Tag: Athletics

Athletics News

Members of the Hazelwood College Athletics team who recently competed in the Nenagh Indoor Championships. L-R Megan Lenihan, Melissa Duggan, Ethan Kneipe and William Geoghan. Medalllists Megan, Ethan and William have now qualified to compete in the National Indoor Championships.

Athletics News

On Tuesday the 7th of March, the Hazelwood College athlete travelled to Neenagh Indoor Arena to compete in the Munster’s Indoor Schools Multi-Event Competition. All of the athletes did extremely well in their variety of events some of which included shot putt, long jump, 60m hurdles, 60m, 600m and 1200m. Our Medallists were Megan Lenihan and Máiríde Bennis. Megan came in a brilliant 2nd place in her competition – Junior Shot putt with a stunning new PB of 12.94m. Máiríde came in 2nd place in her Intermediate 60m Hurdles final, she also set a new PB.

The rest of the team did fantastically well but no one else was lucky enough to medal. Pictured are the Hazelwood College Athletics team involved. Back row (left to right): Vicky O’Connell, Aoibhann O’Keefe, Donagh McCarthy, Robert McCarthy, Jack McCarthy, Douglas Woolam, William Geoghan, Michael Brennan, Adam Sheahan and Brian O’Callaghan. Front row (back to front): Kiera Knipe, Emma O’Flynn, Molly McCarthy, May Junquera, Natalie Mason, Kevin Normoyle, Brendan Harding, Corey Knipe, Oliver O’Dell, Máiríde Bennis and Ethan Knipe. Missing from picture: Stephen McKensie, Jack Brennan, Megan Lenihan, Holly Beasley, Sophie Sheehan and Melissa Duggan.

Picture b: Recently, the Hazelwood College Athletics team travelled to Pallaskenry for the North Munster’s Schools’ Cross Country Competition. There were over 500 competitors there on the day. Eimear Lenihan came in the top 10 in her race and qualified for the all-Irelands. Seven other people came in the top 30 of their race but were not lucky enough to qualify. Pictured are (left to right): Michael Brennan, Ciaran O’Flynn, Jack O’Neill and Ethan Knipe.

Picture c: Hazelwood College students (from left to right): Megan Lenihan, Valerie Shanahan and Aoibhann O’Keefe who participated in the North Munster Schools’ Cross Country Competition as part of the Hazelwood College Athletics team.

Picture d: Hazelwood College first year students make their debut at the North Munster Schools’ Cross Country Competition are pictured at the recent meet in Pallaskenry. Pictured are (from left to right): May Junquera, Emma O’Flynn, Kiera Knipe and Natalie Mason

Picture e: Hazelwood College first year boys making their debut at the recent Pallaskenry meet of the North Munster Schools’ Cross Country Competition as part of the Hazelwood College Athletics team. Pictured are (from right to left) Kevin Normoyle, Brendan Harding, Brian O’Callaghan, Oliver O’Dell and Donagh McCarthy.

Picture f: Jack Brennan first year Hazelwood College prepares to make his debut at the North Munster’s Schools’ Cross Country Competition at the recent meet in Pallaskenry.

Orienteering News

Hazelwood College Orienteering Going the Distance

Recently, 32 students from Hazelwood College travelled to Farran Forest Park for the Munster’s Schools Orienteering Competition Course 1.

In the Post Junior Cert boys Douglas Woolam was the first to finish with a brilliant time of 44:04mins He was closely followed by Jack McCarthy and William Geoghegan with a time of 45:58 and 50:17 respectfully.

Jack Walmsley was the first to finish out of Hazelwood in the 2nd/3rd year boys category. He finished with a time of 50:38mins. Keith Falvey was close on his tail with a time of 52.34.

