The recent Dublin Spraoi Games saw six Clongriffin teams compete. The Spraoi Games are for u9 to u11 athletes (2016 to 2018) and prioritise developing physical literacy and enjoyment.

First out of the blocks were the Girls and Boys u9 and this was their first competition. And what a debut it was for them across the 60m, 300m, Long Jump and Turbo.

The Girls and Boys u10 were next up in the late morning session and they also had a brilliant competition and finally the Girls and Boys u11 competing in their final Spraoi closed out the day.

Well done to all the athletes and the coaching teams.

The Dublin Indoors recently completed and it was a great championships for Clongriffin. The 2015 Age Group were competing in their first championships in the u12 and we also a contingent competing in the u18 age group for the first time only.

While medals and finalists may grab the headlines it was very heartening for the Club’s coaches to see so many athletes competing with over 80% of club membership out competing. This was across the full range of events from Sprints, Hurdles, Shot Putt, Middle Distance, Walk, Triple Jump, Long Jump and High Jump.

Jumps saw really good progress for the Club and Clongriffin were Top Dublin Club across the Jumps event. The Throws Group continue to grow while Sprints and Middle Distance had large numbers of competitors and medals and finalists to boot.

Athletes who finish in the Top 4 will proceed to compete in the All-Ireland Championships in March.

Medalists & Top 4 Finishers

Gold: Ella (200m & 800m), Keane (400m), Robin (Long Jump), Patryk (Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump), Aoife (High Jump), Liliya (Triple Jump), Girls 16 (Relay), Boys 17 (Relay), Mixed 17 (Relay), Boys 18 (Relay).

Silver: Eva (60m), Adam (60m & 200m), Dylan (60m & 200m), Etienne (60m Hurdles), Robyn (Long Jump), Timur (Long Jump & Triple Jump), Sarah (60m Hurdles), Nikita (High Jump), Lauren (Walk), Robin (Triple Jump), Boys 13 (Relay)

Bronze: Quinn (60m), Leon (60m Hurdles), Sophie (60m Hurdles), Keane (60m Hurdles), Jaden (200m), Sarah (Long Jump), Hania (Long Jump), Mark (Long Jump), Lily (Long Jump), Mikey (Shot Putt), Robin (High Jump), Ella (1500m), Sarah (Triple Jump), Lily (Triple Jump), Boys 14 (Relay), Boys 15 (Relay)

4th & All-Ireland Qualifer: Etienne (60m), Evie (60m), Keane (60m & 200m), Sarah (60m Hurdles), Quinn (60m Hurdles), Hania (60m Hurdles), Ola (60m Hurdles), Ava (200m), Niamh (Long Jump), Eva (Long Jump), Leon (High Jump), Max (800m).

Clongriffin had a big contingent of teams at the recent Dublin Indoor Relay Championships. With well over 400 teams competing, it was a packed National Indoor Arena with an electric atmosphere right from the first event at 10am.

First off for Clongriffin was the Mixed U17 Relay and they got the day off in style to take Gold. Golds and Dublin title also followed for the Girls u16, Boys u17 and Boys u18.

Silvers were won by the Boys u13, Girls u10 and Boys u10 while the Boys u14 and Boys u15 claimed bronze while Final and Top 6 finishes were achieved by the Girls u14 (4th), Girls u16 B (6th), Boys u16 (6th), Girls u11 (6th), Boys u11 (4th), Girls u13 (4th) and Boys u17 B (4th).

Development Relays were out in force also with the Boys u14 (1st) and Boys u12 (2nd) making the podium.

In Summary:

Gold: Mixed u17, Girls u16, Boys u17, Boys u18
Silver: Boys u13, Girls u10, Boys u10
Bronze: Boys u14, Boys u15
4th: Girls u14, Boys u11, Girls u13, Boys u17 B
Top 6: Girls u16 B, Boys u16, Girls u11

A busy week of competition with Club athletes competing across four different competitions. Etienne Cotter finished a super 5th place in the Boys u14 All-Ireland Pentathlon in the National Indoor Arena on Sunday with strong performances across all five events. Robin Harris was 8th in the Boys u15 while Leon Keogh (11th) and Niamh O’Farrell (13th) also performed well across a long day of competitions.

Further south, in Tymon Park, the delayed Dublin U9 Cross-Country Championship was held and the Clongriffin boys taking the team title. Zachary Oelefse, Conor Ahern and Seamus O’Neill all placed in the Top 12 and they were brilliantly backed up by Alex Dixon, Cian Haran, Stefan Blagojevic, Elliot Maher, Arthur Wilson and Quinn O’Donnell. The Girls team were 4th team and just outside the medals with Anna Eivers and Faye Eivers both in the Top 10 and well supported by Anna Woszczynska, Fia Ni Raghallaigh and Lara Byrne.

In the Dublin XC League there was a strong overall League Performance from Freya Hoey (9th Overall) in the Girls u10, Darragh Smith (7th Overall) in the Boys u10 and Ruben Casey (12th overall) in the Boys u13.

The previous day, at the AAI Games in NIA, Dylan Brennan and Keane Wosser both made their senior debuts and ran very well, Dylan with two very consistent runs in the 60m (both 7.30) and Keane in his first 400m for the Club, clocking 53.22.

Earlier in the week, the Boys u14 and Boys u16 relays teams both finished 2nd in their races in the Track and Field Live meet in NIA.

