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Delirious in de Leiria!

Ireland Ireland together standing tall !!

Craughwell AC’s history making U20 women’s team enjoyed a fantastic weekend at the European Club Champions Cup held in Leiria Portugal. Months and months of preparation finally came to fruition last Saturday in the biggest team event in the club’s history. Having qualified in June 2018 for the 2019 edition of the U20 European Clubs Champions Cup, athletes and management have juggled family, work, leaving cert, junior cert, college exams, other sports, injuries, holidays etc to finally get to the big day.

The travelling party comprised team management Mike Tobin and Aisling Keady, team physio Sinead Gaffney, team gear sponsor Celia Miskella of PM Technical, team photographer Daithi Cronin, team captain Laura Cunningham and vice-captain Lorraine Delaney and squad members Ailbhe Miskella, Alisha Larkin, Aoife Kelly, Arlene Earls, Ava Finn, Caoilin Milton, Ciana Reidy, Ciara Sheppard, Ellie Cronin, Eva Whyte, Freya Bohan, Lauren McNally, Leanagh Gilligan, Sarah Woods, Shauna Tobin, Siona Lawless along with coaches and family members including Lisa Thomas, Eddie McNally, Alison Finn, Rita Kelly, Kevin Larkin, Lucy Cunningham, Maeve O’Toole, Caroline Earls, Joe Delaney, Mary Delaney, Declan Sheppard and Emily Miskella.

Competing against the cream of European athletics from right across the continent, the Craughwell AC girls put in a superb performance to place 8th in the competition. For a club from a small village in rural Ireland, it was an incredible achievement to be competing at the top level of European athletics and one that the athletes will remember forever. Very few athletes from any club make it to this level and the club is immensely proud of the 18 girls who represented Ireland with distinction and with great composure at these championships.

A lot of pieces of the puzzle fell into place in the last couple of weeks. The fabulous set of gear designed by team manager Aisling Keady and sponsored by Celia and Paul Miskella of PM Technical/D&S Construction had all arrived, the last piece just 2 days before we were due to fly; our pole vault and javelin equipment was confirmed as acceptable oversized baggage by Aer Lingus; the Portuguese organiser confirmed our accommodation arrangements; a few injuries cleared up particularly team captain Laura Cunningham’s knee injury. Everything was falling into place and worries were starting to fade.

Eddie and Kevin size up the photographer before agreeing to get on the bus with him

Departure day arrived. We met at noon at Jody’s Spar/Topaz who were sponsoring our team bus to and from Dublin Airport and allowing us to park in the rear yard for the weekend. After several photos and some admin work, we got ourselves organised to depart on the bus around 12.45pm with a police escort from local custodian of the peace Willie O’Connor to whisk us out of Craughwell before Irish Water dug up the road!

The gang before departing from Jody's who sponsored our bus transport
pictured with Jody and also Paul Miskella of PM Technical who sponsored our gear

Our flight was at 7pm from terminal 2 but we were giving ourselves plenty of time to get there as the group was so large and as we had oversized baggage to check in. After a brief stop at Applegreen, we got to the airport with 3 hours to spare and headed to the oversized baggage area with the bag of poles and javelin. The bag was quite light but very long … almost 4 metres. To our horror the chap at the oversized baggage check-in whipped out his measuring tape, measured the length and slowly shook his head from side to side – his conveyor belt could only take something 2.7 metres long. We protested that we had explained this to the group booking department but unfortunately that was not enough to magically make his conveyor belt capable of taking longer items – but he said we’d have to go to Aer Lingus help desk to check it in as cargo.

That sounded ok – so off went myself Ciana and Kevin to the help desk. We were dealt with by a wonderful lady who spent at least 30 minutes and 10 phone calls trying to sort out our problem and get several different management approvals to redirect our equipment to terminal 1 where she hoped it would be accepted on a different type of baggage check-in/x-ray belt. There was no guarantee that it would work though, but she got a colleague to tag the bag and go with us to terminal 1 saying that if anyone could make it work, he would as he had a way with people. So over he comes, let’s call him Joe (not his real name) a giant of a man at least 6’6” or more … should have been a pole vaulter himself! … and without doubt the most popular man in all of Dublin Airport for at every twist and turn on the way to terminal 1, his colleagues had a big welcome for him “Howya Joe!”, got a thumbs up and a witty greeting or whistle or wink back. We couldn’t go wrong with him on board. As we got near the oversized baggage check-in, four terminal 1 baggage handlers were walking four-abreast towards us, looking suspiciously at Joe … tensely saying “Hey Joe, a little out of your territory here aren’t you mate, heh heh” as they drew their shotguns … it looked bad … “Howya lads how’s it going? Having a ball! Here’s where it all started!” ... came the reply as they joked together … no problemo … onto the check-in and of course the poles flew through, Joe escorted us back to terminal 2 and shook our hands, and we sighed a big sign of relief. The people we dealt with are a huge advertisement to Aer Lingus and Dublin Airport – fair play to them – so helpful and so friendly – customer service at its best.

