Congratulations to the following athletes who have been selected to be on our 2025 Athlete Performance Pathway.
This is a program within the Club which looks to support athletes who have achieved certain standards within their competitions in 2024. The program provides additional training and planning support to assist the athletes as they move through the Long Term Athlete Development Cycle.
U13
Oran Dolan, Hanna Kacperksa, Max Lyons
U14
Adam Conway, Ella O’Dwyer, Liliya Riecka, Sophie Winkless, Sarah O’Farrell
The 2023 / 2024 season came to a fitting end at Day 3 of the Older Ages All-Irelands in Tullamore last Saturday. Seven athletes competed and all achieved Personal Bests, a remarkable achievement.
The Girls U16 squad have had a stellar season and wrapped it up nicely with both Alicja Doyle and Marianne O’Farrell claiming bronze medals in the 200m and 250m Hurdles respectively. Meabh O’Grady had her best individual performance with 7th place in the High Jump.
Ella O’Dwyer ran just outside 5 minutes in her 1500m, taking 6 seconds off her personal best. For any parents out there who run or do Park Runs, this would be 16 minutes pace for a 5k, and she is only 13!!
Patryk Pucek had an excellent series of jumps in the Long Jump and was right in the medal hunt up to the final round of jumps. He beat his old PB 3 times and cleared the 6 metre mark twice, in the end was 5th overall and only 10cm off a medal.
The boys in the sprints also excelled. Keane Wosser followed up his PB and final spot from the 100m last week to get another PB in the 200m and just miss the final. Our youngest competitor on the day, Adam Conway, made his first All-Ireland final with a PB in the heats and then ran superbly in the final for 6th place.
That closes the current season and all athletes, coaches and parents can now take a well deserved break over the next month or so.
Alicja Doyle claimed a silver medal in the All-Ireland Girls u16 100m yesterday in Tullamore. Alicja ran a PB in her heat and then again in the final to add to her bronze medal from the 60m indoors. A great full season of athletics from Alicja after only joining the club a little over a year ago.
Also in the sprints, Keane Wosser followed up on his heroics from the medal winning relay team of previous day to make his first All-Ireland final, running a PB in the process finishing 8th in the Boys u15 100m. Adam Conway was competing at his first All-Irelands and finished 10th overall in the Boys u15 80m, in a new PB and only 0.06 seconds off a final spot.
The field events had five Top 8 finishers with Sarah O’ Farrell (Girl u14 Javelin) getting a new PB and very close to a medal. Patryk Pucek (5th) and Elliott McMahon (8th) were in the hunt in the Boys u16 High Jump while Marianne O’Farrell (Girls u16 Long Jump) produced yet another PB for 5th. Karlo Sremec closed out the day in the field with a 7th in the Boys u18 Discus.
The day had started with Lauren Ferguson achieving a big new PB in the Girls u15 2000m racewalk for 7th place.
There is one more day of action next week in Tullamore. As always, a big thanks to the coaches for keeping the show on the road after what has been a long season.
The All-Ireland “B” championships and National Relays took place in Tullamore today. The “B” championships take place for athletes who did not medal in the regional championships and provides a competitive platform at national level.
In the National Relays and we had four teams that qualified from the regionals in June.
The boys u13 relay team, made up of Max, Jacques, Rares and Leon had a stormer of a heat coming 4th, but with it being the faster of the heats, they were just shy of making the final and placed 9th overall.
The boys u15 relay team were up next and theirs was a straight final. With the pressure on, the boys – Dylan,Keane,Oscar,Morgan (sub Ben) – pulled it out of the bag and raced home in bronze medal position. An absolutely brilliant result for all the hard work they have put in this season.
In the late afternoon, it was the girls turn. We had 2 teams out, the u14s and the u16s. The u14 girls, Eva, Ella, Sarah, Liliya (sub Ava) safely made it through their heat with a strong team run. They acquitted themselves well with a 7th place finish in the final.
Last up, the u16 girls, made up of Alicja, Isabella, Marianne and Meabh. They had a very strong heat race and the baton passes were slick. Their competition in the final was made up of teams who have been racing together for the last 6 years. It was a tough final but they raced home in 5th place which was an amazing finish for a squad that has really only been formed in the last year. A special shout out to Isabella, who stepped in as a sub for the nationals and was racing against girls 1-2 years older than her!
irst up we had Nikita Riecka in the u13 girls High Jump, who jumped a PB of 1.20m, which was no mean feat in the Tullamore rain. Next up, was Alex Cotter who ran in the u12 boys 60m sprint. Alex was 3rd in his heat and just shy of making the final but with a brand new pb. He had an epic run later in the day in the u12 boys 600m where he placed 4th (and another new pb and joint club record) with a very strong opening 400m and was just pipped at the line.
Eva McArdle had a stormer of a heat in the girls u14 80m sprint. She had a very strong showing in the final a short while later, coming 4th and giving a great performance.
