A year to savour for Leevale’s Katie Kingston

As seasons go, 2025 will take some beating for Leevale AC javelin thrower Katie Kingston.

It was a year decorated with success at each juncture. Schools titles in the south Munster, Munster and All-Ireland competitions, preceded victory in Katie's own age category in the U19 All-Ireland competition. She also came second in the U20 championship, and then finished fourth at senior, holding her own in much deeper waters.

As the year went on, Kingston was testing herself beyond Irish shores, and passing those tests, too. Gold medals followed in both Wales and Scotland at U20 level, completing a fantastic season.

For her coach, Brian Scanlon, the results were confirmation rather than surprise. Kingston, he explains, is at a pivotal stage heading into 2026.

“Last year would have been Katie's last year as a juvenile athlete, she's now starting to progress into the senior end of it at U20 level,” Scanlon begins. “And that becomes a little bit more of a challenge for her.

“But to go out and win all of those is a great achievement, there's not a huge amount of people who would have done it, winning all three of the Celtic Championships.” 

The roots of that success stretch back several years, to an Athletics Ireland regional squad session where Scanlon first crossed paths with Kingston. Then, he explains, her potential was obvious.

“She used to do a bit of discus and a bit of hammer and everything else, and she'd qualified to go to one of the regional squad sessions and that's when I first started doing a bit of work with her.

“The fact that you qualify through from the squad sessions means there's a level of talent already there,” he explains. “What I found with Katie was, she was in a club that, yes they were progressing to develop her into a javelin thrower, but what was happening was, the knowledge was very limited."

That, Scanlon says, is a familiar issue in athletics, particularly with technical field events. Quality coaching is scarce. Kingston, he felt, had reached a point where the right guidance could unlock another level.

“She was a good talent and for what she was doing, with very limited resources and coaching, she was doing very well. We saw there was an opportunity for her to progress and to develop even more with a bit of guidance,” he explains. “That's when we had a conversation with her mam.

“We used to do a group on a Saturday morning in Leevale and she started turning up, and that's a big thing. Once you start turning up then, you know you have a level of interest in it.

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“At the end of the day you coach athletes for them to hopefully to enjoy it, which is one of the things I always enjoy in the sport,” Scanlon remarks. “And the fact that she's gone away and she's gone to Wales and gone to Scotland and done the Irish Championships as well here, it just shows that she's enjoying it.

She has put in a good bit of work, and there's more to there for her as well, that's the beauty of it.

“We’re working on a few technical things and sometimes they can take a little bit longer to come to fruition. So that just takes a bit of time, but it’s the journey rather than the destination.” 

Kingston, a handy footballer and golfer too, had a fantastic 2025, but it’s a year that could just as easily prove to be the beginning of it all.