Sat 21st Jan Dunboyne track 9.45 sprints group. Older middle distance group HITW meet at 10.15.
Sun 22nd Jan HITW 11am
Everyone.
Tue 24th NIA 7.15 athletics born 2010 and younger. Older group assemble for warm up at 7.50. Fee 4 euro cash on the night or Revolut to Mary.
Thur 26th Grangegorman at 7pm
Everyone.
See earlier posts for information on Dublin indoor championship. Anyone can enter once they have renewed their registration 2023. Registration forms on the website. Parents enter for individual events and club will enter the relay
Teams.
Entry Fee is €5 per individual event with no restriction on the number of events an athlete is permitted to contest. However, the number of events a qualifying athlete can enter in Nationals is limited to 3 plus a relay(s).
🚩 Closing Dates 👇 Day 1 & 2 – 11:59 – 27th January Day 3 – 11:59 – 3rd February Day 4 & 5 – 11:59 – 16th February
🚩 Age Categories 👇 Age categories calculated from 31st December in the year of competition. No athlete may obtain a birthday in the year of competition and compete in that age.
Category Birth Year Under 9 2015 Under 10 2014 Under 11 2013 Under 12 2012 Under 13 2011 Under 14 2010 Under 15 2009 Under 16 2008 Under 17 2007 Under 18 2006 Under 19 2005
We travelled down to Rathdrum today in good spirits carrying fond memories of our last visit there in 2014. That year represented the renaissance of our womens cross country squad when our team led by Niamh Donnelly 1st, won the Leinster Novice Cross Country Championships with 20 points. Supporting Niamh that day were Aislinn 4th, Claire (Brennan) 7th, Sinead 8th and Aoife Ni 14th. We also won the Leinster Intermediate title that year with a similar squad.
As usual this championship was superbly hosted by Leinster Athletics and Athletics Wicklow. Avondale Forest Park, despite some overnight vandalism to the course set up, was in immaculate condition. The grass had a nice texture with little mud and the temperature mild for this time of the year. Coming to Wicklow flat courses are not expected but its fair to say that the hills were many and savagely long. There were approximately six tough inclines on each lap.
Cliona decided to go hard from the outset and quickly built up a substantial lead. Aislinn, Eimear and Aoife Ni ran as a pack early on with Sinead following closely behind. Aoife D ran conservatively on the first lap with the intention of running through the field as best possible.
The longer the race went on the further Cliona extended her lead and finished an easy winner in 15.03. Sinead finding the hills to her liking gained places all the way around and running strongly finished 3rd and in the medals, closely followed home in 4th by Aislinn who had her best run for some time. Aoife Ni had having missed out on our pre-Christmas silverware haul had her heart set on a team medal and so it was to be. Running to her strengths she closed out in 6th place, again her best performance in some time. Eimear having an out of character off day finished in 8th and Aoife D continuing her improvement with a 20th place finish. We took the team prize with an extremely low score of 14 points.
This was our tenth cross country championship in a row and we remain unbeaten over the country since January 2022. This is athletic history and certainly the performance of this group of athletes was never done before.
Its very pleasing to note that the combined years of membership of our scoring quartet today amounts to almost 80 years. Cliona, Sinead, Aislinn and Aoife commenced their careers in St Dominic’s Cabra & Celtic DCH under the supervision of Mary and progressed through the ranks to senior status, unbelievable.
In two weeks’ time we will represent our country at the European Clubs Cross Country Championship in Spain and the week after that we will defend the National Intermediate title in Gowran Park, Wexford.
We will not wish to lose this title but to take our unbeaten run to 11 titles at the end of this cross country season.
We had 3 athletes in action at the National juniors In Abbottstown today. Cliodhna Ryan was first off in the junior 1500m and she had a very good run knocking 5 seconds off her previous best time. Clare o Connor was well up for 600m of her 800m heat but faded over the last lap and missed out on a place in the final. Joe Fogarty was the last qualifier for the 800m junior men’s final. He ran a very good final two seconds faster than his heat time and finished 7th. Very good season opener runs for all three.
Sat 14th Jan Older middle distance group and sprints group HITW at 10.15.
Best of luck to Clare, Cliodhna and Joe in the National junior indoors In Abbottstown today.
Sun 15th Jan HITW 11am everyone.
Tue 17th Jan NIA 7.15 assembly for athletes born 2010 and younger and sprints group. Older group meet at 7.50. Revolut 4 euro to Mary or pay cash on the night.
Thur 19th Jan HITW 4.45 older middle distance group. Everyone else Grangegorman at 7.
Celtic DCH 