The team on arrival in Lisbon Airport

It was ‘plane-sailing’ after that as we got on the flight with no worries. The flight got into Lisbon close to 10pm and we got a little lost on our way to baggage reclaim but eventually got there with all 35 people accounted for and we collected the bags and popped over to the oversized conveyor belt where our 4m wonderbag popped out just as we arrived. Off we headed out to arrivals for our bus to Leiria – we had been told to look for the guy in the red t-shirt standing next to the Vodafone store. A quick glance at the nearby Vodafone store came up empty but he found us as we were late and he had wandered around looking for us. We stopped off for a few photos and then headed onto the bus. It was around an hour and 45 minutes to get to the hotel in Leiria to the north of Lisbon, around 20km from the coast and pretty close to Fatima. We were staying in the Eurosol Hotel in Leiria where the staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful. The only tiny issue was that the hotel was comprised of two adjacent buildings and our group was so big, they had to split us between both buildings – but nothing could be done about that at this stage. We got checked-in and it was quite late at this stage so an early night was had by all.

First from the club to set foot in the stadium !

The following morning, the first thing to do was to sort out the accreditation for the team, their ID badges, race numbers, lunch/dinner vouchers etc – which had to be done at the athletics stadium. So myself Aisling and Sinead headed off under Aisling’s googlemaps navigation and got to the stadium handy enough in around a 20-minute walk. We arrived around 11am nice and early before other teams, which was good as it meant we got all our athlete accreditation done in an hour and any questions we had answered. Plus we had the honour of being the first from the club to step into the stadium 😊. After sorting out all that admin work, we waited for the others to arrive as they were getting the bus at 12.30pm from the hotel to the stadium and we would get lunch and then do a light training session. Noon arrived, followed swiftly by the team with lots of excited oohs and aahs as they entered the stadium. We took some snaps and handed out the team badges and lunch vouchers. And headed upstairs to the canteen to sample the local cuisine. With the canteen accommodating 32 teams with perhaps a 1000 or so people in total as well as 100 or more officials, it was understandable that the food would be simple and mass-produced. It was grand – I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to knock the effort of providing it ... but we ate in restaurants nearer the hotel on the remaining days.

Second from the club to set foot in the stadium !

After lunch we sat around for a while and then did a light training session from around 3pm with the warmup led by Sinead and then we split into groups for relays, distance, throws, jumps, hurdles etc just to get a small bit done at everything. While just a light session, it still took quite a while as we had only a few coaches to cover all of the events. Most of the group were finished up by 5pm and headed back on the bus. But a few of us were delayed finishing up on javelin, shot putt, pole vault, long jump etc so Aisling Laura Sinead Lorraine Caoilin Ciana Shauna and myself headed back at 6pm. Conditions had turned wet by then unfortunately as you might see in the background below.

Mike Laura Lorraine Sinead Aisling Ciana and Caoilin finish training in the rain

Lauren, Alisha, Siona, Arlene and Leanagh at the stadium on Friday

Ailbhe, Ciara and Sarah at training in the stadium on Friday

Alison and Eddie put the 4x100 relay team through their paces on Friday

Leanagh, Shauna and Siona being ID-checked by the local Garda 

Aisling and myself had to do a quick turnaround at the hotel at that point as there was a technical meeting at 7pm in the stadium for the team leaders to receive information on the following days competition. So we got a taxi back down for 7pm for that meeting. It turned out to be a lengthy enough meeting with lots of information communicated and some interesting parts to it – in particular negotiation of the opening heights for high jump and pole vault by the different team managers and also a partly political debate at the end of the meeting about the future of the event. European Athletics are reviewing its format for future years and there is a fear that it will not be held – the clubs who have been at this event regularly were very strong on making the point that this event is vital for the future of athletics in Europe as it gives official European competition opportunities to a lot more club athletes than the individual European championships. So back to the hotel after the meeting and everyone hit down to nearby restaurants for some food. The hotel was in the centre of town so it was relatively easy to find good options for eating out which were not too far away. Bed early then for everyone as we had a busy day ahead.

Sinead and Aisling represent the club in the opening ceremony

We had agreed to go in a few waves to the track on Saturday to suit competition times – Lorraine and Ellie were on early so myself and Daithi went with them at 8am, again it was nice to be there early as it took the pressure off. Both had to be in the call room around 9.30am. For those reading who not clear on what a call room is, for the bigger competitions athletes do not go straight to their event, instead they warmup as normal and around 30 minutes before their event (there is a strict timetable for it), they must be in the call room where they get checked in, numbers check, spikes check etc and put on their spikes and then they exit the call room to the track around 10 or more minutes before their event depending on which event, e.g. field events come out earlier to warmup at the event.

Lorraine and Ellie our first competitors of the day, looking nervous on their way to the call room

So we familiarised ourselves with the location of the call room and Lorraine and Ellie warmed up. Unfortunately, it started raining at this point as they entered the call room and the rain persisted for their event making it a little more formidable as the 400m hurdles which Lorraine was doing and the high jump for Ellie are events where a slippy track does not at all help the performances. But it was the same for everyone, and perhaps we are a little more used to the rain than our opponents! 

There was a short opening ceremony where 2 leaders from each club were involved in a flag-carrying ceremony. Aisling and Sinead represented Craughwell in this and proudly waved the Irish flag and the Craughwell AC flag as they walked in procession with the other clubs onto the track.

