ATHLETICS | Rory returns with four gold medals for St Peter’s AC

The long awaited outdoor track and field season finally got underway on Saturday last and spectators were treated to a fine display of juvenile athletics at the Lourdes Stadium in Drogheda.

St Peter’s AC were well represented and all athletes enjoyed the experience of competing, especially some of the younger ones who were making their track debuts.

The O’Reilly twins were in fine form in the U9 girls category with both bringing home medals. Hannah won gold in the 80m sprint and bronze in the 300m while her sister Emily won a very impressive silver in the 300m.

The trio of U10 girls gave a good account of themselves with Catherine Carey and Mia Finnegan showing great signs of improvement.

Orla McLaughlin has continued were she left off last year with a good performance and a third place finish in the 300m race and a fifth place finish in the U11 long jump.

The three girls were joined by Dearbhla Allen to make the U11 relay team and unfortunately narrowly missed out on a place in the final.

The club was very well represented at girls U12 level with no fewer than four competing.

Lucy Brennan had a good performance in the 60m sprint to finish in fourth place and jumped well out of her age in the long jump. Ellie Smyth had a good performance in the 600m race and both Isabeal Fitzpatrick and Katie Mulligan started their season with a solid performance.

Conor Litchfield was the sole representative for the club’s U12 boys and he really produced a good performance in the 600m and will have gained confidence for the season ahead.

The girls U13 was an age group where the club was very well represented with the long jump being the club highlight of the day as all four places on the podium were filled with St Peter’s AC athletes with Judith Bell winning gold and Julie McLoughlin winning silver.

Niamh Brady won bronze and Lucy Smyth finished in fourth. Julie then added a bronze medal for the 80m sprint and finished fourth in the 600m. The four girls then combined to finish second in the U13 4x100m relay.

The club also had five boys competing in the U13 category with four of them making it through to the 80m final.

Mark Litchfield collected three silver individual medals. His first coming in the 80m sprint before he ran a fantastic 600m race where he was unlucky not to win gold with a really brave display that also earned him a new PB of 1.44.

Mark then finished off his memorable day by surprising himself. After being persuaded by his coaches to try the long jump, he won silver again!

Ronan Dearey once again showed his multi talents by winning silver in the U14 shot putt and Dean Murtagh produced a fantastic performance to finish fourth in the boys 80m sprint. Both Cian Loy and Sean Allen open their season with decent performances.

The star of the St Peter’s AC show was Rory McLoughlin who collected no fewer than four gold medals in the boys U14 events. His first gold came in the 100m sprint, followed by gold in the 800m.

He then moved up to the U15 long jump where he again won gold with a leap of 4.21m. Rory was then joined by Sean Allen, Mark Litchfield and Dean Murtagh to win gold in the U14 relay.

Katie Murphy didn’t let her current knee injury stop her from winning the U17 shot putt with a throw of 10.08m and Ava Brennan was in fine form by winning bronze in the 100m sprint and bronze in the long jump. Craig Murtagh finished second in the U19 shot putt with a throw of 8.44m.

Athletes return to training this week as preparation continued for the upcoming Louth Championships which take place on May 5th, 6th and 7th.