In the 2nd/3rd year girls Chloe Fitzgibbon finished with a time of 43:40. Sophie Sheehan, Melissa Duggan and Megan Lenihan finished with times of 47:44, 51:03 and 53:18 respectively

In the 1st year boys Brian O’Callaghan came in 5th place with a brilliant time of 17:00mins. Ciarán O’Sullivan finished in 13th place with a time of 26:40. Shortly after Stephen Long, Mark Kelly, Luke Walsh, Conor Hennan, Iain Kelly, Michael Noonan and Séan Magner finished with times of 28:53, 31:41, 33:31, 40:04, 40:12, 43:00 and 43:02 respectively

In the 1st year girls Ciara Knipe finished in 8th place with a time of 20:54. She was closely followed by Vicky O’Conell, Molly McCarthy, Emily Lynch and Emma O’Flynn with times of 22:17, 24:00, 30:00 and 31:51.
Overall Hazelwood had a successful Day in their first day out orienteering!

(by Mairíde Bennis, Transition Year)

Hazelwood Athletics Excellence

Recently, the athletes from Hazelwood College travelled to the Demense in Newcastle West for the first cross country race of the year. Hazelwood College’s Athletics team were very successful.

In the U14 Girls’ Competition Megan Lenihan came in a brilliant 1st place closely followed by Molly McCarthy in 3rd, Valerie Shanahan 4th, Emma O’Flynn 5th, and Emily Lynch 6th. The U14 Girls’ team secured first place overall.

In the U14 Boys’ team Daniel O Connor came in 5th place flowed closely by Oliver O’Dell in 6th and Steven Mckenzie in 7th. Brendan Harding, Kevin Normoyle and Brian O’Callaghan came in 13th, 14th and 17th place respectively. The U14 Boys’ team came in place 2nd overall.

The U18 Girls’ team came a brilliant 1st place with their members: Eimear Lenihan, Megan Lenihan, Andrea Garcia and Lorna Donegan came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectfully.

The U18 Boys’ team claimed a silver team medal. Michael Brennan led home this team in a brilliant 3rd place against some stiff competition. Douglas Woolam came in 5th, Jack McCarthy 7th, Corey Knipe 10th, Ethan Knipe 12th and William Geoghegan 14th

Overall it was a great day out for the athletes!

(by Mairíde Bennis, Transition Year)

Athletics News Roundup

Shining Silver Success

It has been a busy start to the semester for the athletes of Hazelwood College, competing on the provincial, national and even international arenas as they arena.

To start with, the most noteworthy Hazelwood athlete is Noelle Lenihan. Noelle, a fifth year student in Hazelwood travelled to Doha in Qatar to compete in the World Para Games in the discus. Travelling out to Doha, her personal best in the discus was just over 30m, which saw her ranked third in the world rankings. Noelle, accompanied by her father and coach and Dave Mc Sweeney, got a week to practice in Doha leading up to the games. During this week, Noelle indicated that things were looking good with consistent throws in the range of her personal best. This put her in good fettle for the competition. On the day of the competition Noelle, described as being as cool as a breeze, showed none of the normal nerves with a first international competition. Her first throw was a personal best just over 31m, putting her in second place. He second round throw of 31.68m was her furthest throw, cementing her silver medal. A silver medal at a world championship is a massive achievement, but what makes this even more impressive was that Noelle was competing against senior athletes. She was the youngest in the competition, by far. On top of this, her silver medal throw was a world record for her classification.

Hazelwood College wishes to extend Noelle and her family huge congratulations on her achievement. On the provincial front,

Hazelwood College sent a team of four athletes to the Munster Schools’ Combined Events Finals. Jack McCarthy competed in junior boys’ competition. This was his first time competing in combined events. The events for the boys included the 60m hurdles, long jump, shot putt, 200m and the 800m. Jack competed well, getting personal bests in the 60m hurdles, long jump and 800m, ultimately finishing fourteenth out of a field of fifty three.

Kevin O’Leary and Ethan Knipe competed in the intermediate boys’ competition. Both boys recorded more than one personal best in their competitions, Ethan ran a time of 28.7s for his 200m, taking one second off his personal best. Kevin recorded 3 personal bests, including 8.38m in the shot, 26.8 in the 200m and 2.35 in the 800m. These results placed Ethan and Kevin in 17th and 9th place respectively, out of a field of 32. With a further season of training under their belts, they will surely contend for medals next year.