Aoife Ferguson was our last individual competitor for the day and the wait was worth it as she brought home the bacon with a silver medal and a lifetime best of 1.45m. A great series of jumps saw her confidence rise and her technique honed. More to come from Aoife.
We also had the Combined Events competition last weekend in Morton Stadium. These are pentathlon events for juveniles, consisting of sprint hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put and 800m all in one day. We had 4 competitors, Marianne and Sarah O’Farrell, Liliya Riecka and Aoife Ferguson. All acquitted themselves well and some had new pb’s to bring home with them. Aoife and Liliya had top 10 finishes in the u15 and u14 girls pentathlon respectively. Marianne finished 5th in the u16 girls and Sarah had an agonising 4th place finish in the u14 girls pentathlon. A great experience for all our athletes.
Day 1 of the U13-U19 All-Irelands took place in Tullamore last weekend.
After a great showing in the Dublins 75m Hurdles last month, Sophie Winkless was looking to bring that form into the All-Ireland. Having qualified for the final earlier in the morning she ran a strong race to just miss out on the medals, taking 5th place and just off her PB.
Max Lyons, running in his first individual All-Irelands, ran a big PB in the 600m to place 8th. This is great improvement from Max who last year wasn’t making finals at Dublin Championships.
Seb Ursachi, competing in the Javelin, threw a 4m PB and was in a battle for a Top 8 finish right up to the final round. He eventually finished 10th and was the top Dublin finisher.
Liliya Riecka equalled her PB of 1.40m in the High Jump to come a super 9th place, another example of the consistent improvement of Liliya from competition to competition.
Ella O’Dwyer ran a clever race in a tactical final of the 800m, positioning herself at the front of the pack, staying out of trouble and was rewarded with her second fastest run ever.
Marianne O’Farrell just missed out on a final place in the 80m hurdles while Sarah O’Farrell, who was 4th in her heat of the 75m Hurdles, also just missed out on qualification.
The small margins of competition at this level were evident in the High Jump and Triple Jump for Oran Dolan and Patryk Pucek respectively who despite some technical issues with their jumps will have learned massively from the experience.
With seven relay teams competing it was an exodus from North Dublin akin to Joxer off to Stuttgart for Euro ’88 or Italia ’90 for the All-Ireland Children’s Games and U12 All-Irelands in Tullamore.
On a classic midlands scorcher, the Academy athletes (u9-u11) acquitted themselves brilliantly across the full range of events. In addition to the Academy, there were several u12 athletes competing in their All-Irelands.
Leon Keogh produced a brilliant new PB, 1.35m, to take silver in the Boys u12 High Jump, overcoming an early setback to then go on a superb streak of clearances. Leon had earlier competed in the Boys u12 Long Jump. In that Long Jump, Joe Coogan, was out of the running with just one jump left but produced a massive PB, 4.21m, to make the final and then eventually finish 5th.
Darragh Smith and Sean Kavanagh came within 4cm of a medal in the Boys U9 Long Jump and were then joined by Sam Coogan and Jamie Motherway to take 6th in their relay.
The Girls u12 Relay of Orlaith O’Grady, Mya Akinsowon, Lucy Kavanagh and Niamh O’ Farrell placed 7th while Niamh also placed 8th in her Long Jump, surpassing 4m again.
The super throwers of the Girls U9 Turbo also had a great day with the four girls, Alanna Rattigan, Laura O’Shea, Caoimhe Maguire and Ysabella Kelleher, claiming a Top 8 finish between them.
All in all, 37 athletes travelled to Tullamore for their All-Ireland experience and thanks as always to their ‘support staff’, the coaches, parents and siblings who helped and supported along the way.
It was around 4:30pm on Sunday in Tallaght when our Club Treasurer stopped cheering on another relay team on the last leg of their final to realise that we hadn’t budgeted for this many athletes to be qualifying for the All-Ireland Children’s Games in Tullamore in July. A good problem to have though!
But, it’s not about medals and qualifications on these days and as much about competing and sunscreen and raincoats and sandwiches and crepes from Last Lap and relays and squeezing into a tent to shield from the downpours.
The Childrens Games involves athletes competing as a Team of Two across a Run, Jump and Throw event. There is also a relay at the end then. Many athletes were making their debut on an outdoor track and it was great to see so many out competing and testing themselves after several months of training.
Turbo Javelin
Out u9 crew had a great day in the field with the Turbo Javelin. Caoimhe & Laura took gold in their Girls while Isabella & Alanna taking bronze. Miguel and Sean took bronze in the Boys.
Jumps
Five medal were secured in the Long Jump. Tess & Sarah kept our twins tradition going with a bronze in the Girls u11 while Quinn & Isaac took bronze in the Boys. Sean & Darragh struck Gold in the Boys u9 with Sienna & Manuela (Girls u9) and Sam & Denis (Boys U10) all taking silvers.
