The Indoor Season kicked off this week at the Track and Field Live indoor meet in NIA. A small group of Performance Pathway athletes competed in individual track events and Relay Coaches used the event to kick off preparation for the Dublin and All-Ireland Indoors Championships in the New Year.
Club Records were the order of the day with several falling throughout the evening. Records details below:
Girls u12 600m: Orlaith O’Grady
Boys u13 60m: Hassan Khalid
Boys u13 800m: Max Lyons
Girls u14 60m: Sophie Winkless
Boys u14 60m: Adam Conway
Girls u14 4 x 200 Relay: Sarah O’Farrell, Liliya Riecka, Ava Kavanagh, Eva McArdle
Boys u15 60m: Keane Wosser (Dylan Brennan was also inside the old record in the same race)
Girls u16 60m: Alicja Doyle
Boys u16 60m: Patryk Pucek
Boys u16 4 x 200 Relay: Patryk Pucek, Jaden Hagan-Frank, Ben Lyons, Azim Floro-Ali. Our second U16 team were also inside the old record (Dylan Brennan, Seb Ursachi, Timur Ciparsons, Keane Wosser)
The Cross-Country season concluded for Clongriffin athletes last Sunday in Tymon Park with the final round of the Dublin Cross-Country League.
A final day win propelled Orlaith O’Grady up to 2nd overall in the league standings, a great reward for a very consistent cross-country season. Darragh Smyth also had a great league finishing 5th.
The League is held across three races with points awarded for finishing each race and bonus points for finishing position. Lots of hard work gone in over the autumn and winter months by the middle distance athletes and their coaches.
Top 20 League Finishing Positions Across Other Ages:
Girls u9: Freya Hoey (15th)
Boys u9: Darragh Smyth (5th); Sean Kavanagh (16th); Eren Pencereci
Boys u10: Denis Dixon (13th)
Boys u11: Mateo Collins (15th); Evan Cryan (18th); Isaac Eivers (20th)
Girls u12: Orlaith O’Grady (2nd)
Boys u12: Olly Dune (12th); Leon Keogh (16th); Etienne Cotter (16th)
The Club hosted the first Clongriffin Athletics Academy Cup in the National Indoor Arena last Saturday. Nearly 400 athletes ranging from age 7 to 9 from 9 different clubs competing as teams across the range of run, jump, throw and relay events.
Pride of place goes to our 2017 Group who competed in their first event for the Club. And what a debut with both teams coming out on top of the 9 clubs and winning their age groups. Well done to both the boys and girls groups and their Coaches.
Competing in 60m, 200m, Long Jump, Turbo Javelin and Relay, all athletes competed as a team with no individual prizes and everything going towards scoring points for their team.
The U9 (2016) and U10 (2015) groups, who now seem liked seasoned campaigners, all acquitted themselves brilliantly across all events with the Boys u9 also winning their age group.
Thanks to all the Clubs who competed and made the day a great day for all the young athletes.
The second day of the Dublin Cross Country Championships was held on a challenging course in Citywest last Sunday.
Pride of place goes to the Boys U9 who made their Cross Country Championship debut. The team placed a brilliant 5th. They were led home by Darragh who claimed a Top 12 medal when with a fast finishing 6th. He was very well backed up on the day by Eren, Sean, Oliver, Miguel and Jack.
The Boys u13 also had a good team performance when finishing 5th with Max, Robin, Olly, Oran and Rares.
This season at the Dublin Cross-Country Championships saw a big increase in the number of athletes competing at cross-country, with a 33% increase.
Thanks to all the coaches and parent for supporting.
Cross-Country action is still ongoing though with Orlaith, Danny and Ella all competing in Fermanagh in two weeks as part of the Dublin Teams in the All-Ireland Cross Country championships.
The All-Ireland Schools Combined Events championships took place last Saturday in NIA. Meabh O’Grady and Marianne O’Farrell (both Belmayne ET) had come through the Leinster Schools qualifiers the previous week and lined up against the best 16 pentathletes in their age group in Ireland.
Marianne, competing in the Intermediate Age Group was up against some girls nearly two years older than her and excelled with two PBs, in the hurdles and shot putt, to finish 7th overall with a new Pentathlon PB of 3,236 points. A super performance in a very competitive age group.
Meabh had previously got five PB in the Leinster schools and performed very well on her All-Ireland Schools debut in the Junior Age Group. She was lying in 11th position after four events but unfortunately a small injury meant she couldn’t complete the final event, the 800m, and ended up 12th overall.
The Leinster Schools Combined events took place in NIA last Wednesday with Leinster Schools titles and qualification for All-Ireland at stake.
Marianne O’Farrell took the bronze medal in the Inter Girls while Meabh O’Grady had a day of days with five personal bests across the five events to take 4th in the Junior Girls.
Sarah O’ Farrell and Liliya Riecka were competing in the Minor Girls and finished 6th and 11th respectively, out of 39 entrants while Oran Dolan had a Top 20 finish in the Minor Boys.
Parents and Coaches held their breath waiting for the final leg runners of the Boys u13 Cross Country Relay to round the last hill of trees into the final stretch. At the last changeover, a blanket had separated the top four teams with Limerick, Moy Valley, MSB and Clongriffin all in touch. The runners would go out of sight as they came up the last hill but as they rounded into sight it was the green and black vest of Clongriffin and Danny Davis that had burst into a five metre lead. There was still work to be done and despite a big finish from Moy Valley and Limerick, Danny brought it home. A brilliant win in the All-Ireland Inter Club Cross Country Relays in Abbotstown.
