Awards night for Newport Athletics Club

Two outstanding athletes, who have blazed trails of successes during the past season, have been named as the joint Athletes of the Year at Newport Athletic Club Annual Awards Night.

The coveted accolades were presented to Daragh Healy and Sophie Walker, who were described as two multi-talented athletes for their performances at county, Munster and national level.

Ann Fagan, Chairperson, Newport AC told the gathering at the Freigh Inn, Newport: “We are very proud of all of our talented athletes, who have continued to improve and succeed and have shown great determination throughout 2022.”

In the citation, Daragh Healy was described as a multi-talented U13 athlete who achieved a long list of successes in track, field and cross country in 2022.

During the year he was county champion in indoor and outdoor shot, Munster champion in indoor Shot Put with a fantastic throw of 9.58m and continued to qualify for nationals in three events, where his impressive achievement was certainly winning an individual national medal at the indoors, where he finished third in lreland in tough competition.

He also earned a new PB of 10.77 at the national outdoors, where he finished sixth in the Shot and 10th in High Jump - a new event he only started a few months prior.

During the cross country (XC) season he continued to show his talent, finishing third in the county schools, fifth in Moyne open sports and seventh in the county U13.

“He is a fantastic team player and helped his teams win three gold county team medals at the schools, in the U13 XC and in the 4x500m relay. ln CG XC he finished third, earning himself a place on the Tipperary team, which competed at nationals, where they finished an impressive seventh. This athlete also earned two Munster XC medals. He competed in the U14 4x500m relay, where his team finished second in Munster, after incredible performances by all.

“He earned his fifth Munster medal at the U13 XC, where he was a member of the Tipperary team who finished third county, qualifying for Nationals.

“This also marked his sixth National A Qualification of 2022 and topping off his XC achievements in 2022, this athlete competed in the National B XC, where he won an impressive two medals, on the Tipperary team who finished second county and with Newport AC, who finished third club in Ireland.”

The joint recipient of the Athlete of the Year Award, Sophie Walker was described as “a naturally talented U15 athlete, whose love and dedication to athletics and commitment to her training paid off in 2022. Despite battling injuries and missing some early outdoor season competitions, she came good again at the latter end of the season, to accumulate an impressive number of achievements,” her accolade read.

“At county level this talented young lady competed in a wide range of events earning county titles in 60m, 60mH and 200m CG, 2nd Long Jump and second TJ and third in High Jump, highlighting her versatility,” it added. She was a member of three county gold-medal winning relays in indoors, outdoors and XC 4x500m and compete in North Munster School competitions where she won a silver medal in the Long Jump and finished fifth in the 100m final, in tough competition. She went on to win three medals at Munster level and at national level set a new personal best medal qualifying of 10.58m in the Triple Jump. She cross-trained to compete in five events at the Munster School multi-events, where she earned three Personal Bests and came seventh and continued to compete in a number of event at national level and finished off the season winning, gold, silver and bronze medals at the North West Games Open Sports.

Joint winners of the National Champion Awards were Joss Hanrahan and Donagh Horgan. Joss was described as “an incredible athlete who only won gold medals in 2022” winning two county, two Munster and five national gold medals. Donagh was described as a multi-talented under 13 years athlete, who won county gold, silver and bronze medals in indoor and outdoor events and went in to record a personal best of 31.93m in Javelin at national level. Ann Fagan welcomed, Rev Fr Booby Fletcher, PP, New Inn, founder of the Newport AC to the awards and thanked Mary Jo O'Sullivan, Freigh Inn, for her continued support for the club throughout the season, the officers and the coaches during the season, all of whom combined to make it another outstanding season for Newport AC.