Lorraine had the privilege of being the first athlete from the club into action where despite the rain streaming down during her event, she ran a 2-second PB for a time of 71.77 in the 400m hurdles – a super performance from an exceptionally dedicated athlete. Lorraine was followed quickly by Ellie in the high jump … with the rain pouring down at this point, conditions were very difficult for jumping but Ellie put in a fantastic performance with a 1.50m clearance which tied with 2nd and 3rd place but put Ellie 4th on countback of knocked bars. A tiny bit of luck at 1.55m would have seen Ellie take 2nd place in Europe!

Lorraine in lane 6 at the start of the 400m hurdles

The second wave of athletes had arrived over from the hotel at this stage. Caoilin was next into action for the club in the shot putt which was being held in the adjacent National Throwing Centre … a 500m walk from the stadium. Caoilin had made a return to the sport earlier in the summer after an almost 2-year absence due to Leaving Cert and college but fantastic to see her back and in the squad and willing to take on the shot putt, not her preferred event as sprints and hurdles are her forte when she is back at full fitness. It was doubly hard in the throws as the Europeans are very proficient in the throws and it is the weakest group of events in our club due to spending more time on jumps, sprints, hurdles and distance running. Nevertheless Caoilin demonstrated great spirit to take it on and heaved the 4kg shot out to a PB of 6.95m to score a point for the team.

Caoilin was swiftly followed by Arlene who ran a strong 800m in a time of 2.27.49 – slightly down on her PB from 2018 but also an athlete who had to juggle leaving cert and athletics for the last 12 months and great that Arlene was willing to step up from her preferred event the 400m. Arlene later ran a blistering PB of 27.03 in the 200m. In the 100m races, Alisha raced to a fine time of 13.42 narrowly outside her PB with Ava and Siona both hitting PBs in their 100m race with superb runs of 13.53 and 14.08.

Ava and Siona on their way to the 100m start line

Laura fired the javelin out to 19.16 and later leaped 4.97m in the long jump – super performances after having to ease back on training in the lead-in to the championships due to a bad knee injury and again super team spirit to take on the javelin which is not Laura’s preferred event despite being our club record holder in it. In the triple jump Leanagh leaped to a best of 9.95m – struggling a little with getting the mark right on the board but a very solid performance in elite European company. Ellie was back in action later when racing to a Craughwell club junior record of 16.97 in the 100m hurdles hitting the perfect 3 strides on each hurdle, a super achievement as Ellie had struggled to get the 3 strides the whole way in training but made it look so easy in Leiria.Freya knocked a whopping 1.5 seconds off her PB when placing an excellent 5th in the 400m in a time of 61.37 – a great reward for another exceptionally dedicated athlete who hardly ever misses a training session.

Eva, Ellie, Siona (back) and Freya, Leanagh, Arlene (front) during the competition

Ciana flying high over 2.40m in the pole vault

Ciana was another to exhibit fantastic team spirt in the pole vault. Ciana is our club record holder in the event which she had jumped in 2017 but again leaving cert and college got in the way of things and Ciana hadn’t done any pole vault training in almost 2 years but gamely restarted it this summer and had it not been such a wet day in Leiria, almost certainly would have jumped a PB. Ciana put together a string of nice clearances in Leiria up to 2.40m and exited at 2.60m.

Sarah, Ciara and Ailbhe with coach Lisa

In the distance races, the club had more fine performances with a PB of 5.30.55 from Ciara in the 1500m and two incredible 21-second PBs of 13.06.89 from Sarah in the 3000m and 7.58.02 from Ailbhe in the 2000m steeplechase despite a fall at the water barrier. The strong performances continued in the throws with Aoife slinging the hammer out to 20.60 and Shauna spinning the discus out to a PB of 17.30 – again against formidable opponents from the European countries who dwarfed our girls in some cases.

Rita and Aoife pictured after returning from the hammer at the nearby National Throwing Centre

Mike and Shauna prior to the discus competition

 

A rare picture of our fantastic team photographer Daithi with Ellie

The day wrapped up with two exhilarating performances in the relays with the team of Alisha, Freya, Ava and Laura racing to a time of 52.18 in the 4x100 and the team of Freya, Lorraine, Arlene and Ciana racing a time of 4.13.13 in the 4x400m. Arlene was particularly impressive in the relay, bombing around the track and closing in on the leaders – almost certainly Arlene’s preferred distance. The 4x400m is such an exciting race to watch as the race ebbs and flows depending on the relative strength of the athlete running each leg for opposing teams. Our girls’ time of 4.13.13 is a new club record – indicative of the standard of this event.

Our 4x100m relay team of Freya, Ava, Laura and Alisha before heading to the call room

Our 4x400m relay team in the mixed zone with Freya, Lorraine, Ciana and Arlene

When the team points were totaled at the end of the day, Craughwell AC placed 8th in the team event – a super performance with all the athletes close to or exceeding their best ever performances in their events. The club are immensely proud of the girls’ performances and their composure on the track when pitted against the best in Europe. It was certainly a step-up in grade for the club and the response of the 18 girls was tremendous. On a personal note, I could not have been prouder of the team as I had coached many of the older girls for nearly 14 years – more than three-quarters of their lifetimes! It was so lovely to see them get to the highest level of team competition in Europe as they approach 20 years old.

