Kiltoom sporting starlet performs well in Fencing West of Ireland Open

Modern Pentathlete Sionann O'Reilly Collins, from Kiltoom, was the youngest competitor at the Irish Fencing Federation's West Of Ireland Open in Galway at the weekend. The competition was run at the excellent sports facilities of NUI Galway by the NUI Galway Fencing club. The majority of the girls taking part were 18 plus, from either Trinity College Dublin or NUI Galway. This was Sionann's first fencing competition outside the Pentathlon and she was up against older competitors the majority for whom fencing was their main sport. Sionann (14) took part in numerous bouts before being paired up with a strong Polish Fencer studying at Trinity College. Sionann took the bout 15-8 to progress to the semi-finals where her opponent was fellow Pentathlete Naomi Mullins from Westport. Naomi beat Sionann 15-10 in a well fought bout and progressed to the final. Unfortunately, in the final Naomi narrowly lost out to an Irish Fencing fourth seed. Naomi took silver with Sionann taking her first sword fencing bronze. Both Naomi and Sionann are Modern Pentathletes and have competed for Ireland at international level in this sport. The Modern Pentathlon has five disciplines of Running, Pistol Shooting, Swimming, Horse Jumping and Sword Fencing. Another sport the two girls have in common is swimming where they both swim for the Athlone Swimming Club. Sionann sees swimming as her primary sport but enjoys the many disciplines required by Modern Pentathlon. The girls did extremely well in the fencing competition as you need to bear in mind that they would not be training the 2/3 hours a week like the other fencers at the competition. Sionann (Athlone Community College) and Naomi (Our Lady's Bower) train for 1/2 hour per week in Athlone under the guidance of experienced Irish fencing coach Tristan Parris. The previous weekend, Sionann ran in the Galway County Cross Country Championships (under-15 girls). The Ballinasloe team of 5 had a great run with most of team coming in the top 10. Sionann took an individual fourth place at the course in the University of Galway's sports complex. On a rainy day Sionann did well to keep up with the Craughwell team on a course that had a steep incline half way through the race. With 200 metres to go Sionann put on a sprint passing out several competitors and taking a well deserved fourth. Sionann's running has improved immensely since she started training with the Triathlon Ireland development squad and is looking forward to another week with them in Limerick at the end of October. Sionann also recently took part in a swimming gala in Sligo with the Athlone Swimming Club. She took silver medal in the girls 50 metre butterfly; fifth in the 50m freestyle and 7th in the breaststroke with personal bests in all three strokes. Sionann was part of the girls under-15 team that took gold in the freestyle relay. That same week Sionann from the Athlone Community College came third in the Westmeath schools cross country meet at Belvedere House.