Our incredibly talented Sruleen athletes created history for the school on Thursday as we brought back a record 14 gold medals and 16 medals overall home from UCD! The children have trained so hard over the past few weeks and it was very satisfying to see them get their just rewards for their efforts.
Amazingly, Sruleen won both the boys 600 metres and girls 600 metre races. Michael was the talk of UCD as he blitzed the whole field. It was an extremely fast start to the race but once Michael took the lead after 200 metres, he never looked back as he maintained an incredibly fast pace from the start to the finish to ultimately take home the gold! Michael has immense athletic talent and we hope this experience inspires him to take up running for a local athletic club!
Sarah ran a really clever tactical race in her 600 metre race! It was another blistering start to this one but Sarah kept herself in the middle of the pack early on and gradually started to work her way through the field before finally reeling in the race leader with about 200 metres to go! Despite being exhausted when coming into the home straight, Sarah summoned up every ounce of strength and energy she had left to hold on for the gold. She should be very proud of her fighting spirit!
Incredibly, Sruleen also did the double in the Under 14 sprint relays! This was Cora's first time ever competing in sports for our school. Her attitude has been brilliant during training and she ran the first leg brilliantly on the day. Abbie was sensational in the second leg as she seemed to eat up the ground on her competitors effortlessly. Her changeover with Maya was superb and Maya was the perfect candidate to run such a sharp bend but yet still be able to maintain her pace. It became a two horse race by the time the baton came to Zara in the last leg but Zara has devastating speed and was determined to bring home the gold and sure enough that is what she did as she held off her speedy opponent! A special mention must also go to Hannah who was the sub on our relay team. Hannah has a superb attitude and is an outstanding 600 metre runner in her own right and if there was a category for under 12 600 metres, she would have been the prime candidate.
Our Under 14 boys team came here on a mission and that was to improve on the silver medal that they won at Santry last year in the Under 12 finals. The ever reliable Mason got us off to a brilliant start as he ate up the ground on the two outside runners before Sean bolted us into the lead with an exceptional second leg. It had already became a two horse race by the third leg but it was the smooth changeover between Sean and Max which put us in a great position. Max being the outstanding bend runner that he is handed it to Zach with a comfortable lead and once the baton was given to a runner as powerful as Zach with a lead, the result was never in doubt. It is no more than these boys deserve after all the effort they have given us over the years and it was great to see Jamie, our sub, get his gold medal too considering all the great performances in goals he has given for the school this year. The boys and girls were absolutely delighted for each other!
A special mention must also go to Abbie who won the Under 14 sprint event outright! With this, Abbie becomes the most successful athlete in Sruleen's history as she now has three gold medals (two relays and one sprint gold). Anyone who has seen this girl's lightning speed and natural athletic talent on the football field would not be surprised by this feat but it is still a remarkable achievement all the same. It is also worth noting that Zara has also won two gold medals as she anchored the relay team to gold last year as well as this year. Tremendous achievement!
Sophia, who is really strong (and also a fantastic footballer), produced a fantastic performance in the shot putt to win the silver medal. While we were delighted for Gloria as she won the bronze medal in the long jump. There is a really nice action shot of Gloria's tremendous jump in the gallery.
Cian, who is a really fast sprinter in his own right, also finished fifth in the long jump. Oisin also performed really well as he too finished fifth in a really competitive Under 14 shot putt competition. Victoria and Lee produced some great jumps in the high jump event and both finished in the top ten.
Rhia, our fastest Under 12 sprinter, came second in her Sprint heat and reached the final which is a superb achievement. Sean also reached the final of the Under 14 boys making him only the second ever Sruleen boy to do so! Jake was in a really tough heat and narrowly missed out on a place in the final. Our Under 12 girls relay team of Alyssa, Emma, Adrianna, Rhia and Eileen were also unlucky to be in a very tough heat. The top two in that heat got medals in the final but the girls gave it everything and have two massive finals in the camóige and soccer to look forward to next week. Our Under 12 boys team also narrowly missed out on a place in the final by finishing third in their heat. This team included our fasted Under 12 runner Jake and some of the best footballers we have had in years in Dylan, Leon, Divine and Shane.
We are also all very proud of Sam who was so excited to run in the Race of Champions and was well deserving of the Gold Medal he received. I am sure he also really enjoyed receiving such boisterous support at the rail as he ran to the finish line!
We are very proud of all our athletes as every one of them gave it their very best effort on the day and we hope the experience inspires some of the children to consider pursuing athletics for a local club. We have had two very successful years in the CnmB athletics finals but the truth is that this group is the most talented group of athletes we have probably ever had and we are very grateful to have witnessed them compete for the school
over the past couple of years.
We also want to wish the very best of luck to our to our girls in their respective camóige and football finals next week. Let's go Sruleen, let's go!
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