At the victory ceremony at the end, the team celebrated like champions, proudly racing around the infield with the Irish and the Craughwell AC flags. One could be forgiven for thinking that we had actually won the competition such was the excitement amongst the team! 

Our older group of athletes with coach Mike during the celebrations at the end
Siona, Lorraine, Aisling, Caoilin and Ciana (back) Arlene, Shauna and Laura (front)

Team manager and team captain Aisling and Laura enjoying the celebrations

Celebrations after the event with a few stray Leevale lads squeezing into the photo

 

Ciana on top of the world supported by Lorraine !!

Sinead, Aisling and Caoilin enjoying the celebrations

Ellie and Freya looking a little wet after leaping into the steeplechase water jump !

Eva, Lorraine and Arlene enjoying the celebrations

Ciana and Laura enjoying the celebrations

After an hour of celebrations, we collected our 4m equipment bag and headed off back to the hotel on the bus and dropped the bag in the lobby as it was too big to fit anywhere else! And headed off in smaller groups for food as we were all starving at this stage as we were at the track for almost 13 hours.

A nice meal and a few hours later (a good few hours) we got back to the hotel around 2am. The most bizarre incident of the weekend then occurred.

At 2am in the morning, the older girls in our group were amazingly telepathically aware of a potential problem with our pole vault bag and cunninghamly hatched a plan that kept me and Lucy up late on watch outside the building by pretending they wanted to head off to a party in another hotel at 2am. A group of foreign athletes were gathered under the windows of our girls’ first floor rooms at this stage trying to encourage them to come to this party. Naturally we felt that it wasn’t safe – a group of strangers, in an unknown location, in a strange city. So the ploy worked to get us on guard outside the building watching the group of foreign athletes yelling up at the windows and while we were there, the strangest thing happened.

The Estonian team were leaving for home at 2:30am in the morning and had got onto their bus just outside the hotel lobby. They arrived out with a large bag of poles marked Estonia. Then the driver and the team coach arrived out with our bag of poles and put it on their bus!!! So I stepped into the bus and tried to remonstrate with them that these were not their poles. They had no English and I had no Estonian so the argument didn’t really go anywhere quickly except they were quite agitated and I was quite insistent that this was our bag – pointing out that my name was on an A4 sheet of paper attached to the bag. Finally after what seemed like 10 minutes, they said “okei, sul võib see olla” and picked up the bag and passed it to me at the front of the bus. I said thank you in my best Estonian accent and walked off the bus and back into the hotel where the night manager locked it into a room for me. These bags are large awkward things. I am not accusing anyone of theft but it’s hard to imagine that if you came all the way from Estonia with 1 bag that you forgot you only had 1 bag and thought you had 2 bags to bring home.

Shortly after all that drama, Rita passed by me and Lucy and said “its ok I’m back safe” and headed into the hotel. What? Was she taken by the Estonians too? I hadn’t spotted her on the Estonian bus! Only to discover the next morning that when we parents were all dining in the town earlier, we had left the restaurant and walked back without Rita, leaving her abandoned and lost in the city. We were walking back in two groups – the men with Joseph and the women with Mary and Mary thought Rita was with Joseph and Joseph thought Rita was with Mary! It took her ages to find the way back to the hotel – her first thought when she saw us outside was that we were part of the search party and hence the “its ok I’m back safe” comment to us and then was very puzzled by our lack of response as we coped with an international crisis!

Anyways all’s well that ends well, we had our poles/bag back, we had Rita back, the girls decided not to go to the party and a quiet word with the foreign lads shouting up at the windows encouraged them to leave!

Chilling at the beach!

The next day was a down day … we had planned a trip to a water park and beach around a 40 minute bus journey away. People took the chance of a lie-in for the morning except a few who got up to watch the Ireland-Scotland rugby game. We had hired a bus at 1pm to go to the beach/waterpark in nearby Vieria. Unfortunately when we got there, we discovered a padlock on the waterpark – closed until next summer as it’s off season – a real pity their website doesn’t include that sort of information! But it was right beside a fine beach so we headed there, camped outside a beach restaurant and just soaked up the sun while some got into the water. The waves were huge and the locals said the water was not that safe so people only went waist high and let the waves bash them a bit.

After a lovely relaxing afternoon which was just what the doctor ordered after such a busy saturday, we headed back to Leiria around 5pm and some went shopping, others went to the hotel pool and later out for our final meal. Back to the hotel then as we had an early 7.15am start the next morning for the airport and a very straightforward journey back to Dublin.

Back in Dublin

And back in Craughwell courtesy of Jody's
(and thanks John O'Connor for the homecoming photos - the first chance Daithi got to get in a photo!)

