Veale lands 10th National Senior walking title
Kate Veale of West Waterford AC, Waterford, celebrates winning the senior women's 5000m walk during day one of the 153rd 123.ie National Track & Field Senior Championships at Morton Stadium in Dublin. Photo: Sportsfile/Sam Barnes
At the 123.ie National Senior Championships in Morton Stadium, Santry on Saturday last, Kate Veale, West Waterford, won her 10th 5000 metres walk in 23 minutes 46.46 seconds. She had company for up to halfway but then piled on the pressure and won convincingly in the end with Aisling Lane, Mullingar Harriers, 2nd in 24 minutes 36.80 seconds and Eabha De Faoite, Kenmare, third in 24.56.99, and Méabh O'Connor, Waterford, with a very good walk, was 5th in 25.58.40.
Micheál Power West Waterford in the 1500 metres semi-final automatically qualified for Sunday's final by finishing 3rd in his semi-final in 3 minutes 48.75 seconds, the first 4 in each in semi-final went through automatically, in the final on Sunday he went into the lead from the start and was still in front 150 metres from home but eventually finished 11th in 3.58.44. Another to go through to Sunday's final was Ellis McHugh Ferrybank in the 400 metres hurdles from Saturday's semi-final, finishing 3rd in 62.44, and in Sunday’s final had a fine run to finish second in the final in 60.13.
Caoimhe Murphy Tramore missed out on a place in the same event on 65.28 on Saturday. Lucy Holmes West Waterford, despite finishing third in the first semi-final of the 800 metres in 2.11.74 on Saturday, did not make Sunday's final, nor did Luke Savage Waterford in his 800 metres semi-final or Emily Goff Ferrybank in her 1500 metres semi-final. Also out of luck on Saturday was Eoin Kenny in the 400 metres semi-final, where in heat 3 he was second in 47.98, missing out by a very narrow margin. Corey Scanlon, Finisk Valley, 7th in Discus on Sunday with 39.43 metres.
At the 31st Annual Conningéar Run in Ring on Friday last, 116 finished the course the first man home was Dermot Gorman Carrick on Suir in 31.41, 2nd was Naoise Mac Murchadha in 31.57 and 3rd Raivis Zakis both West Waterford in 32.54,1st M40 T.J.Crotty, West Waterford, 1st M50 Eugene O’Keeffe Carrick on Suir,1st M60 Ray Hahessy West Waterford,1st Junior Dáire O Coimín (Ind )Ladies 1st Angela Tobin West Waterford 40.02,2nd Niamh Uí Fhaoláin( Ind ) 41.06 and 3rd Shauna Deevy Finisk Valley AC 43.54.1st F35 Tina Walsh Carrick on Suir, 1st F40 Sarah Whelan,1st F50 Sareen Walsh both Clonmel.
European U-20 Championships, Tampere, Finland, August 7-10 and Leevale Open Sports on Saturday, August 16.
Streets of Galway 8km Road Race on Saturday, August 9th, The Waterford Greenway Eurofins Half Marathon, promoted by West Waterford AC, is on Saturday, August 30th at 9am. Entries are now closed, but if you wish to apply as an elite runner, please send your information to jvealeracewalker@gmail.com stating your name, date of birth, club and fastest time and location for either half half-marathon or 10-mile race run in the last 3 years. Half Marathon time: Under 1.20 for men (1.30 for women), 10 Mile Time: Under 60 mins for men (65 for women).
The Rōnin Challenge is a challenge relay event to traverse the Greenway from Waterford to Dungarvan and back to Waterford, 93.6km in under 8 hours, that’s approximately a 5-minute per kilometre pace. The race starts at 8 am on September 6th from the Bilberry Car Park, where the 1st runner in each relay team will start. The last leg of each relay team will be required to run into the official Waterford Greenway start point at Waterford Distillery on Grattan Quay and back out to Bilberry Car Park.
In 2005, David McCarthy, West Waterford, won the silver medal in the 800 metres in a tactical race well outside his best time. In 2007, Niamh Whelan Ferrybank won the bronze medal in the 100 metres in a personal best time of 11.87. In 2009, Shane Quinn Ferrybank won the silver medal in the 3000 metres in 8.30.12. Earlier that session, he had run 8.24.5 a PB. In 2011, Ben Kiely Ferrybank won gold in the 400 metres hurdles in a personal best time of 52.69; his twin sister, Megan Kiely Ferrybank, won bronze in the 400 metres hurdles, also again in a personal best time of 60.44. In 2013, Niamh McNicol Ferrybank won Gold on the Irish 4x100 metres team in the 4 x 100 metres relay in 46.58 seconds. Earlier in the semi-final, the team also won in 46.22. She joined Ferrybank that year from Tramore, with whom she had been competing for many years, and in 2025, Ellis McHugh Ferrybank won bronze in the 400 metres hurdles in 59.25, just outside her best time of 59.23.