Patryk Pucek was named Clongriffin Athletic Club Athlete of the Year for 2025 at last Sunday’s Awards. Patryk had a super year, winning the Long Jump, High Jump & Triple Jump titles at both the Dublin Indoor and Outdoor Championships. He also claimed Gold at All-Ireland level in the Triple Jump (Indoors) and High Jump (Outdoors). This was backed up with a bronze in Triple Jump outdoors as well as relay silver in the Mixed 4 x 200m Indoors and 4 x 400m Outdoors. His season culminated then when he competed for the Ireland u17 Development Team in August in Scotland in the High Jump, finishing the season on a high with a new High Jump PB of 1.88m.

Other awards in what was a great celebration of the hard work, dedication, and incredible achievements of our athletes, coach and volunteers across the year were:

Club Spirit Awards

Athletes: Sara Parisi – Lara Byrne – Ellen Ryan – Lily Grace Garvan – Zoe McElroy -Cillian Dyulgerov – Dara O’Neill

Coaches: Sinead McDonagh – Sharon Kavanagh,

Parent Volunteer: Louise Gallagher

Athlete All-Star

Alicja Doyle – Aoife Ferguson – Daniel Ward – Dylan Brennan – Ella O’Dwyer – Eva McArdle – Hassan Khalid – Keane Wosser – Lauren Ferguson – Leon Keogh – Liliya Riecka – Marianne O’Farrell – Max Lyons – Mia Sinclair – Patryk Pucek – Quinn O’Dwyer – Robin Harris – Sarah O’Halloran – Sophie Ferguson – Timur Ciparsons

Academy All-Stars

Throws: Matej Misik – Sean Kavanagh – Alanna Rattigan – Matthew Campion
Middle Distance / XC: Denis Dixon – Freya Hoey – Zachary Oelefse
Sprints: Luzia Hagan-Frank – Darragh Smith
Jumps: Sam Merriman – Sienna Tilley – Seamus O’Neill
Relay: Anna Eivers – Hannah Galvin – Faye Eivers – Ruth Rattigan

Breakthrough Performances

Mia Sinclair – Robin Harris

Cross-Country Team of the Year: Boys u14

Track Team of the Year: Boys u16

Seven of the Club’s Coaching Team attended the Dublin Athletics Juvenile Coaching Conference held in Howth yesterday.

This was a great coach networking event with Coaches from other Clubs in Dublin.

Speakers on the day included Michael O’ Connor. Michael is Coach, and Dad, to Kate O’Connor who this year won medals in Heptathlon at World and European level. Michael gave rare insights into the journey both he and Kate have been on over the past decade. Michael this week won the World Athletics Coaching Award for 2025 so to have our coaches to be able to hear from a coach of Michael’s calibre was inspiring. Indeed Michael chose Howth over heading over to Monaco to pick up his award this weekend!

Sophie Becker and Phil Healy, spoke about their progression from teenagers to making Olympic Finals. Both Sophie and Phil emphasized how they were really late developers. Sophie spoke how she might be at the back of the field in heats and not making finals even at county or regional level. Phil mentioned how she would also not make finals and both spoke of the support of their Parents and coaches who always believed in them and supported them through thick and thin. Another inspiring story of what is possible if athletes stick with their sport for as long as possible.

Other speakers included elite, Olympic level coaches, Aideen Sinnott, Feidhlim Kelly and Gerard O’Donnell who talked about training group dynamics, how to balance the load and recovery of teenagers who do multiple sports and also how to structure training so you can ‘bullet proof’ your teens to meet the demands of sport.

Finally, Peter Doherty and Sinead McGoldrick from Ratoath AC in County Meath, talked through the journey of their Club from 15 years ago when less than 5% of members competed to now where they have over 90% participation percentage, impressive athlete retention percentages, a Fit4Youth Group for teens who want to be active but not compete and how they are not arguably Ireland’s more successful Juvenile Club in Track and Field.

Coach Education and CPD is a key part of our Club’s Strategy with the Club fully supporting Coaches in upskilling their knowledge.

The Boys u14 had already created a small bit of club history by being the first team to qualify for the All-Ireland Cross Country. 5 of the boys had ran their first cross-country race only last month so qualifying was an achievement in itself but it was the team’s focus and commitment to training over the past 6 weeks which was most impressive. Extra sessions on Paddys Hills and Fr Collins Park tempo runs on Wednesday nights as well saw the boys improve massively over the past 6 weeks,

It was that hard work that saw the boys run out of the skins to claim an 8th place team finish in the Club Championship. Considering they had come 4th team in the Dublin Regionals, with 4 other Regions all with 4 teams qualifying, a Top 15 team finish would have been a good debut. In addition to Club teams, there County and Regions teams and in the end over 150 of the best u14 Boys in Ireland lined up for the 3km course.

But from each of the 6 boys, they ran with bravery and guts, despite setbacks of lost spikes and muddy falls, on a true cross-country course of mud and water.

Well done to the boys and their Parents for the unwavering support over the past 6 weeks.

Team was Max, Senan, Alex, Josh, Cillian (who ran most of the race with one shoe) and Oran.

There were strong runs from the Boys u13 and Girls u11 at the re-scheduled Dublin Uneven Ages Cross Country in Abbotstown last Sunday.

Eduardo, Ruben and Michael lined out in the Boys u13 over the 2km distance and despite tough underfoot conditions they ran very well with Eduardo leading the boys home in 24th place with both Ruben and Michael packing well behind.

The Girls u11 were represented by Melanie and Amelia and they ran very solid in the early stages and finished strongly to pass several girls in the closing stages.

Well done to the athletes and their coaches.

A group picture from Sunday’s Dublin City Marathon fundraiser for the club, nearly 20,000 runners passed through the Crumlin hydration station and our crew of athletes, parents and coaches brought their A game in making it a memorable and fun day. Thank you all 🟩⬛