And back to Jody’s in Craughwell where we had a lovely greeting party to welcome us home off the bus in miserable wet conditions! We left our poles behind in a secure room in the hotel – 2 poleaxed experiences are plenty for 1 weekend and Alison is going to organize a courier to bring them home during the week.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend for the club and the girls and one that all present will have fond memories of it for many years to come. The club would like to again acknowledge the support of Jody’s SPAR/Topaz and of Celia and Paul Miskella of PM Technical in sponsoring the trip, the support of parents and of team physio Sinead Gaffney, team manager Aisling Keady and press officer Daithi Cronin who accompanied the team at the event and the tireless work of coaches Mike Tobin, Lisa Thomas, Mark Davis and Eddie McNally in coaching and preparing the team for the event.

Onwards and upwards and hopefully the first of many European team adventures!

To see more fantastic photographs of before, during and after our wonderful trip, click on the flickr links below:-

• John O;Connor - Track    Homecoming
• Daithi Cronin

 A massive thanks to both Daithi and John for the super photographs.

McNeese off to a flyer!

 

Damian back in action following prolonged injury and Summer of Rehabilitation 

For those who don’t know He is third from left, front row. First Athlete from Craughwell A.C.  to gain Scholarship to states. Smile says he’s delighted to be back with the squad.

 

 

The US Collegiate XC season is now well and truly underway with the release of the USTFCCCA Regional NCAA XC week 1 rankings on Monday, most teams across the country have now opened their seasons. The Cowboys did so at home in Lake Charles, LA at the annual McNeese XC Opener on August 30th, but this year with a twist for the men taking on the 6k distance rather than the customary 4k as we’ve seen in recent years. Both the Cowboys and Cowgirls took top honours on the evening sweeping the team titles for McNeese. Damian placing himself comfortably within the group and finishing as the 7th Cowboy on the day in a time of 19:06 in 12th place a respectable performance after setting the pace for the team through 2miles and having only been cleared to return to full training 2 months earlier following treatment and rehab from his Achilles tear last semester.

                                                                                   

 

 

 Still packed together deep into the race

The team then travelled last Friday, the 13th, to Houston, TX to compete at the Rice University Invitational right in the heart of the city. The men’s squad again on form finishing third on this occasion as the 2nd Southland Team (McNeese competes across all sports within the Southland Conference against 12 other schools) behind bitter rivals Lamar University of Texas but only by the very small margin of 4points (5 runners to score in American XC). Damian on this occasion right in the fray as the 4th Cowboy across the line in 21st place, with a time of 20:24 over the approximate 4mile distance.

The team will return home to host the annual Cowboy Stampede on September 28th where they will look to defend their current unbeaten records on home turf.

The rest of the season looks like this for the Pokes:

Sept 28th        Cowboy Stampede                                         McNeese State, Lake Charles LA

Oct 19th          Arturo Barrios Invitational                               Texas A&M, College Station TX

Nov 1st            Southland Conference Championship            Central Arkansas, Conway AR

Nov 15th         NCAA South Central Regional Meet              Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

McNeese Media                                                                     Meet Results

Schedule                                                                          Results - Rice                                                                        

Opener - Pre Meet

Opener - Recap

Rice - Pre Meet

Rice - Recap

                                                                                    

 

 

Excitement Mounts for European Champions Cup

Resumption of athletics training

Athletics training will resume over the next couple of weeks for all age groups - see the schedule below for details and contact information. It will commence on the following days.

• U7s (2013 or Senior Infants) - Tuesday 10th Sept 5.30pm
• U8s (2012) -  Thursday 5th Sept 5.30pm
• U9s (2011) - Thursday 5th Sept 5.30pm
• U10s (2010) - Wednesday 3rd Sept 5.30pm
• U11s (2009) Thursday 5th Sept 6.15pm
• U12s (2008) Tuesday 27th August 6.45pm
• U13/14s Monday 26th August 6.15pm
• fit4youth Tues/Thurs 7.45pm - resumption date tbc
• U14/15s - already resumed
• U16/17s - already resumed
• U18/Older Distance - already resumed
• U18/Older - already resumed

Best of luck to the Galway Rose !!

Best of luck to Galway Rose and former club member Orla McDaid in the forthcoming Rose of Tralee later this month.

Many younger members of the juvenile club may not be aware that Orla was a very prominent member of the club in her teenage years which were not too long ago. In fact, she featured as an u11 in the very first article posted on the club all the way back in 2005 ... craughwell-in-top-form-at-day-1-of-2005-connacht-cross-country-in-co-leitrim ... going on that year to place 34th in the National cross-country and her u11 team narrowly missing out on the podium when placing 4th in the team event.

She had many a successful day after that at Galway and Connacht level and at National level with teams including silver medals in the National U17 4x300m in 2011.

We wish Orla the very best of luck in the Rose of Tralee finals, a little more pleasant surrounds than what she will remember from her cross-country days! And you never know, maybe the Rose will bloom again on the cross country scene in years to come – you hit your peak running form between 26 and 32 years old Orla!

And to our club members and parents, come out and help send Orla off this Saturday evening in Cheevers. It would be lovely to have a nice group from the club there.

A few pics from the past below:

With her Craughwell NS Connacht Championship winning cross-country team (and a couple of Olympians :-)) in 2006– Debbie Kenny, Ailbhe Greaney, Sinead Gaffney, Katie O’Donoghue, Maria McNamara, Maireád McCann, Caoimhe Quill

With her U16 relay teammates at the Galway Community Games in Ballindereen in 2009
Debbie Kenny, Ashley McDonnell and Katie O’Donoghue.