Despite being sick all week, Hassan Khalid, took his place on the line and put the boys in a great spot and in the hunt as he handed to Max Lyons. Max ran a stormer and closing all the way to his changeover handed to Robin Harris in second place. Considering this was Robin’s debut for the Club, he ran like a seasoned campaigner to stay in touch with the leaders and hand over the Danny. And the rest as they say is history. A first All-Ireland Gold for the Club. Super support in training and preparation in this from Rares Chirila and Oran Doran who were part of the Squad.
Squad Games
While only four step on the line for a relay it really is a Squad Game. None so more than the Boys u15 who unfortunately lost Oscar Kenevey late in the week to injury but Dylan Brennan was ready to step in. A blistering start from Azim Floro Ali put the team in a great spot after the first leg in first place. Dylan, running his first cross-country race, ran superbly and finished like a train to hand over the Seb Ursachi in second place. Running very consistently Seb held his position and handed over the Keane Wosser in the silver medal spot. Keane ran smartly and with Lucan moving ahead up the final hill, Keane tracked him nicely and kicked in the home stretch for a super silver.
The Mixed U14 team came a massive 5th in their race. Ella O’Dwyer ran her heart out to handover to Adam Conway, a late call up as a sub, and he ran a blinder to had over the Liliya Valery Riecka. Debutant, Idriss Floro Ali, then brought the team home for 5th. The squad here included Ava Kavanagh and Arthur Kenevey.
The Mixed U12 had two teams out and both performed excellently. Team 1 finished in 7th in a very fast time of 6:22 while Team 2 finished 20th, out of a total of 33 teams. The full squad here was Orlaith O’Grady, Alex Cotter, Niamh O’Grady, Leon Keogh, Viola De Chellis, Etienne Cotter, Lucy Kavanagh and Ruben Casey with Amelia McCallion and Michael Frazer as reserves.
The youngest Clongriffin crew out today was our Super u11s. And they did themselves proud with the Boys u11 finishing 9th out of 24 teams while the girls came 14th out of 33 teams. Well done to Quinn O’Dwyer, Evan Cryan, Mateo Collins, Issac Eivers and sub Séimí Ó’Raghallaigh on the Boys team while Ellen Ryan, Dayna Cahill, Eva Hennessy (making her club debut) and Sarah O’Halloran on the Girls team.
Super thanks to the Middle Distance coaching leads, Marie and Dan and super support from Morgan. They have been planning the cross-country season since July and working hard so today is a great reward for the coaches as well as the athletes.
Moving up an age, Danny Davis continued his good form over the country this winter with a super win in the Dublin u14 Cross-Country Championships. Held over a testing course in the Phoenix Park, Danny asserted his control over the race in the early stages, steadily built his lead and came home an impressive winner. This qualifies Danny for the All-Ireland’s in Fermanagh in November. Next up for Danny will be him leading the Boys U13 in the All-Ireland Inter-Club Cross Country Relay in Abbottstown next Sunday.
Orlaith O’Grady also booked her ticket to the All-Irelands with a gutsy run to come home fourth in the Girls u12 race. Orlaith put her self in contention from the start and battled to the line to qualify for her second All-Ireland Cross-Country.
After missing last season’s race with an injury, Ella O’Dwyer dug out a big performance to also qualify for All-Irelands with 12th place in the Girls u14.
Both Orlaith and Ella will also be part of their respective relay team next Sunday also.
Elsewhere, there were some very encouraging performances, particularly from the Boys u12 squad who had a good sprinkling of u11 and u12 and came home as 6th team overall.
The Cross-Country season kicked off last Sunday in Newbridge House with Round 1 of the Dublin League. A big contingent of close to 40 athletes attended.
It was a debut for many of our younger athletes while it was also great to see athletes competing in the U16 age groups also.
Attention will now turn to the Dublin Even Ages Championships in the Phoenix Park on October 6th.
Treat sports leaders, coaches and club officials with respect.
Treat all other athletes as you would like to be treated.
Respect club-mates even when things go wrong.
Respect competitors and be gracious in defeat and victory.
Compete fairly at all times and do your best.
Athletes should never
Intimidate, use physical contact that is not welcome
Shout at or argue with another person unreasonably
Cause harm to or damage property
Bully or threaten another person online or offline
Spread or circulate rumours online or offline about another person
Tell lies
Parent Code of Conduct
Parents of Athletes
Respect the rules in the Athletics Ireland’s Code of Ethics for Children in Sport.
Respect your child’s club-mates, coaches and other parents.
Encourage your child to treat other participants, coaches and officials with respect.
Never demonstrate threatening behaviour or use foul language.
Never ridicule, humiliate or shout at young athletes
Recognise the value and importance of volunteers and coaches.
Coach Code of Conduct
All coaches involved with children and young should:
Consider the well being and safety of participants before the development of performance.
Develop an appropriate working relationship with members, based on mutual trust and respect.
Make sure all activities are appropriate to the age, ability and the experience of the athlete
Promote the positive aspects of the sport (e.g. fair play)
Display consistently high standards of behaviour.
Follow all guidelines laid down by the National Governing Body
Never exert undue influence over participants to gain personal benefit or reward.
Never condone rule violations or the use of prohibited substances.
Encourage participants to value their performances and not just results.
Encourage and guide participants to accept responsibility for their own performance and behaviour.
Never use foul or inappropriate language.
Never engage in any form of sexual relations with anyone under the age of 18, or vulnerable adults.
Do use a group email system for communicating with parents/guardians & coaches of athletes.
Do not communicate individually by social media, text or email with juvenile athletes
Do not engage in communications with underage athletes individually via personal social network sites.
Always use official squad group text or social media sites to communicate with juvenile athletes.
A coach should under no circumstance undermine the efforts of an athlete’s personal coach and/or attempt to ‘poach’ an athlete within a squad environment.
Failure to comply with the code of conduct may result in an athlete’s or coach’s membership being revoked.
Clongriffin AC 