Athletics, Ladies Football and Camogie are
the sports that make the short list to find out who is the person who impressed
most in July and be named as this sites ‘Waterford Sports Lady of the Month’.
July was a good month for all three sports
with a number of people in each in with a major shout.
In Athletics Kelly Proper had a number of
excellent outing’s.
The Ferrybank A.C. member had a win in the
200 metre event at a meet at Rhede in Germany winning in a time of 23.43
seconds which is just outside the time required to take part in next years
Olympic Games in Rio.
Kelly Proper also took part in the Cork City
Sports where she ran against a very strong wind in the 200m competition,
finishing second in a time of 24.38 seconds, and won at the Morton Games in
Dublin winning the 200 metre event in a time of 23.54 seconds.
In the National Junior and Under 23
Championships at Tullamore another Ferrybank A.C. Member Phoebe Murphy won the
Junior 200m title in a time of 24.93 seconds.
In the same competition West Waterford’s Lisa
Houlihan won the under 23 Pole Vault with a leap of 2.80 metres. She also took
part at the Cork City Sports where she finished in second place, one place
ahead of Megan O’Connor.
At the National Juvenile Championships again
in Tullamore there was impressive performances by a number of Waterford
athletes including Anne Corcoran in the under 17 Shot Pot, Lauren Shields in
the Under 12 High Jump and Kylie Heinen in the under 14 High Jump. All three
are members of the Ferrybank Athletic Club.
In the same competition West Waterford’s
Aoife Hamilton in the Under 18 Steeplechase and Grace Furlong from Waterford
A.C. in the under 18 Long Jump had impressive performances.
At the Glo Health National Juvenile
Championships, Nessa Murphy won the high jump with a 1.66m leap in the under 19
competition, Orlaith O’Brien win the under 17 javelin with a throw of 42.43
metres, while Prise Owoeye won the long
jump with a leap of 5.08 metres. All three are members of the Ferrybank Club.
In the same competition, others that
impressed from Waterford clubs were Katie Murphy, Grace Furlong, Hannah Jacob,
Orla O’Connor and Emma Caulfield.
Orlaith O’Brien took part in a Schools
International at Grangemouth in Glasgow and threw 46.56 metres in the Javelin.
And finally in Athletics, Mary Ryan Jennings
at the National Masters Championships at Tullamore had some excellent
performances in the 400 metre, 800 metre, 1500 metre and Shot Putt
competitions.
July was another brilliant month for Camogie
as Waterford won their way through to All-Ireland semi finals at Under 16 and
Intermediate levels.
At under 16 level, Waterford topped their
group with three wins and a draw. Wins over Antrim, Clare and Dublin were
registered with the draw coming against Cork.
Waterford are to meet Meath in the semi
finals and if they come through that game they will get the chance to retain
the title won 12 months ago playing against either Dublin or Derry.
To reach this stage of the competition
Waterford have had some stand out performances from the likes of Niamh Murphy,
Aisling Madigan, Anne Corcoran, Faye Curley, Saoirse English, Ciara Jackman,
Taylor Healy, Aisling Baumann and Chloe Dempsey amongst others.
If the under 16’s are standing out this year,
so too the same could be said of the Intermediates.
In July, Waterford had too good wins over
Antrim and Dublin in the group stages of the championship where players like
Beth Carton, Catriona McGlone, Dawn Power, Trish Jackman, Molly Curran,
Lorraine Bray, Aisling Power and Vikki Falconer have all impressed.
Waterford have begun August with another win
and are in the All-Ireland semi finals where they will play Meath in the coming
weeks, and while the Royal County Ladies will be difficult to beat, Sean
Fleming’s charges will be confident that they can reach Croke Park on
All-Ireland Final day next month, and add an All-Ireland Final to the League
Final already won earlier this year.
If July was a good month for Camogie the same
could well be said of Ladies Football.
In the middle of the month Waterford won a
seventh Intermediate Ladies Football Final in a row, beating Clare at Mallow.
On the day Waterford had some excellent
performers in the likes of Maria Delahunty and Sinead Ryan who hit five points
each, Grainne Kenneally who hit Waterford’s only goal of the game as well as
Hannah Landers, Mary Foley and Aileen Wall who all got on the score sheet as
well while Linda Wall was judged to be the Player of the Match also had an
excellent game.
At under 16 level, Waterford had good wins
over Kildare in the All-Ireland Semi Final at Freshford and then a hard fought
win over Roscommon who put a lot of pressure on Waterford late in the game in
the All-Ireland Final
Waterford in both games had some great
performers in the likes of Katie Duggan Sullivan, Abbey Dunphy, Keeley
Corbett-Barry, Rosie Landers, Abbie Dalton, Hannah Power and Chloe Fennell.
For the month of July mention of six players
who achieved something special. Michelle McGrath, Mairead Wall, Michelle Ryan,
Elaine Power, Nora Dunphy and Linda Wall were all part of the Waterford Ladies
Intermediate Football team who were panel that won the Munster Final, the
seventh time in a row the sextet of players had done so.
As in previous months, one player in
particular did that little something special over all the rest and like in
previous months, that player has not got a mention yet. Eagle eyed followers of
ladies sports in Waterford might have spotted this already.
So who is this month’s winner?
It would be very hard to look past one West
Waterford Lady as this month’s winner. Dungarvan’s Kaeisha Tobin is part of the
Waterford under 16 Camogie and Ladies Football teams and has impressed a lot in
July.
Many say it is very difficult to be a duel
inter county player in the modern games in either the men’s or women’s games
but so far Kaiesha is managing it, and hopefully will continue to do so going
into the future.
In fact the Dungarvan teenager is very multi
talented as those that log on here each month will have noticed that in the
last few months she has been mentioned more than once as she helped Dungarvan
United’s under 16 ladies soccer team to honours in recent times.
In Camogie she was part of the team that saw
Waterford beat Antrim, Clare and Dublin as well as draw with Cork and in Ladies
football she put eight points past Kildare in the All-Ireland semi final three
weeks ago and last week she put in a player of the match performance in the
All-Ireland final scoring 1-3 for Waterford on the night against Roscommon at
Nenagh.
To finish up, a reminder, if you are involved
in women’s sport and want extra publicity for your sport, email me your regular
notes (keanethomas@eircom.net) and I
will upload them onto this site for you.