With her U15 4x100m relay team at the National finals in Tullamore in 2009
Jessica Heneghan, Maria McNamara, Claire Ryder

With her U16 4x200m silver-medal winning relay team at the Connacht Indoors in Nenagh in 2010
Jessica Heneghan, Ella Bryan, Sinead Gaffney

With her U17 4x300m silver-medal winning relay team at the National finals in Tullamore in 2011
Jessica Heneghan, Muireann Maloney, Sinead Gaffney, Maria McNamara

Great day out at the Streets 2019

Craughwell had a great day out at the Streets of Galway 2019, with several people claiming PBs and several prizes.  The morning was hideous but by the time the race started it had eased to welcome drizzle and the muggy heat had faded, making for ideal running conditions.  In the team competition, there were several strong outfits in play including Ennis Track (regular winners), an impressive Castlegar crew, Loughrea led by Cathal O'Reilly, South Galway AC, GCH as always strong, Sportsworld and others.  Craughwell had a healthy mix of old and young and were not too far off the team prize at the end, pushing a top-class Ennis team very close.  Still - 2nd men's team was a savage result in this field - in fact 20% of the top 25 runners in the were from Craughwell and we took 3 prizes!

First home for Craughwell was Jamie Fallon who ran a very smart race to finish in 26.24, falling back at 5km to cool off before a smart push to the line.  Jamie is early in his build-up, and looking forward to the cross country!  He just pipped the hugely talented Kevin Mooney on the line in a finish so tight that the timing initially got them the wrong way around in the results!  Kevin is coming back from a break and is building really nicely, he missed Dublin marathon due to a cycling injury, but has plenty to look forward to - not least his wedding (Congrats Kevin and Orla on that!). 

Next home for Craughwell was Mark Davis (1st o45) in 26.56 closely followed by William Fitzgerald (2nd Junior) in 26:58.  It was a great run from William who felt super-comfortable (unlike me!) and given time, there's no telling how good he will be!  Jack Miskella was 5th for Craughwell - after a year of focusing on (and taking club records at!) 800m and 1500m, 8k was probably a shock to the system, but Jack had a brilliant run to smash 28 minutes with a 27:47. 

Everywhere you looked there was green and white, so we're from quite a fit village!  Brian Matthews beat his time from last year with less training,  Stephen Carty, Gavin Cooney, Brendan Treacy, Mark Campbell, Ollie Niland, Colm McAllen (pb), Reena Deely, Margaret Murphy, Laura Porter, Sharon Gilligan, Irene Fallon, Gerry Treacy, Brenda Casey, Aoife Mullane, Geraldine Fallon, Siobhan Gohery, Julie Gallagher and Marita Carolan all were listed in the results, but there were plenty others running that weren't listed against the club and I couldn't be bothered scrolling through the names to see the ones I recognize!!  One notable one is the distance coach, Lisa Thomas who had a great run herself in addition to coaching the 2nd Junior!  Well done to all, and to GCH on an impeccably organized event.

As usual, John O'Connor has the definitive set of pictures on his website (album 1, album 2, album 3).

 

Shauna Thrills at World Championships

In superb conditions, Craughwell's latest u17 International Shauna Bocquet represented club and country with pride in the World Para Athletics Junior Championships in Notwill Switzerland. Shauna won 3 Gold medals in the 400m, 100m, 1500m and took Silver in both the 200m and 800m.

Shauna displays one of her 3 Gold medals (this one was for 100m)

The popular Shauna will be a familiar face to many Galway athletes, regularly competing on the local and national road racing scene as part of her training, but this was a truly breakthrough week for this talented and dedicated athlete.

A Still from the TV Coverage of Shauna about to start the 400m

Shauna started off events by winning the 400m in a dominant front running display managing to keep her good start from getting eaten up by her strong finishing German opponent (see finish below).  The two athletes would go on to have many battles over the event, often trading places for Gold and Silver.

Shauna with a wide gap in her first victory

With the first event out of the way, Shauna proceeded to go on a dominant run, taking victories in the 100m, 1500m and a fantastic Silver in the 200m and 800m at the highest level of international competition.

Silver in the 200m

Shauna in still in Switzerland, but there will be a welcome home for Shauna at the track before training at Craughwell on Tuesday at 7:45PM.  All who know Shauna from any capacity (school, other clubs, road races) and want to give their congratulations are welcome to come along.

Results from the u17 events are here.

 

Buy-A-Block for Craughwell AC!

  

Construction work has recently got under way on the first phase of the club’s indoor sports facilities plans with the commencement of a 10x4m toilet block and 10x12m multi-purpose room. The project is 50% funded by the European LEADER Programme and the club will be adding significantly to its borrowings to help finance the construction. 

The club is asking its members and the community to help fund these facilities by supporting its Buy-A-Block fundraising campaign for the new building and toilets.

Many people are already benefiting from the club’s facility development through the use of its recently completed 800m walking/running pathway around the perimeter of its athletics grounds.

