Weeshie's Week

Clare Fitzgerald is the Kerry Sports Star of the Month for February

March 4th, 2014
by Weeshie Fogarty

 Clare Fitzgerald (Tralee Harriers) is undoubtedly one of the great unsung sporting heroes of Kerry. So being responsible for the final selection of the winner of the new Kerry Sports Star of the Month Awards sponsored by I had the privilege of meeting up with the Tralee lady last Friday as she had been chosen as the initial winner for the month of February. On the very day I met Clare she had just been informed she had also been selected for the similar Cork monthly award ( is this double a Kerry first) and it had also just been announced  that she been picked to represent Ireland in the European Cup Winter Throws in both the shot put and discus. The championships take place this week in Leiria Portugal and indeed the European Championships in the discus are a realistic target for this superb twenty two year old Kerry girl. Her personal best of 53.01m is closing in on the 56m qualifying mark.

 Her achievements so far both as a juvenile and senior are absolutely staggering. Seven Irish outdoor senior titles, four for the discus and three for the shot, four senior indoor national titles including three-in-a-row and as a juvenile she amassed close to forty national titles. As well as all this she has won British under age championship and represented Ireland all over Europe visiting Hungry, Spain, Montenegro, Serbia, Germany and Portugal. Clare also spend a year in America training and competing. Her February award comes as a result of winning the Irish and University National shot out titles but really when one delves into her sporting life the enormity of her achievements really hits home. What other Kerry athlete has won as many Irish titles in modern sporting history as this unassuming Tralee girl? So how did she select these three disciplines, javelin, discus and shot putt, three sports fairly unique to Kerry? She explained, "when I was around eight or nine I joined the club, athletics was in my blood as my mother and father had both been athletes, winning Munster titles and in fact it was at an athletic meeting they first met. I tried all sports and eventually my style and build suited these events so I settled on them".

Clare is in her final year commerce course in UCC and like all great athletes her burning ambition is to compete at the Olympics Games In Rio De Janerio in 2016. So realistically what are her chances of attaining one of the highest and most difficult pinnacles in world sport?  "Discus and shot put throwers generally do not reach their prime until around 28/29 years of age" she pointed out, "so going by that I have a long way to go yet, as I am just 22 year old. The qualifying mark for the discus will be around 60m and my best throw to date is 53m so things are improving every year". Her improvements have been consistent and steady. However the secret to her success will not come from here at home as she told me. "I am throwing further every year but it is vital I get competition from outside Ireland, I am two to three meters ahead of the next best here and it's only by competing at the highest level I can improve further". She has decided to concentrate mainly on the discus, this suits her build, she stands close to six feet in height, and her Limerick based coach Sean Whitney works closely with her, she trains six days a week often twice a day, doing cardio, weights and in particular perfecting the very technical side of her events. She emphasized very strongly that the technical area of throwing within the circle and getting every single little movement absolutely perfect is the most difficult part of her training. One tiny mistake and all is lost.

In all sports expense can play a huge part in a person's career, and this year Clare is happy that the Irish Sports Council is helping out in travelling expenses and physo work. Her college UCC has also come on board with a scholarship. And she emphasized" my parents have been great and only for them I would not be where I am today". Kerry is not just all about football and hurling, the county continues to astound with the magnificent caliber of sports men and women who continue to astonish in the so called "minority sports" and Clare Fitzgeralds stands as a brilliant shining example in this respect. Her achievement at being nominated as Kerrys February Monthly Award Winner stands testament to this. She got the nod ahead of that month's array of International sporting achievements by Kerry men and women. Rally driver, Paul Nagel, international rugby players JJ Hanrahan and Siobhan Fleming, John Flynn from Tarbert won the Oaks in Clonmel and these were just a few names that came up for honorable mention. But who can argue that the Tralee Harriers lady is not a richly deserved winner.  And March will surly have another amazing Kerry sporting hero to reveal.


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