The curtain came down on the Dublin Indoor Championships on Saturday with the u10 to u19 relays in the NIA and Clongriffin had a memorable day. With teams in all age groups up to U16 it was the biggest contingent of athletes the club has had at the Dublin Relays, with 70 athletes competing.
The scene was set with some of our youngest athletes, the Girls u10, first out of the blocks early in the morning and making their final and ended with the Boys u15 closing out the day late in the afternoon with a dramatic win to be crowned Dublin Champions.
In the past two seasons the Boys u15 didn’t make it out of the heats at these championship but with consistent training over the winter, they surpassed all expectations to not only make the final but also take Gold. Great role models for the younger teams coming through.
The Girls u16 have been on a similar trajectory and with a squad of 8 athletes they had two teams competing. One team made the final, for the first time, and in that they pushed a strong DSD team to the line to run a huge new Club Record of 1:48.26 to take silver.
The Girls u14 ran an almost perfect race with slick baton changing and also took the silver medal while the Boys u13 and Girls u12 took bronze medals.
All these five team now progress to compete at the All-Ireland Championships in March.
The Boys u10 got 2nd in an exciting final, holding off the chasing pack over the last 50m while the Boys u12, Girls u10, Boys u11 and Girls u11 all made finals. The Girls u13 have worked so hard over the winter and just missed out on a final spot by one place while the Boys U14 and Girls u15 were very competitive in their heats but missed out on qualification. Several of the squads had more than one team competing which is very encouraging to see as squad depth is very important in relays.
Big thanks as always to all the coaches and committee members who volunteer so much of their free time and also the parents for supporting the athletes and to those who volunteer as officials on the day.
Clongriffin AC 