St Patrick's and Drinagh scoop school awards at Skibb sports

SKIBBEREEN AC held its annual school sports on the May Bank Holiday Monday in bright and breezy conditions, with the large crowd that turned up treated to an excellent day’s sport with competitions for all ages as well as some adult races.

While there was keen competition in the individual events, as usual the relays provided the most excitement with some excellent races. 

In the girls’ over-10 relay, Castlehaven were the winners followed by St Joseph’s, Skibbereen with Dreeny in third place. In the boys’ over-10, Castlehaven completed the double, followed by St Patrick’s in second and Dreeny again finishing in third place. In the under-10 girls’ relay, St Joseph’s – with two teams – claimed first and second places with Drinagh in third. In the under-10 boys’ race, Rath were the winners followed by St Patrick’s in second place with Dreeny in third.

As always, there was great interest in the awards for the best all-round schools. The Bill Swanton Perpetual Memorial Cup is for the best larger school and this was an extremely close call, with St Patrick’s Skibbereen winning by just three points from Castlehaven NS, while the Liam O’Flaherty Memorial Cup is presented to the best smaller school and here again the competition was very close, with Drinagh just edging out Dreeny NS by five points. 

The county track and field championships were held recently at the CIT track in Bishopstown, where a good number of athletes travelled from the club. In the girls’ under-10, Ciara Delaney ran very well to claim the silver medal over 500m while in under-10 boys’ Max Bailey claimed a very impressive double, winning gold in the long jump and bronze in the 500m.  In the under-10 girls’ turbo javelin, Diane Coakley had a great throw to win the bronze medal in third place.

In girls’ under-14, Mallaidh O’Neill also performed brilliantly, winning gold in a tough 1,500m race while she also claimed bronze in the 800m race. In the boys’ under-13 race, Jack O’Neill ran strongly to finish in third place and also claim a bronze medal.