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Athletics Ireland today released the names of the athletes representing Ireland for the upcoming Celtic Games to be held in Santry on August 5th (http://www.athleticsireland.ie/news/celtic-games-team-announced-2017/).  Athenry ACs own Ryan McNelis (on left of picture) will be representing Ireland in the 400m Hurdles as part of the Irish Development squad.  Ryan's selection is just reward for the hard work that he has put in over the past 6 months which culminated in a fantastic silver medal at the recent Irish Life Health National Juvenile T&F Championships where he smashed his PB by nearly 3 seconds to set a fantastic time of 56.81s.  This really has been a breakthrough year for Ryan in his first real competitive season over the 400m Hurdles, and the juvenile medal goes along with the national junior silver medal he also received earlier this summer.  We all wish Ryan the best of luck at the Celtics and look forward to seeing further progression from him over the next 12 months.

There will be 8 County Galway athletes representing Ireland at the Celtic Games - Aoife Sheehy (GCH) – 400mH & 4x400m, Lydia Doyle (GCH) – 100mH & 4x100m, Laura Nally (GCH) – 4x400m, Chloe Casey (Craughwell) – Discus, Jerry Keary (Craughwell) – High Jump, Laura Cunningham (Craughwell) – Triple Jump, Ryan McNelis (Athenry) – 400mH and Daniel Callanan-Forde (Loughrea) – Triple Jump.  Coupled with the recent inclusion of Cillin Greene and Alanna Lally at the U20 and U23 European Championships respectively there really is a resurgence in County Galway athletes making a mark on the National athletics scene. Long may this continue.