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 🟩⬛

A small bit of club history was made in the recent Dublin Even Ages Cross Country when the Boys u14 became the first club team to qualify for the All-Irelands.

Led home by Max in 13th, the boys packed superbly with Senan, Joshua and Alex all in the Top 25 and with brilliant back up from Cillian and Oran, the boys were only four points off a medal. That disappointment had a silver lining as they did qualify for All-Irelands.

Those All-Irelands will be in Derry at the end of the November. A great achievement from the team as four of the squad only starting running in the past few months. Great credit to their middle distance coach, Marie.

The Boys u10 also had a 4th place team finish led home brilliantly by Darragh who claimed an individual medal in 6th. Darragh has been in super form this winter with top performances in the League and here he was supported strongly by Oliver, Sean, Frankie Joseph (making his debut), Eren, Jack, Conor and Fionn.

Marianne O’Farrell continued her super consistent form at Schools Multi Events championships at the Leinster School Pentathlon recently with a second place in the Intermediate Girls.

Competing across 5 events in one day Marianne was always in the medal positions after the opening event, the 60m hurdles and secured the silver with the final event, the 800m, with a storming and gutsy run.

Marianne will now go on to compete at the All-Ireland Schools in three weeks time.

There were strong and solid performances across the five teams that competed in today’s All-Ireland Cross Country Relays in Abbotstown.

First out of the blocks was the Mixed U12 Team of Sarah, Charlie, Ellen and Quinn and they acquitted very well to finish a strong 13th.

Next up were the Girls u13 and with Veronica and Sara making their All-Ireland debuts, they along with Mia and Niamh also came 13th.

13th was also the finish spot for the Boys u13 with All-Ireland debutant, Michael, joined by Ruben, Etienne and Leon.

The Mixed u14 had Hania leading off with a super first leg and with Senan, Nikita and Max they finished 10th.

The last of our teams out was the Girls u15 in the 4 x 1000m. The quartet finished, you guessed it, 13th and the four runners Sarah, Sophie, Ava and Ella were also the exact four who won the Club’s relay medal back in 2020, great to see them still competing nearly 6 years later.

The All-Ireland Cross Country Relays are a super event that provide a very competitive early season team opportunity with teams competing from all over Ireland. As most of the athletes are sprint or jump athletes, they will now turn their attention to the Indoor season while the middle distance athletes will have had a great opportunity to build on their strength for the season ahead.