Laoise Bennis competed in the senior girls’ competition. Although she was not in top form, due to missing training due to injury, she still did enough to secure the gold medal and qualification for the national combined events final in Athlone. The extra couple of weeks training between the Munsters and the Nationals stood to Laoise. She was able to improve her measure in the high jump to 1.52m and her long jump to 4.40m to put her in contention for the gold medal. However lack of time to train over hurdles and shot saw the leader open a gap that was going to be hard to catch. Going into the 800m, Laoise was in second place needing to beat the girl in first place by 20 seconds. She went out hard in the 800m, opening a lead of 7 seconds. However the leader spotted the gap and worked her way back onto Laoise’s shoulder to just pass her on the line. This meant that Laoise would have to settle for silver. It is worth mentioning that this is the first ever National Secondary School medal won by a Hazelwood College Athlete. Considering the form and improvements made by other Hazelwood athletes, this will not be the last.

World Record for Noelle

Congratulations to Hazelwood College student Noelle Lenihan on winning a Silver Medal for Ireland at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha. On her way to securing the medal Noelle set a new personal best on her first throw and a new World Record with her second throw.

Also congratulations to her father, Jim, who is also Noelle’s coach and all at North Cork Athletics Club.

Here is a video of the Victory Cermony from Doha:

Here is a video of the final itself:

Here is the story of Noelle’s success as reported on RTE Sport

Teenager Noelle Lenihan takes silver in Doha

Updated: Monday, 26 Oct 2015 16:30

Fifteen-year-old Noelle Lenihan from Charleville in Co Cork has sensationally won discus silver at the IPC Paralympic Athletics World Championships in Doha today.

The teenager, who was making her major championship debut, showed a complete absence of anticipated nerves in recording a lifetime best throw of 30.68metres with her very first attempt.

Impressively she followed this up with another lifetime best and new F38 world record of 31.64m with her second throw.

This mark was the best of her six attempts and secured her the much coveted silver medal behind F37 reigning Paralympic champion Na Mi of China with a winning mark of 33.59m. Renee-Danielle Foessel took bronze with 30.39m.

Smashing pic of Noelle with her world silver,proud dad & coach Jim & national coach @ThrowsIreland #irishroadtorio pic.twitter.com/vyz1j9CP4R
— Paralympics Ireland (@ParalympicsIRE) October 26, 2015
Reacting to her medal win Lenihan said: “I got a PB, world record and silver medal in my first major championship. I turn 16 in a few days’ time so naturally I’m going to gain more experience and improve my explosive power which can only results in further improvement.

“But for today I’m delighted. My dad, who’s my coach, and my older siblings are all here in the crowd supporting me which is very special.”

Speaking about Noelle’s performance, Irish national Paralympic throws coach Dave Sweeney said: “I can’t believe how well Noelle handled the pressure of competing at this level. She was like a seasoned pro.

“Even after breaking the world record she remained focused on the small details that we agreed would make her throw well. At 15 years old she has an incredible future in this sport. Hopefully they’ll have some great celebrations in North Cork Athletics club.”

Tomorrow is set to be the busiest day for the Irish team in Doha: four Irish athletes are in action.

Throwers Orla Barry and Deirdre Mongan are out first in the morning session in their respective finals; F57 discus and F53 dhot put.

In the evening session three time Paralympian wheelchair racer John McCarthy will line up in the heats of the T51m 100m hoping to advance to the final.

Another major championship debutant, Waterford’s Hayley Fitzsimons goes in the final of the F40 shot put keen to gain valuable experience at this level.