You can sponsor a block by paying €20 for a 10-week subscription to the club lotto via the club’s website www.craughwellac.com/lotto.

   

And each time you renew your subscription, the club will note your name against another block on a poster which will be on permanent display inside the building.

We are strongly appealing to parents and members to support the campaign. All funds go straight into the facility and you can cancel your subscription at any time.

Alternatively people can sponsor 1 or more blocks directly with a cheque payable to Craughwell AC and post it to Michael Tobin at Crinnage, Craughwell, Co. Galway along with your name so we can acknowledge you or your child’s name on the aforementioned display.

The construction work is being done by Luke McNamara of John McNamara Construction Ltd, along with engineering consultation from Iggy Greaney & Associates and design input from Kieran Quinn of Sean Dockery & Associates. Kieran and Luke are pictured on site below. The club is indebted to Kieran (whose family are in the club) for the design of the building and overseeing the procurement and building commencement process.  The club is also indebted to the 40+ coaches and committee members who have helped the club get to this stage. The club has invested over €520k in the facility since Sept 2014, largely funded by grants along with loans from Community Finance Ireland.

We are appealing now to our parents, our members and the community to support these volunteers and get behind our Buy-A-Block fundraising scheme by subscribing to our Lotto or making a donation. And help build facilities that will make a difference for all.

Weather permitting, it is hoped that the first phase of the building will be open by the end of January next year.

With the school building work due to start next year, it will be invaluable having toilets and indoor space on our own grounds. It is part of a longer-term plan to build an indoor training centre and to extend our running track subject to further grants being approved.

So please support our efforts, thank you!

Team Silver for Galway Women in National League!

County Galway Women's team who won silver in the Premier Division of the National League last weekend
Back row: Laura Cunningham (Craughwell), Aoife Sheehy (GCH), Sinead Treacy (Craughwell), Sarah Finnegan (Craughwell), Regina Casey (GCH); Front row: Rachel Finnegan (Craughwell), Sinead Gaffney (Craughwell), Kathryn Casserly (GCH), Arlene Earls (Craughwell), Nicole Walsh (GCH), Aisling Joyce (GCH), Lydia Doyle (GCH); Missing from photo: Freya Bohan (Craughwell), Mary Barrett and Aoibhin Farrell (Loughrea), Emma O'Hara (GCH)

Several athletes from the club starred with the County Galway women’s team which took team silver in the Premier Division of the National Senior League in Tullamore last Sunday. The team which was managed by Sarah Finnegan, came within a whisker of winning the League outright - just missing out by the slender margin of 4 points (which equates to the reversal of 1st and 2nd places in a single event with the winners Dundrum South Dublin).

Laura Cunningham flew over the 5m mark on all 4 of her attempts in the long jump to claim 2nd place with a best of 5.24m only 4cm shy of winning it – terrific jumping form to leap 5+ metres on all 4 jumps and in the process tripling the number of times she has cleared the magical 5m mark. Earlier Laura took 3rd place in the triple jump with a best of 10.13m and combined with Sinead Treacy and 2 GCH athletes to take 2nd place in the 4x100m in an excellent 49.38.

Sinead Treacy was also in top form, racing to a season’s best of 25.20 to place 3rd in the 200m and along with Sinead Gaffney leading the county to a comfortable victory in the 4x400m in an impressive 3:55.15. Rachel Finnegan took 4th place in the 400m hurdles in an excellent 70.24, Sinead Gaffney placed 7th in a tough battle in the 800m in 2:25.11 and Freya Bohan placed 8th in the javelin with a best of 18.83 into the wind.

It was a super performance from the club's athletes not to mention also the fine performances from several other athletes from the club who helped the county team qualify for the final in the earlier rounds including Ailbhe Miskella, Aisling Keady, Alisha Larkin, Aoife Kelly, Ellie Cronin, Leanagh Gilligan, Maeve Curley, Shauna Tobin and Tara McNally.

Also in action in Tullamore, the county’s men’s team took 5th place in the Division 1 final, helped by strong performances from Craughwell AC athletes including Gavin Cooney 3rd in the 800m in 2:00.87, Jack Miskella 3rd in the 1500m in 4:04.64 and 7th in the javelin with 14.65, William Fitzgerald 4th in the 5000m in 16:49.79, Luke Evans 5th in the 3000m steeplechase in 11:25.57, Ryan Gallagher 5th in the long jump with 5.50, and Gavin Cooney and Jack Miskella helping the county to 7th place in the 4x400m.

Kyle 6th on International Debut!

Kyle Moorhead made his international debut at the weekend in the Irish Schools international against England, Scotland and Wales which was held in Swansea, becoming the 23rd athlete from the club to represent Ireland in an international,

Kyle had a magnificent run in the 1500m steeplechase coming home as first Irishman across the line and 6th overall in a PB time of 4:41.33. It was a remarkable performance for the young man from Caherdevane who has been with the club since the age of 6 and fantastic to see his commitment take him to this level. And a proud moment for both his family and his local athletics club. Well done Kyle!!

