Katie and Gavin win All-Ireland medals

WHAT’S rare is wonderful, as Skibbereen Athletic Club is celebrating not one, but two medals from the All-Ireland juvenile athletics championships held over the past few weekends.

You have to go back well over a decade to find the last time Skibbereen AC won individual medals at the national junior championships. And, like waiting for a bus and two coming along at once, that’s how it was for Skibbereen with both Katie Kingston and Gavin Sweetnam bringing medals back to the club.

Katie kicked it off when she won bronze in the Girls’ U13 Javelin with a terrific throw of 30.35m at the national finals, and she was only 18 centimetres away from a silver medal. Incidentally, the winner was Bandon AC’s Aoife Calnan with a mammoth throw of 34.02.

This season Katie won the javelin category in the West Cork championship, finished second in the county, then won Munster before winning a bronze medal at the All-Irelands, throwing a new personal best with every outing.

There was more success to come as Gavin Sweetnam won a fantastic bronze medal in the Boys’ U14 800m which he finished in 2:13.32, and he was only three tenths of a second off the silver medal and less than one second behind the gold medal winner. Gavin won the 800m at West Cork level, was third in the county final before winning surging to gold in the Munster 800m and he has capped off a terrific season with bronze at national level. He also plays with O’Donovan Rossa and Skibbereen Rugby Club.

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Bandon Co-Op is delighted to be involved with and supporting many local community groups all over West Cork. This video encapsulates some of the wonderful people that we have the pleasure of dealing with #TogetherStrongerWestCork