Two Bandon AC athletes were in action recently at the Schools International Track & Field Competition held in Cardiff. This is a top international competition with athletes from schools across Ireland and the UK being selected to represent their countries. Phil Healy finished third in the 100m sprint and had a super run in the 4 x100m relay which secured the silver medal position for the team. Seasoned International competitor, Laura Mc Sweeney finished in fourth place in the Shot and in sixth place in the Hammer. Well done to both girls who are pupils at ColΓ‘iste na Toirbhirte in Bandon.
Sprinter Joan Healy in action in Dublin produced an impressive performance recently the Clonliffe Track and Field Championships where she won bronze in the 100m in a time of 11.86. Success also for Bandon athletics at All Ireland level at the AAI Juvenile U12-U19 Track and Field Championships in Tullamore on 9th and 10th July. Laura McSweeney won the Girls U17 Discus with a new personal best throw of 35.07m. Sally Smith easily won the U14 Discus with her best throw of 32.81m being over 6m ahead of the second placed athlete. At U19 level, Patrick McSweeney won the Shot with a series of impressive throws, his best one being 13.44m. He also won bronze in discus. In the U16 category, Colin Kingston won a silver medal in the Hammer and Fintan Shaughnessy won bronze in Pole Vault. He also competed in Long Jump. Phil Healy won silver in the U18 100m only narrowly missing out on gold. The following also competed well at the event, Lynn Bradfield (4th U18 Discus), Carla Hicks (4th U13 High Jump) Daire Walsh (4th U18 400m Hurdles, Ella Nicholson (U14 High Jump and Long Jump), Bobby Smith U16 Long Jump), Phil Healy (4th 300m), Erin Kingston, Kate Bernard, Shane Howard and Cian Kingston. Well done to all these athletes who came through stiff competition at County and Munster level to qualify to compete at these All Ireland Championships.
The County Senior Track & Field Championships took place at the CIT Track on 8th July. A number of Bandon athletes were successful in the throwing competitions. Laura Mc Sweeney took gold in the Shot, silver in the discus and bronze in Hammer. Rachel Roche won silver in Javelin and bronze in the Shot. She was placed fourth in Discus. Priscilla O’ Sullivan won two silver medals in Hammer and Shot Putt. David Reynolds won the Javelin competition and came second in Discus and Shot Putt.
The Club held another very successful Summer Camp with capacity numbers of up to 100 children attending again this year. Upcoming events include the West Cork Summer League to be held at the Town Park on Friday 22nd July at 7pm. The AAI U13 – U19 Track & Field Championships take place on Saturday 23rd July with the AAI Juvenile U12 – U19 Inter Club & Inter County Relays taking place the following day in Tullamore.