Evan Hallinan Leaps to National Title

Evan Hallinan, National U15 Triple Jump Champion 2019

Craughwell AC’s juveniles were back in action again in Tullamore at the third weekend of the National Track & Field Championships where Evan Hallinan and Sean Cotter were amongst the highlights of the day. Evan leaped to a brilliant National title in the U15 Boys triple jump with a best of 11.09m sealing the gold medal. He later followed this up with a 7th place finish in the high jump, withdrawing due to injury at the medal-winning height of 1.60m. It was a remarkable performance for Evan as he has had an injury ridden few months due to a growth phase and training has been interruppted as a result. Evan's title adds to the Scottish triple jump title that he won earlier in the year.

Sean Cotter scorched to silver in the U17 Boys 1500m in an excellent 4:15.15 with Oisin Davis 10th in 4:22.13. It was a super performance for Sean who bounced back from the dissappointment the previous weekend of narrowly missing the finals of the 800m when placing 4th in a tactical heat.

Sean Cotter silver medallist in the National U17 1500m

James Furey took 5th place in the U17 Boys high Jump with a clearance of 1.50m and later placed 6th in the heats of the U17 3000m hurdles in 49.87. Lukas Schukat placed 6th in the U16 Boys triple jump with a best of 10.16m and 13th in the long jump with a leap of 4.94m. Ryan Gallagher had a massive PB jump of 6.21m to take 7th place in the U18 Boys long jump, only 11cm from the club’s U20 record in this event and unlucky not to take a medal due to the incredibly high standard on the day.

Ross McGuinness placed 7th in the U16 Boys 3000m in an impressive 9:58.22 in the sweltering conditions with William Fitzgerald equally impressive with 9:31.16 to place 8th in the U19 3000m. Aoibhe Fahy threw the javelin out to an impressive 26.10m to take 8th place in the U15 Girls event and followed it up later with 12th place in the shot with a throw of 8.36m. Freya Bohan raced to a 2-second PB when placing 4th in the heats of the U18 400m in a time of 62.82, just missing out on qualification for the final in 9th place overall and later placed 7th in the U18 heats in 13.75 and 11th in the shot with a throw of 6.71m. It was unlucky 9th place also for Aoibhe Donnellan who raced to a brilliant time of 11.03 in the heats of the U14 Girls 80m, just missing out on the final by 0.02 of a second.

There were strong performances also from Grace Keaveney 11th in the U14 Girls long jump with 4.22m; Alisha Larkin 12th in the U17 Girls long jump with 4.72m and 6th in the heats of the 100m in 13.79; Kyle Moorhead 13th in the U18 Boys 1500m in 4:27.79; Saoirse Pierce 6th in the heats of the U16 Girls 250m hurdles in 43.34; Millie Geraghty 13th in the U15 Girls javelin with 22.85; Andrew Power 13th in the U15 Boys javelin with 19.54; Ella Lyons 16th in the U15 Girls long jump with 4.49; and Ciara Sheppard 17th in the U18 Girls 1500m in a PB of 5:32.59.

Also in action at the weekend, Laura Cunningham leaped to a season’s best of 4.89 to take 2nd place in the Senior Women’s long jump at the IMC meet in Drogheda, leaping off her less-favoured right leg for the last 3 jumps which resulted in the season's best.

Thunderstorm and Downpours at Graded Meet

Laura and Lorraine competing in the Women's 100m at the Dublin Graded Meet

A small group of athletes made their way to meet number 6 of the Dublin Graded Meet last night, the first time this year that the club has taken part in it to my knowledge. The Dublin Graded Meets are a fantastic series of events with 8 meets taking place, one every second Wednesday from end of May through to August at 3 different venues in Dublin – Santry, Tallaght and Irishtown– and the officials are very welcoming to country clubs making the effort to travel up especially last night as thunderstorms greeted us as we arrived in Santry!

More information on the series can be found on www.dublinathletics.com. There are 2 meets left – 24 July Santry (200, 1500, mile, high jump, discus, shot) and 7 August Tallaght (400, mile, 3000, long jump, pole vault, hammer, shot). There is also a 4-series graded meet in Cork with the final day being next Monday with the following events: 200, 800, 3000, 4x100, high jump, discus, javelin.

Ben Garrard was in flying form in the 800m where he ran a blistering season’s best of 2:01.02 – faster than his indoor PB of 2.01.88 from the Connacht Indoors earlier this year and pretty close to his outdoor PB of 2.00.35 which he ran in sunny conditions in the National League in 2017. It leaves Ben nicely poised to break the magical 2-minute barrier this summer if the weather conditions are right.

Laura mid-hop on her way to a season's best of 10.31 in the triple jump

Despite the wet conditions, it was a good day also for Laura Cunningham, Lorraine Delaney and Shauna Tobin who all recorded season’s bests in their events. All 3 girls had eased back on the training and competition in the previous 9 months due to the Leaving Cert but are coming into form now as the season progresses. Laura raced to a blistering 13.16s in the 100m with Lorraine recording 14.39s on the wet surface – both excellent times into a +1 headwind on a saturated track. Laura later followed this up with a fine series of jumps in the triple jump culminating with a season’s best of 10.31 on her 6th and final jump. Shauna got to grips with a slippy discus on the wet night, spinning it out to a season’s best of 15.10.