of 4:27. Some other standout performances included Nicholas Sheehan scoring two 800m personal bests of 2:04 and 2:02 within a couple of hours of each other, finishing a close 4th in the final; Maria McNamara recording a club record for the 400m of 62s; Damien O'Boyle recorded a new club 400m record of 58.26; Sinead Treacy also broke the club record for the 60m in 8:16; and Tara Mcnally did likewise in the 200m in 27:25.

The indoor action moved closer to home last weekend as the Connacht Indoors took place in Nenagh. At the time of publication the full results are not published from the event, but there were some excellent performances from Galway athletes – full details of which will appear in next week’s report.

In road running, a good day in the Beagh/Shanaglish area on Sunday with the third running of their 10K road race, now renamed the Martin Egan Memorial 10K Road Race. Margaret Walsh – organising her second race in a little under a month – and her band of helpers from the local area and her home club, South Galway, put on a fine show for visitors and locals alike.

More than 100 toed the line around a pan-handled course. Michael Shannon (Kilnaboy) and Michelle Lynch (GCH) were the two senior winners, who were presented their trophies by Brian Bell, who ran with Martin Egan in his Irish four mile record-breaking run in Dundalk in 1946.

This coming Sunday, Galway’s finest distance runners will descend on Craughwell for the Galway AAI 10-mile road race championship. Current team champions GCH will be hoping to retain their title and few would bet against them.

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