“Mick, how’s it going, Pat here. Are ya going for a pint later on Mick?”
“Sorry Pat, can’t make it, babysitting, Mary is gone up to the fit4life in Craughwell.”
“No worries, maybe Saturday evening Mick?”.
“Sorry Pat, bad day, Streets of Galway is on and I have to mind the kids when she’s running around and hold her water and a banana for after the race.”
“No problem, have to get the balance right. Sur we’ll catch up the following weekend. Meself and the boys are hitting up to Cheevers to watch Sunderland take on Liverpool in the Premiership. Up ya boyo Keano Keano Keano!”
“Ehhh, sorry Pat, tied up that day”.
“Don’t tell me, she’s off again”.
“Errrr … yeah over in Claregalway for the 10k, I'm minding the kids for a while. Not such a big deal Pat – its only now and then that she gets out.”
“Ahh busy out with this and that, you know the story”.
“Thinking of heading up to Croker Gerry for the hurling final on Sept 7th. Got pulled out in the draw at the clubhouse last night for 2 tickets. They’re like gold dust – are ya on for it.”
“Sept 7th is it, hang on a second just check the diary …. flip it Pat, the missus is running the Dublin half-marathon that day, can’t make it …. hello Pat you there … Pat … Pat ….. Pat ……..”
Join the revolution, get out and run! Contact Tony Nevin or anyone in the club for more details on getting started! And men can join the revolution too (so long as they take it in turns with their other half to push the buggy!)
Craughwells senior Athletes are enjoying a rich vein of form over the summer months.
Mark Davis has been in fine form taking his first road race of the season in the Annaghdown 10k. Mark took the top step on the podium in a remarkable time of 33:50 and setting a new PB, to top that he went on to take the Headford 8k No1 spot in a time of 26:42 only a few weeks later.Great stuff Mark, we expect nothing less now!
Johnny Lane is going from strength to strength and now regularly mixes it with the top
Maree 5k This Wednesday (in aid of Cystic Fibrosis)
Written by Tony Nevin
Saturday, 19 July 2008
There is a 5k charity run on this Wednesday evening at 8:00pm in Maree (Oranmore). It is in aid of Cystic Fibrosis.
I would like to encourage all of our club members to take part if at all possible (especially anyone who has run the 5k series) to take a measure of how their training has improved (disapproved :-)) since May, It will be like a reunion of the Galway 5k series held earlier this year and they were a great success.
As this is for such a worthy cause it would be great to see as many as possible of our fit4lifers out to make it as successful or even better than the May series. This may even be a good opportunity for some of our lapsed club runners to get back onto the roads and revisit the buzz around road running -Go on lads/lassies give it a go!This distance is suitable for all levels of walker / jogger / runner -no exceptions!
You can download an entry form and get all the info at – cut and paste the link below.
Another very successful evening's action at the Dangan last night! The results are over on the athenry website but if you like surprises you can just watch the races here. Viewing tip: if you have a slow internet connection, just click the play button and then immediately hit pause. Go for cup of tea and hit play again when it has downloaded the video. Enjoy!
Unfortunately I didn't get any footage of the field (shot putt) event. Click read more to see the rest!
Niall Rooney Claims 2nd jump medal at National Championships
Written by Michael Tobin
Sunday, 13 July 2008
In the club’s first competitive event since the tragic death of juvenile member Kyle McCrann, Athletics Ireland marked Kyle’s death with a minute's silence at day 3 of the National Juvenile Track & Field Championships in Tullamore. The PA announcer said a few very nice words of sympathy to Kyle's family and friends and the club are grateful to Athletics Ireland for their mark of respect. I believe a similar mark of respect was paid at the Headford 10k road race in Galway today.
On a day tinged with sadness, the club had six athletes in action with the highlights being Niall Rooney's bronze medal in the U16 boys triple jump and Cathriona Farrell's silver in the U17 girls high jump.
It is with great sadness that the club learned of the tragic death of one of its juvenile members, Kyle McCrann from Ardrahan. Kyle had recently taken up the sport of athletics following his success with the Ardrahan U16 boys relay team in the Galway Community Games finals.
He competed in the 100m and 200m in the recent Connacht Track and Field Championships in Dangan where he showed great promise for someone in his first outing on the tartan track.
The club wishes to extend its deepest condolences to Kyle's mum Aideen, dad John, brother Pearse and sisters Rachel and Chloe.
We will be starting term 4 Tuesday the 8th at 8:30 in Craughwell National School car park.
The Fee will be 20 euros for 10 weeks. Sessions will be approx one hour and take place each Tuesday @ 8:30pm / Thursday @ 730pm / Saturday mornings @9:30am.
We will have four groups- a walk group, a jog /walk group, a jog group & a running group. All are welcome especially absolute beginners!
If you have any queries email
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call Tony on 086 302 6798.
There are some excellent videos of the Galway 5K Series (Loughrea leg) over on the Loughrea athletics site - they did a great job on producing the videos, so go check it out and make sure you have sound!
A small band of 16 Craughwell athletes made the long trip northwards to Antrim at the weekend for days 1 and 2 of the National juvenile track and field championships, including Claire Ryder in the U13 girls 80m and long jump, Ella Bryan in U13 girls high jump, Kelly Harte in U13 girls hurdles, Craig McGill in U13 boys shot putt and javelin, Oisin McNally in U13 boys long jump, high jump and javelin, Maria McNamara in U14 girls long jump and high jump, Caoimhe Quill in U14 girls high jump, Orla McDaid in U14 girls 800m, PJ Kelly in U14 boys long jump, Linda Porter in U15 girls 800m, Paul McGill in U15 boys shot putt and javelin, Tomás Keehan and Niall Rooney in U16 boys high jump, Ruairi Finnegan in U16 boys 800m, Maeve Curley in U17 girls race walking and Rachel Finnegan in U17 girls hurdles.