Finally Noelle’s success as reported in the Irish Independent on Tuesday 27th October

Noelle Doha

Athletics News Roundup

Hazelwood College Athletic First Term Round Up

The first term was a very busy and what turned out to be a very successful one for the Hazelwood athletes. The season kicked off with the Munster Schools Indoor Combined Events. This event requires the athletes to compete over five events, after which their points would be tallied. Hazelwood had four athletes compete at the competition, Kevin O Leary, Laoise Bennis, Gerard O’Donnell and Alison Healy, all four athletes competed very well, all four had personal best performances; Alison got a personal best in the Hurdles in a time of 11.55 and the shot, where she threw 7.06m. This was Gerard O Donnell’s first time doing this competition, but he performed admirable, achieving personal best in the 60m hurdles (12.14 seconds) , the 800m (2:41.5) and the 200m (28.30 seconds). Kevin O’Leary was competing his first year U17 so had a stiff competition to qualify. He ran close to his personal best in the hurdles (9.25 seconds) and ran a new personal best in the 200m (27.20 seconds), the hurdles bagging him close to a massive 700points. Laoise Bennis was on form on the day and despite suffering with shin splints she got 4 personal bests out of the five events: Hurdles (10.09 seconds), shot (7.15m), high jump (1.55m) and the 800m (2:43.7 min). This fantastic performance was enough to secure her first place as Munster Champion and secured her qualification for the Irish School Combined Events Finals in Athlone IT. Despite their fantastic performances Kevin, Alison and Gerard all narrowly missed out on qualification.

Laoise went on to compete in the Irish School Combined Events Finals in Atlone IT International Arena on Saturday the 15th of November. With a place on the national team for the top four places at stake, Laoise opened the completion well, reducing her personal best over the hurdles to 9.93 seconds. Next up was the shot putt where she had a solid throw of 7m. However, issues with her run-up on the long jump meant she only got 4.39m with 2 foul jumps close to 5m. A consistent jump in the high jump of 1.54m meant that she was going into the 800m in fifth place and a real chance of getting onto the national team. But some fantastic runs from her competitors meant that she finished in eighth place. Despite her narrow miss, it was a fantastic achievement.

Among the most impressive results of the first term were those of Noelle Lenihan, who competed in the Cork and Waterford para game. Noelle competed in the shot putt, discus and javelin, winning gold in all events. The most impressive aspect about her in that the games are open to all ages and, as 15 year old, she had to compete against adults to secure her medals. Noelle is now waiting for classification to be able to compete in further para games, with the possibility of making the national team and representing Ireland in international competition.

On the 21st of October, a group of 38 Hazelwood athletes travelled to Fota Wildlife Park to compete in the Munster Schools Orienteering League. This was the first time that Hazelwood had competed at the competition, so much was learned by many of those competing. Hazelwood’s best finishers, on what turned out to be an extremely wet and windy day, were Amy O Sullivan and Rosin Normoyle who did fantastically to finish in seventh and eighth places respectively in the First Year Girls’ Competition. Cory Knipe and Douglas Woolam came in fourteenth and fifteenth place in the Second Year Boys’ Competition. Hazelwood’s athletes faced crowded fields, manned by more experienced athletes, so this was an excellent result for compete beginners and bodes well for future orienteering events.

With an action packed first term packed with some fantastic performances, the second term look promising. This term we have the cross country, outdoor schools and more orienteering action.

Watch this space.



Picture 1: Laoise Bennis with the gold medal for first place in the Munster Schools’ Indoor Combined Events.

Picture 2: The Hazelwood College team who participated in the Munster Schools’ Indoor Combined Events. Pictured are (left to right) Alison Healy, Laoise Bennis, Kevin O’Leary and Gerard O’Donnell.

Picture 3: Hazelwood College’s Noelle Lenihan with the three gold medals she won in the Paralympic Games Cork Regional Final and the three medals she won in the Paralympic Munster Finals, which she won for Discus, Shot Putt and Javelin.

Picture 4: Hazelwood College’s Athletics team which travelled to Fota Wildlife Park to compete in the Munster Schools’ Orienteering League. Hazelwood College students Amy O’Sullivan and Rosin Normoyle came seventh and eighth respectively in the First Year Girls’ Competition while Corey Knipe and Douglas Woolam came fourteenth and fifteenth respectively in the Second Year Boys’ Competition