Co. Tipperary HSE Community Games
Co. Tipperary was very well represented in almost every event at the recent National Finals which were hosted by Athlone Institute of Technology. The outstanding individual performance of the games was by local girl Mairead Teehan from St. Flannan’s. Mairead is no stranger to the National Finals, having competed previously in the Cross Country, Relay’s, Model-Making and the Project. In Mairead’s own understated way she saved the best till last when she took her final puck to win the National Title and Gold Medal. She was watched from the sidelines by her proud family, with mother Una shedding tears when Mairead was presented with her gold medal. County Chairman and local St. Flannan’s coach Seamus Hogan was delighted with her success. Another great win for Tipperary came from young Anthony Tobin of St. Peter’s & Paul’s in the very difficult and technical discipline of the Under 13 Walk. Anthony showed fantastic concentration to win his semi-final and to go on and take gold in the Final. He displayed true grit to come back and win this year’s National Finals as he had been disqualified in the same race last year. In the team events Cahir Camogie Team had to battle hard to win a classic match against Lucan Sarsfield’s of Dublin to bring the Gold Medals back to Tipperary. Former County Chairman Martin O’Keeffe expressed his delight with the girls win.
Lara O’Dwyer of Tipperary Town had a good outing also to take 2nd place in the U12 Ball Throw. Toomevara came a cropper against a very strong and experienced Kilkenny Team to bring Silver home. Cloughjordan javelin thrower Caroline Morgan put together a fantastic series of throws to take Bronze in her event. Ballingarry went home with 2 Bronze medals when Darren Prout came 3rd in the U14 Hurdles and Lorraine O’Shea in the U16 100m. Moycarkey/Borris also took Bronze when Anthony McElvey finished 3rd in the Boys Long Puck competition.
Ballina Boys U14 4x100m relay team of Jack Brady, James Murtagh, Bill Floyd and Jamie Collins won their heat, came 3rd in their semi-final and placed 4th to claim the new pewter medals. Eimear Ryan from St. Flannan’s threw 8.40m to finish in 5th place in the Shot Putt Finals, Eimear missed out of the pewter medal by 4cms. Eoin Ryan from Newport came 9th in the U16 Boys Discus championship while Tom Hennessey of Ballinahinch/Killoscully was very unlucky to finish outside the medals in the Boys U16 High Jump.
The Ryan family from Moycarkey/Borris was well represented with Anna in the Under 8 80m, Jack in the Under 10 100m, David in the Under 12 4x100m relay along with Daniel who was in not only the same relay but the Under 12 100m also. Anna is not just a superb sprinter; she is also the TTHSE Community Games Under 8 Art winner. Templemore had their first athlete in the National Finals for a long time this year in Robert Kennedy who gave a good account of himself in the Boys Under 12 600m.
Mick England from Roscrea Co-Ordinated the Shot Putt, Discus and Javelin competition with Claire Hogan from St. Flannan’s recording and All-Ireland champion Sean Tobin (older brother of Gold Medal winner Anthony) taking measurements in the same event. Tipperary had total of 12 National Officials working hard at the Finals this year. The County Manager Joan Hogan from St. Flannan’s ran a logistically sound ship and was ably assisted by her second in command Mary Moroney-Cullagh from Silvermines. In fact Mary was so efficient she was called into action to Umpire at the Hurling Finals. Liam Tierney from Cloughjordan did Trojan work in his capacity as Athletics Manager and provided great support to all the athletes involved. Emby Walsh from Carrick on Suir was also very busy up on the track. Our thanks to all the parents, coaches, families and supporters for travelling to Athlone to support the Athletes, Camogie players and Hurlers at the weekend.
Dates for your Diary:
County AGM is being held in Hayes Hotel, Thurles on Wednesday 29th September. Please return all nomination of County Secretary K. England a.s.a.p. Also any outstanding monies from the National Finals and beyond should be paid immediately to County Treasurer P. Martin.
