Who is the stand out person in ladies sport in Waterford for the month of July?

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.