St David's Athletics Round Up 2022/23

St David’s had a very successful year on the athletics front.

In the autumn term there were three different outings to Wicklow Athletics events, The season opened with Cross Country relays on September 27th. Much promise was shown and notable results included a second place finish for TY boys, Third Year girls and First Year girls while Third Year Boys finished third. As there were up to 22 teams in each these were fantastic results.

More success followed at the Wicklow Cross Country where our First Year girls’ team and Third Year Boys team took the top spot on the podium. There were also individual medals for Niamh O’Neill, Ella Andrews, Charlotte Hudson (gold), Rian O’Gorman, Poppy Mullally and Colm O’Neill (gold).

To round off the Wicklow events, Niamh O’Neill, Tim Phelan and Rian O’Gorman all had top six finishes in the Wicklow Trail Run.

In the new year the action moved to the Phoenix Park for the East Leinster Championships. The sibling duo of Niamh O;Neill and Colm O’Neill both secured spots in the Leinster final in the Minor girls and Inter boys category respectively. There were some terrific runs all around and medals for the minor boys in the B division.

Attention then turned to the track. At the Wicklow Mile Challenge. At this event, Teagan Mullally, Ben McLaren, Diarmaid Driscoll, Colm O/’Neill and Niamh O’Neill bagged medals. It also proved to be a good warm up for a triumphant Wicklow Track and Field Championships. The school came home loaded with medals. Lena Gleeson and Oisin Duff are Wicklow under 14 100m champions. In the under 15 100m Caoimhe Davis took second and Ella Andrews finished third. Charlotte Hudson earned silver in the Under 17 800m. Our relay teams had a great day - gold for the girls’ under 15 (Caoimhe, Ella, Lauren O’Leary and Jenny Keogh) and the girls under 14 (Lena, Laoise O’Gorman, Grace Hawkins and Teagan Mullally) along with silver for the under 17 boys’ team (Dylan Gleeson, Nathan Van den Bergh and Sean Hennelly) and bronze for the under 17 girls (Ella, Caoimhe, Charlotte and Sarah Duff). In the field events Niamh O’Neill won gold in the long jump and Danylo Biletskyi was under 15 shot putt champion.

A lot of this group then went on to compete at the East Leinster Championships where Colm O’Niell had a particularly good day out earning bronze in the 3000m and silver in the steeplechase and Charlotte Hudson won bronze in the 800m while Danylo won his shot putt competition.

A special mention in this report must go to Transition Year Student, Colm O’Neill who has been selected to represent Ireland at the European Mountain Running Championships in July. Well done Colm on your fantastic achievement.

All in all, it has to be said that it was a great athletics year in St David’s, Maybe the biggest success was that seventy students tried out athletics. Athletics is a fantastic sport where everyone can test their own abilities and enjoy the support of their teammates. It is open to all, from the most competitive athletes to those who just want to have a bit of fun. All are welcome and we hope to see even more St David’s students take part next year.