Young Craughwell AC star Emma Urquhart will be competing in a competition of a different nature this week when her drawing was selected as one of the finalists in the nationwide Doodle 4 Google.

Check out her doodle and other doodles at http://www.google.ie/doodle4google/2012/vote.html#d=d3-7 and please consider giving her your vote. If she wins, the school will receive a €10k technology grant from the software giant.

Peadar Harvey made an exceptional return to top form when racing a blistering 4.12.29 to take the silver medal in the National Junior 1500m in Nenagh at the weekend, breaking his own club record in the process.

Having had a muted cross-country season by his own high standards, this was a fine performance by Peadar and adds his 3rd National medal to the two he won in 2010 in the indoor 800m and 1500m

The indoor track & field season continued at the weekend in Nenagh with the AAI Games on Saturday in Nenagh together with the National Senior and Junior Pentathlon.

Sineád Gaffney had a fine performance to finish in 3rd place in the Junior Pentathlon with a score of 2504 points which included PBs in the 60m hurdles (10.87), shot putt (6.55m) and high jump (1.44m). Sineád also had strong performances of 4.51m in the long jump and 2.33.12 in the 800m, just a second outside her PB. In the same competition, Maria McNamara had an unfortunate fall in the 60m hurdles, taking a heavy knock which ruled her out of the other events besides the shot putt. Maria threw 7.62m in the shot putt.

In the senior pentathlon, Sarah Finnegan took 4th place with a score of 2429 points which included a leap of 4.65m in the long jump, 1.41m in the high jump, 6.48m in the shot putt, 10.18 in the 60m hurdles and 2.50.58 in the 800m.

The AAI Games took place on the same day in Nenagh where Ashley McDonnell, Claire Ryder, Kate O’Donoghue, Maireád McCan and Rachel Finnegan were competed. Ashley had a fine performance in the long jump, jumping 3 PBs of 4.99, 5.04 and 5.05m – her first time over the 5m mark. Katie O’Donoghue was another to have a fantastic day with PBs in the 60m and in the shot putt and in both cases, setting new senior records for the club. Katie’s time in the sprint was 8.32s beating the old record of 8.44s held by Claire Ryder while her shot putt of 8.25m beat the existing club indoor record held by Maria McNamara by the tiny margin of 2cm.

Claire illustrated that she is heading back towards her best in the long jump with 4.39m but leaping a good 50cm behind the break point on the board. Likewise Maireád McCan had a good jump of 4.68m which was at least 30cm behind the break point. Maireád earlier showed good form with an 8.61 time in the 60m despite visibly struggling with an injury in the latter stages of the race. The multi-talented Maireád threw the shot putt out to a new PB of 7.58m and in the high jump made a valiant attempt at a new PB of 1.47m but bowed out with injury. Rachel Finnegan recorded good results of 8.89s in the 60m sprint and 9.13m in the triple jump.

A little delayed in posting this article on some outstanding performances in the Galway Indoor Track & Field Championships which were held in Nenagh earlier this month.

There were many highlights to a fantastic day of athletics in Nenagh which saw Craughwell AC come out as the top club in terms of both participation and success with over 120 athletes from the club taking part across the range of senior and juvenile events.

Highlight of the day had to be the breathtaking performance by the U17 boys 4x200m which saw Conor Duggan snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, beating the two Galway City Harrier teams in the process and with all 3 teams credited with the same time of 1:46.7.

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 I have updated the fixture list based on all currently known fixtures. Please review it if competing in track and field or club/schools cross country. The updated list is here.

Please note that the date and venue of the secondary schools cross country has changed from what I had listed previously.

Also, this week we need to complete juvenile registration for 2012. The form is on the website here. We will be handing it out at training sessions during this week or you can download it from the aforementioned link. We will also be handing out 3 copies of the club's annual calendar which we hope members can sell to their neighbours and also bags for the clothes recycling scheme that the club runs as a fund-raiser. Both of these schemes are critical fund-raisers for the club - with the proceeds going towards the provision of facilities for the club.

You can also bring the completed registration form to the juvenile AGM which is on Wednesday at 8.30pm in St Michael's hall - see details here.

The AGM will take place on Wednesday 18th January at 8.30pm in St. Michael's Hall in Craughwell.

All members are encouraged to attend including coaches and parents. Juvenile athletes who are aged 16 or older are also encouraged to attend and are entitled to vote at the AGM.

It is motivating for coaches to have a well-attended AGM because it shows interest on the part of members and parents in how the club is being run, so please consider giving up 1 hour of your time that night.

  
Last year's election of officers

The normal business of the AGM is to review the year gone by, review the treasurers report, elect the committee for next year and discuss any other business that attendees wish to raise. No one will be pressurised into taking on a job at the AGM!

Note bingo is on in the hall from earlier that night so you will likely have to park along the road.

A big thank you to all who helped with the Galway Indoor Track & Field yesterday in Nenagh. Things went reasonably smoothy but I'm sure there are still plenty of areas where we could improve and make it a more efficient and enjoyable day. If anyone (from any participating club) has ideas or suggestions on this, please send them onto me at .

Well done to all of the athletes who took part ... there were some exceptional performances all around. And if you didn't win a medal but got a new personal best - that's as good as a medal.

It was great to see good participation from all of the Galway clubs, particularly the 2 new clubs East Galway and South Galway and also Loughrea's largest juvenile squad in many years.

Provisional results are available at:-

http://www.craughwellac.com/images/2012/indoors/resultsgalwaycountyindoors2012.pdf

If there are any inaccuracies, please let me know and I will double-check the results. Clubs can also send me the names of their relay teams and I will add the names to the results and republish.

And for our own club members and parents - a huge well done to everyone, we had huge numbers taking part and many exceptional performances. I will add a more detailed report on these performances to the website tomorrow night.

The club wishes all of our members a very Happy Christmas and a successful New Year! This article is intended to be a quick recap on the year and also a quick update on a few things including

• the Galway Indoor track & field
• National B cross country
• progress with improving our facilities
• fund-raising activities
• 2012 registration
• a possible club yearbook early in 2012.

We have a small break from training over the Christmas before we recommence training (for some during the holidays and for others early in the New Year).