Sprints & Middle Distance
Zadie & Freya had an exciting silver in the Girls u9 300m while Sam & Jake winning bronze in the Boys u10 60m.
Relays
Everyone loves a relay and after a long day it came to the last event, relay heats for all ages. All six teams safely negotiated their way to their finals, an amazing achievement, and with coaches carefully trying to manage the athlete’s day long fatigue and sugar spikes of too many jellies, they all toed the line just as the last of the rain eased off.
The work of our super committed coaching team came to the fore as team after team acquitted themselves brilliantly with super focus and determination.
The Girls and Boys U9 were first up and both claimed medals with the girls taking 3rd and the boys silver. Indeed out second Boys u9 team also made the final and were just off the podium in 5th. The Girls U10 were next up and tidy baton changes saw the girls enter the home straight in 3rd which they took all the way to the line. The Boys u10 soon followed and repeated the trick. Four teams done and all booking their tickets to the All-Irelands.
The Girls u11 had qualified as 5th fastest so needed to find something extra to make the podium in the final and they duly did with a great team performance to claim 3rd. Last were the Boys u11 and in their last Dublin Childrens Games they signed off in style with another bronze.
A great day with all 6 relay teams making the All-Ireland.
Coaches
Special thanks to all the coaches who made the day happen, working and planning tirelessly for months in advance. Thanks also to parents who volunteered on the day.
A sunny Morton Stadium hosted Day 1 of the Dublin Outdoor Championships on Saturday.
Over thirty Clongriffin athletes competed across a range of events.
Throws
Our throws squad were out in force with two athletes qualifying for All-Irelands. Sarah won the Javelin and was second in the Shot Putt, both in PBs, in the Girls u14. Seb was 4th in his Javelin in the Boys u15.
Daniel was 5th in his Boys u12 Shot Putt which also saw Kade throw a big new PB while Sophie was another standout with a PB in the Girls u14 Javelin.
Jumps
There was three Golds in the Jumps with Orlaith winning the Girls u12 High Jump (equaling the Club Record) and Marianne and Patryk completed the Indoor / Outdoor double with wins in their respective U16 Long Jumps. Elliott, on his Club debut, claimed bronze in the U16 Long Jump while Meabh had a great day in the Girls U16 Long Jump making the final.
Leon and Olly got on the podium in the Boys U12 High Jump, silver and bronze, with both setting a new Club record while Liliya overcame a nasty collision with the uprights to jump 1.40 and take bronze in the Girls u14 High Jump.
Middle Distance
Ella in the Girls u14 800m ran clever tactics in her heat and final to take bronze while Max did a ‘Phil Healy Depths of Hell’ finish to take bronze in the Boys u13 600m, both setting new Club Records.
The U12s were out in force in their 600s and although medals there was spirited runs, including Top 6 finishes, from Alex, Viola, Niamh and Orlaith.
Hurdles
Marianne and Ola both qualified for the Girls u16 250m hurdles and in a dramatic race to the line came 2nd and 4th with new PBs, both progressing to the All-Irelands.
Day 1 of the Dublin Outdoor Leagues took place in Tallaght last Sunday. There was a good contingent of athletes competing in all ages across a full range of events.
Personal Bests too for many athletes are they continue their preparation for the Dublin Outdoors. Some PB highlights included:
Quinn – Long Jump – 3.33m
Sarah O’H – Long Jump 3.49m
Leon – High Jump 1.28m (New Age Group Club Record)
The final day of All-Ireland Indoor action saw more PBs and some close medal calls for the Clongriffin crew in Athlone today.
Hurdle Finals
We had four hurdlers in action with two making their finals. Sophie progressed through her heat safely and was close to her PB in the final to claim 5th place in the Girls u14. Marianne needed to run a PB in her heat to qualify which she duly did and ultimately came 7th in the final.
Hania had the race of her life in the Girls u13 to take nearly 0.60 seconds off her PB but just miss out on the final by one place finishing 9th. Sarah was only 0.02 seconds off her PB in the Girls u14 to marginally miss out on her final also.
Patryk Takes Fourth In High Jump
Patryk was so close to a medal in the Boys u16 High Jump, marginally clipping 1.70m twice, a height which would have taken bronze. He had earlier finished 10th in the Long Jump, just 11cm off his PB. Marianne again showed her range of events with a 6th place in the Girls u16. She finished the championships with a 4th, a 6th, a 7th and a 4th in the relay. No medals but big consistency.
Sarah was also close to the final of the Long Jump in the Girls U14, missing out by just 1cm.
Orlaith With PB In 600m
Our youngest competitor today, Orlaith in the Girls u12 600m, ran a new PB with 1:52 which was enough for 9th overall. This backed up her 9th in yesterday’s Long Jump, two Top 10 finishes showing great versatility.
Overall it has been a very successful three days of All-Ireland Indoors with three medals and nine more Top 8 finishes as well as a plethora of PBs and experience gained across a big range of events.
Clongriffin AC 