Athletics- Track and field season begins

While the start of the track and field season is a period of relative calm in the Irish athletics calendar, it’s all go in the USA where athletes are ramping up for the final season of the athletics calendar.

This week saw three personal best performances from Kilkenny athletes Stateside: Grace and Meabh Richardson and Hannah Kehoe (all Kilkenny City Harriers). Closer to home Callum Barron (Barrow Harriers), competing in his first ever Mountain running championships, finished second overall in the short course event.

Athletes abroad

Many of the athletes from the upper juvenile ages right through to senior and ramping up their pre-season preparations at warm weather training camps in Portugal, Spain and the Canaries or altitude camps in Flagstaff or Font Remo. Stateside, competitions are well under-way as the collegiate season culminates with the NCAA track and field finals from June 5 to 8 at the famous Hayward Field in Oregon.

The top 48 in each event will be selected from the two regions; East and West from the preliminary rounds. The NCAA first rounds run Wednesday, May 22 through to Saturday, May 25. The meets will be held in two locations; the East first round will be located in Lexington, Kentucky, and the West first round will be located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Three Kilkenny athletes will hopefully be aiming for Division 1 qualification; Shay McEvoy, Hannah Kehoe and Meabh Richardson, while Grace Richardson will be looking for Division 3 qualification at Myrtle Beach, Northern Carolina.

Chasing fast times for progression to the NCAA qualifiers are important. At the famous Bryan Clay meet in California last weekend Meabh Richardson earned a personal best over 5000m. Richardson’s time for 5,000m has progressed well this year.

Her initial race at Spokane, Washington in February, was indoors at the MSF Indoor Track and Field championships where she produced a new personal best of 16.50. Moving into March, the Portland University student ran 16.37 for a fifth place finish at the University of Oregon meet. Last weekend Meabh ran 16.31 to finish ninth in her ranked heat, marking an improvement of 19 seconds in the space of three months.

Hannah Kehoe, competing for the University of San Francisco, ran another 4.28 for the 1,500m. This is the same time that Kehoe ran for 1500m at the Stanford Invitational last week, where she was placed fifth in her ranked heat. Kehoe has competed over 1500m, one mile and 3,000m so far this year, with five races now under her belt. Among those five races are two personal best performances: 4.28 for the 1,500m and 4.48 achieved for the one mile at the University of Washington meet in Seattle in January.

On the other side of the vast landmass that is the United States of America, Grace Richarson is having some great achievements of her own. The third Kilkenny City Harrier to gain a personal best this past week, Richarson is on an academic scholarship with New York University studying for her Phd in Occupational Therapy. Under coach Tyler Deck Shipley, her improvements over this past year have been enormous.

After an exciting and accomplished cross country season, Grace has made an impact indoors. She has in this year alone achieved personal bests in 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m. Her latest personal best over 1,500m was at the Weaver Stadium, Princeton, where she ran 4.26 to finish eighth in her category.

“I am happy enough with this,” she said after the race. Richardson ran a gutsy race staying with the pack right up to the final 500m, when the pace quickened substantially. “I couldn’t for the life of me find another gear. It was going to be a PB for me though.”

A 3,000m best of 9.27 was recorded in February at Boston University. Then came a fast 5000m of 16.26 and a second-place finish at the D3 NCAA Indoor finals in Virginia. It was only two weeks ago that Richardson ran 34.06 for 10,000m at the Raleigh Relays.

It is great to see Shay McEvoy back racing again after missing the cross-country season through injury. Racing for Tulsa University Shay has already competed five times this year over distances of 3,000m, 5000m and 10,000m. His time of 28.36 recorded at Cobb Track and Field in Palo Alto, California two weeks ago is a new personal best.

Irish Mountain Running

Callum Barron (Barrow Harriers) finished second overall at the Irish Mountain running trials in Limerick last weekend. These trials were incorporated into the Seefin uphill challenge, where both long and short course races were held.

Barron won the men’s short course event and now waits to see if he can gain selection for the Irish team for impending international teams. This is his first foray into mountain running. Barron has made great improvements in his running over the past 12 months with a fantastic run last month at the Irish schools cross-country championships. Selection would mark his first green vest.

County Track & Field

With Easter a little earlier this year, the track and field season has begun a little earlier. The first round of the county track and field championships will be held at Scanlon Park (Watershed) on Sunday, April 28.

The programme will begin with the senior and junior programme in the morning. The juvenile programme will run immediately afterwards. Full details will be posted on the Kilkenny Athletics County Board facebook page. Stage two of the county track and field will be held on Sunday, May 12 at the same venue.

World Athletics Race-walking

The Kilkenny Athletics Grand Prix of racewalking will be held at the Pink Rock, Glenmore on May 5. This event is promoted by the Kilkenny County Athletics Board and hosted by St Joseph’s AC. This year’s race is a World Athletics permitted event and carries world athletics status for anyone wishing to achieve qualification standards. This is the first event ever to be held in the county that has been scheduled on the World Athletics calendar. In 2023 over 70 racewalkers from all over Ireland competed.

This year as a World Athletics event, that number is expected to reach over one hundred. Already there has been an expression of interest from athletes as far away as New Zealand and Mexico.