Claire Ryder was back to her brilliant best in Antrim at the weekend where she leaped to a brilliant bronze medal in the U13 girls’ long jump. Having won an indoor bronze medal in 2007 in long jump and outdoor gold in 2007 with team-mate Ella Bryan, Claire was terribly unlucky in the indoors this year to finish in 4th place by the tiny margin of 1cm.But she put all that behind her on Sunday to jump her best jump since that indoor 4th place to seal a medal in these National Championships.
Claire got off to a good start in the competition, leaping a fine 4.51m on her 2nd attempt – her strongest jump in almost 3 months. After 3 jumps, Claire was in 3rd place and the top eight were given their next 3 jumps. Amber Barrett from Donegal was leading the event with a 4.75m jump from her 2nd attempt with Jessica Walker from Tramore in 2nd place with a 4.64m jump also from her 2nd attempt.
On Saturday in Antrim on day 1 of the National juvenile track and field finals, the highlight of the day was when Tomás Keehan and Niall Rooney medalled in the U16 boys’ high jump. This was a unique first for the club – the first time that 2 athletes from the club medalled in the same event in a National final. As the bar progressed upwards, both Niall and Tomás has clean records up to 1.60 with no knocked bars putting them in pole position for medals. Up to 1.65 and a first time clearance for Tomás meant he was the only athlete to clear it on the first attempt. Niall got it on his second attempt, equalling his PB. Four other athletes cleared it on their 2nd or 3rd attempts.
Nail-biting finish from Linda Porter seals famous bronze medal
Written by Michael Tobin
Sunday, 06 July 2008
Fresh from 800m PBs in the Connacht finals in June, Linda Porter and Orla McDaid were showing fantastic form in training these past 2 weeks and both were confident of new PBs in the National finals of the 800m. The standard of 800m at National level is exceptionally high in both of these age groups U14 and U15 so the girls’ races were guaranteed to be tough.
In the U14 girls, Elizabeth Carr from Mullingar and Laura O’Dowd from Leitrim were the pre-race favourites. Orla’s target was to make the top 8 and get a PB – something which was well within her capability having made fantastic improvements over the distance this year.
In the U15 girls, Amy O’Donoghue from Clare was the strong favourite having run under 2.20 in the Irish Schools 800m, with Ulster champion Iona Macey-Lillie also hotly tipped for success.
And in action in the U16 boys 800m, Ruairi Finnegan was hoping to build on his outstanding PB from the Irish Schools 800m against a very high quality field.
The weather has been really strange recently - yesterday was like a November's day dropped into July.. until about 7:00 that is when the Senior Galway Outdoor Championship Track and Field competitors arrived. It turned out a beautiful evening - perfect conditions for track events.
The events on show last night were the Mens & Womens 200m & 1500m, the Javelin, the 4x400M relay and an impromptu kids 60m race. Once again Paul Mac was the director, comfortable with Megafone in hand.
Some videos from the event are below - more will be added later to this post so check back - enjoy!
The results will be out soon, but Craughwell did quite well on the night - coming out with some medals in most events and having 3 members of the winning 4x400 relay team.
Our Javelin Superstar
Updated with Womens and men's B 1500m and kids races.!
Craughwell Juveniles represent Connacht at Tailteann Games
Written by Michael Tobin
Monday, 30 June 2008
A number of Craughwell AC’s top juvenile athletes were in action at the weekend in Santry where they were part of the Connacht team to contest the annual inter-provincial Tailteann Games, including Cathriona Farrell and Tomás Keehan in the high jump, Maeve Curley in the race walk and Kelly O’Donoghue in the javelin.
Mark Davis came first in the Annaghdown 10k race last night and thus becomes a target for the taxman. No official results yet but reportedly 33:50. A great performance and well deserved after all his hard training. Not sure what his limits are but the PB's keep tumbling... too late for Beijing but London 2012??
In splendid sunshine we had the first day of the Galway senior track and Field last Thursday. We had a decent turn-out from the club with considerable sucess - winning womens & mens Long Jump, womens & mens 100m and the Medley relay.
I had never really tried the track before and I found to be thoroughly enjoyable. Day 2 is on Thursday 3rd July so hopefully we can put forward another team then.
Strong Performances in Connacht U13-19 Track and Field
Written by Michael Tobin
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
In the U13-19 Connacht finals in Dangan, the club had a large contingent in action and came home with a huge haul of 14 individual Connacht titles, 11 silver medals and 14 bronze medals, along with 2 relay golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronze medals. This was an improved performance from an already strong 2007 performance where the club won 11 individual gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze along with 3 relay gold.
Foremost amongst the medal winners was Claire Ryder who came home with no less than 4 gold medals and a bronze – taking individual gold in the long jump and 80m sprint, individual bronze in the 60m hurdles and anchoring the U13 girls and U14 girls 4x100m relay teams to Connacht titles. There was also some splendid high jumping by Craughwell athletes with several personal best performances, particularly Ella Bryan’s 1.45m to win the U13 girls high jump and Maria McNamara’s 1.50m to win the U14 girls event.Full results of Craughwell medallists were :- (note, apologies for any missing information here – I don’t have a full set of results yet and am compiling this from information received from various athletes and parents. I will update this when full results available)
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