Interesting Community Games finals taking place
With all our weekend one indoor team events completed by the deadline date of Sunday March 30, our attention now turns to weekend two.
The events that form part of weekend two are: Outdoor soccer for U12 Boys, U15 Girls, and 7-a-side soccer for U12 Girls; Gaelic football for U10 Mixed, U12 and U14 Girls; Camogie for U14 Girls; Hurling for U11 Boys; Tag Rugby for U11, U14 and U16 (all mixed teams).
Registration for these events closed on Saturday April 5 and the open draw was made in the Community Games Hall on Sunday April 6. All areas now have until Saturday June 7 to complete their respective competitions.
Our County Quiz was very well attended on Sunday evening April 6 in the Carmelite Pastoral Centre in Moate. Our quizmaster Kathy and her team of assistants (Anne, Emma, and Grace) treated us to a fine evening of challenging questions, all run off in a very organised format. The quiz consisted of eight rounds of ten questions, with one question in each round relating to Community Games and one pictorial round. At the National Finals it will be 160 questions in the same format. It came down to the wire with only one point separating the top two teams.
Rochfortbridge emerged as county champions just ahead of Kilpatrick, with Streamstown-Horseleap and Castledaly-Clonbonny-Ballinahown closely behind in third and fourth position. The top two teams will now progress straight to the National Finals, which will be held in The Watershed in Kilkenny on Saturday July 5. All were treated to tea and treats before and after the event, and thanks to all for organising a lovely evening.
On Monday April 7, we had just under sixty children enter for our gymnastics. Imelda and all at Athlone Gymnastics Club kindly offered to manage this event for us over the last three years. Belinda from Mount Temple-Baylin was our Community Games co-ordinator again this year and did an excellent job in managing the event from beginning to end. Our judges for the night were Saoirse, ably assisted by Rian. Community Games gymnastics is for boys and girls under 9, 11, 13 and 15 and below were the results. The first two in each event now go through to the National Finals, which will be held at The Watershed in Kilkenny on Sunday July 6.
U9 Girls: 1st Tessa Fallon, 2nd Adele Margherita Bertolo, 3rd Alana Spain, 4th Naomi Kilmurray. U9 Boys: 1st Donnacha Galvin, 2nd Rory Grehan. U11 Girls: 1st Macey Whelan Gavin, 2nd Saoirse McDermott, 3rd Cara Hickey, 4th Ali Hennessy. U11 Boys: 1st Salim El Masri. U13 Girls: 1st Caoimhe Clinton, 2nd Annalie Kelly, 3rd Aoife Smith, 4th Roisin Coyne, Cara Rossiter. U15 Girls: 1st Lexie Grady, 2nd Jane Carey, 3rd Casey O’Sullivan, 4th Julieanna Carey.
All our handballers were out in numbers on Saturday April 12 when we hosted the county finals at Mullingar Handball Club. Community Games handball is a separate event for boys and girls under 13 and 16. Natasha Patrizi and Fiona Staunton took on the task this year of coordinating the event. We were in good hands, with Natasha coming from the world champion winning family of McCarthys and Fiona also having competed at World Finals. Some of our third and fourth place play-offs were refereed by a young confident girl called Alanna Staunton, who was getting her first introduction to being a referee under the watchful eye of our overall judge Fiona. Alanna won the U13 event earlier in the day. The event took place at Mullingar Handball Club and all were treated to a great day of handball played in a very sporting manner. Games were shuffled around to accommodate children rushing between Camogie Féile and Handball, but all was done in an open and transparent manner, and all parents were kept up to date on the running order. We were treated to a kitchen stocked with plenty of food and treats for everyone who attended, and nobody was in any hurry to rush home. First and second place from our county event now progress to the National Finals, which will be held at Drumlish Community Centre in Longford. Girls’ finals will take place on Saturday May 24 and boys on Sunday May 25.
Representatives for nationals
Boys U13: Eoghan McKenna, Joseph Cullen. Girls U13: Alanna Staunton, Eanin Staunton. Boys U16: Enrico Patrizi, Conor Mathews. Girls U16: Grainne Heap, Mary Kate Gilbert.
Trials for mixed distance relays, with separate events for boys and girls under 12 and 14, took place in Mullingar Harriers grounds on Saturday afternoon. We also had trials to select members for our mixed cross country team under 13, run over 1,200 metres on grass, and the under 16 marathon over a 5km course combining road and grass. These are representative teams at national level and our trials were to select the children that would form our county teams. Thanks to Ciara Dillon from Mullingar Dublin Road South for coordinating these events. Our county representatives will now go forward to compete on the Westmeath teams at the National Finals of Weekend One, held at Gormanston College on Sunday May 25. The coordinators must look at the order in which participants crossed the line and will have to select the various teams. As the younger relays are U12 and the cross country is U13, some children ran in both events, so the coordinators have some work to do before they announce the various county teams.
Results
U12 Girls: Katelyn McCormack, Helen McGrath, Masie Walsh, Isabelle Morris, Heather Kelly, Sophie McLoughlin.
U12 Boys: Mel Bohan, Donagh Bourke, Noah Morgan, Olly Wright, Killian Hardman, Ethan Byrne.
U14 Boys: Gareth Glennon, Daniel Cummins, Harry Flanagan. U14 Girls: Amelie Kelly, Katie Bohan. U13 Cross Country: Gareth Glennon, Daniel Cummins, Amelie Kelly, Katie Bohan, Katelyn McCormack, Helen McGrath, Sophia McLoughlin. U16 Girls Marathon: Lilly Walsh, Elanor Kiernan. U16 Boys Marathon: Oisin Clarke, Evan Nohilly, Daniel Glennon, Morgan Isdell.
Saturday April 19 will see our county’s finest swimmers descend on the RSC in Athlone for the County Swimming Finals. Upcoming closing dates for registration are Sunday May 11 for Athletics Track and Field, with our county finals taking place in Mullingar Harriers on Sunday May 18. Monday May 27 is our registration closing date for Art and Culture weekend, with the county final taking place in Multyfarnham on Saturday June 7. Pitch and Putt registration will also close on Monday May 27, with the county final taking place in Kilbeggan Pitch and Putt Course on Sunday May 30.
We are also currently in the middle of the Leinster qualifying rounds of indoor soccer, futsal, basketball, rugby X7s, chess, draughts, table tennis and badminton, so plenty to keep everybody busy.
We have a new area that will be joining us in a few weeks. Saint Colman’s are in the process of affiliating, and they will be based around the Bellview/Towerview area of Mullingar. Keep an eye on social media over the coming weeks if you are from this area.