Harriers Athletes Display National Medals As Training Resumes After Summer Break

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Tralee Harriers AC members who competed in National competition in August and September. Front from left; Sadie Lynch, Jack Collins, Lucy Mulgrew, Sean Murphy and Aria Collins. Back from left; Samuel Regan, Kirby Anne Ryan, Patsy O’Connor and Chairperson of Tralee Harriers AC Martin Fitzgerald. Photo by Dermot Crean

THE Tralee Harriers Athletics Club went back to training after the summer break on Tuesday evening and it was an ideal opportunity to mark the achievements of their National Juvenile and Masters Medal Winners in the past month.

Six medals in total were secured at the National Juvenile Track and Field Championships in Tullamore in August for the club.

Sean Murphy took silver in the U13 Javelin and Kirby Anne Ryan bronze in the U18 Discus, but pride of place goes to Sadie Lynch and Aria Collins, who took gold in both the 60m Sprint and Long Jump u9 team events.

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National competition at that age is carried out on a pairs basis, so to have two athletes capable of that level of performance in the same club is rare, especially in disciplines as fiercely competitive as Sprint and Long Jump.

Sadie and Aria dominated both their events, with 2 PBs in the Long Jump seeing them with a combined total of 6.73m and almost a metre clear of second place, while they were also comfortable winners in the sprint by 0.5 seconds.

National gold medal winners Sadie Lynch, Patsy O’Connor and Aria Collins at the resumption of Tralee Harriers training on Tuesday night. Photo by Dermot Crean

At Masters level earlier this month, demonstrating that age is no barrier, Patsy O’Connor was competing on the national stage for the first time in the over 65 category.

Emulating the younger cohort, Patsy also came home with double national gold, including a new national record in the Discus of 40.85 metres. Patsy now holds the national records for both events at the over 55, 60 and 65 categories.

Tralee Harriers are currently in the process of developing their club grounds, with the hope that the laying of the tartan running track would be completed next year.

Harriers President Martin Fitzgerald, highlighted that a significant amount of fundraising is required to complete this work so as to provide the requisite facilities for the clubs athletes to continue to perform at such a high level Nationally. The club will be launching a fundraising initiative within the coming weeks.

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