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.
With Storm Kathleen raging outside, the Clongriffin athletes were happy to have the indoor comforts at todays Day 2 of the All-Ireland Indoor Championships in Athlone.
Long Jump Silver For Niamh
First in action today was Niamh and Orlaith in the Girls u12 Long Jump. Niamh took a super silver, beating her old PB three times in the process with a best of 4.04m. Orlaith also jumped well and just missed the final by 6cm, finishing 10th.
Marianne also got a PB in the Long Jump, coming 4th in the Girls u16 with 5.16m, adding 14cm to her PB.
Alicja With Brilliant Bronze
Alicja continued her super progression in the sport. Having only taken up athletics last year, she ran a very fast 7.82 to take bronze in a very competitive Girls u16 60m. The race won by Destiny Lawal from Doneen, who beat Rhasidat Adeleke’s Championship Record in the process. Alicja has progressed so much with hard work and consistent training and is a great role model to younger athletes.
Keane was 5th in his heat of the Boys u15 60m, taking 0.13 seconds off his PB while Mya was also fifth in her heat of the Girls u12 60m and also with a PB.
Daniel Comes 6th In Shot Putt
Daniel added well over a meter to his PB to come 6th in the Boys u12 Shot Putt. He was also the top Dublin finisher. A great reward for all the work he has put in with his coaches over the past month.
Also in PB land was Sarah in the Girls u14 Shot Putt who threw 9.22m while Liliya put a super series of jumps together in the Girls u14 High Jump to be just 4cm off her PB.
The All-Ireland Indoors conclude tomorrow in Athlone.
Girls U12 Heat Run Which Claimed All-Ireland Bronze, Niamh taking the win and congratulated by her excited teammates, Mya, Lucy and Zara
The Club had a record high five relay teams at Day 1 of the All-Ireland Indoors in Athlone today as well an inspirational thrower and some high jumpers starting their high jumping journey.
The Girls u12 stole the show with a gutsy 3rd place run in their relay, taking nearly 3.5 seconds off their time from the Dublin Championships. Well done to Mya, Zara, Lucy and Niamh.
The Girls u16 team of Alicja, Meabh, Ola and Marianne nearly completed the trick in their relay with a very close 4th after a battle with Dublin rivals, Dundrum South Dublin. A huge improvement for a team that up to this season had not made a Dublin final. More to come no doubt from this age group.
The Boys u15 have been on a similar growth path and backed up their Dublin Title with a huge new PB and 5th place in their All-Ireland final. A super dedicated squad of boys represented today by Jaden, Ben, Seb and Keane.
The Boys u13 had four boys making All-Ireland debuts with Leon, Max, Oran and Hassan and they ran their hearts out to take 7th. Special shout out to Leon who was a late call up, rising from his sick bed to lead the boys out in first leg today, calmness beyond his years.
The ever consistent Girls U14 had their best ever All-Ireland finish when they took 7th also, just missing out on the final by 0.14 seconds. Well done Sophie, Liliya, Ava and Sarah.
Last but not least was our powerhouse Karlo in the Shot Putt. Another PB, 11.10, and a four meter improvement on his outdoor All-Ireland performance. He finished 9th. Karlo, while still only a schoolboy himself, teaches and leads several of our young throwers on a Friday night in Santry, another great inspiration.
Next up is Day 2 and Day 3 of All-Irelands in two weeks time.
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.
The Dublin Indoor Championships for individual events came to a close today with Day 3 at the NIA.
Throwers To The Fore
Our new throwers group under the guidance of Kieron and Ed had a good day at the office. Sarah O’Farrell took gold in the Girls u14 shot while Daniel Ward was an excellent 4th in the Boys u12 with Jacques Duthoit 7th in the Boys u13. There were also plenty of new throwers making their debuts.
High Jumpers Leave Their Mark
The High Jumpers have been busily preparing each Friday in Morton Stadium this winter and it showed with great performances across the board. Medals were won by Joe Coogan, silver, and Zara Akinsowan, bronze, in the u12 age groups while Liliya Riecka came so close with 4th in the Girls u14, enough to qualify for All-Irelands. Orlaith O’Grady came 5th in the Girls u12.
Middle Distance Group Show They Have Come A Long Way
Ella O’Dwyer showed huge resilience to claim 6th in the hyper competitive Girls u14 800m final.
Orlaith O’Grady ran a super composed race to claim a bronze in the Girls u12 600m while in the Boys u12 we had three qualifiers for the final. A great testament to the program the middle distance coaches Marie, Dan and Morgan have put together. In the final Olly Dunne came a close 4th with Leon Keogh was 6th and Etienne Cotter 9th.Max Lyons came a fighting 6th in the Boys u13 600m.
Sprinters Close Out The Weekend
This time last year Alicja Doyle wasn’t even doing athletics but after a great winter of training from her she is now at the top end of sprinters in Dublin. She ran another PB today of 8.09 to take bronze in the Girls u16 60m. Keane Wosser overcame a big bout of sickness over the past few weeks to also take bronze in the Boys u15 60m with teammate Jaden Hagan-Frank in 6th with a big PB of 8.51. Aaron Rao made his first sprint final at Dublins to come 8th in the Boys u17 60m.
An exciting Day 2 has come to a close at the Dublin Indoors. Our biggest entry of athletes at a championships and lots of great stories on the day. Plenty of personal bests, surprise performances, finalists and a few medals also. Well done to all athletes who toed the line and competed today. They should be very proud.
Patryk Completes Jumps Double
Patryk Putek got the day off to a flyer with a Gold medal in the Boys u16 High Jump. After his win in the Long Jump, two weeks ago, this completes the jumps double.
Both Marianne O’Farrell and Meabh O’Grady hit PBs in the Girls u16 High Jump, Marianne claiming bronze and Meabh 5th, her best performance in club colours.
Mya Takes Bronze In The Sprints
A big day for our very first Little Athletics group, the 2013, who graduated to Older Ages athletics today. They acquitted themselves brilliantly with Mya Akinsowan claiming a thrilling bronze in the Girls u12 60m. She was closely followed him in 5th by Orlaith O’Grady.Leon Keogh had a great indoor debut progressing to the semi-finals and narrowly missing the final.
Making her first big final was Eva McArdle, progressing through the rounds of the Girls u14 60m to eventually place 7th. Hassan Khalid also placed 7th in a red hot Boys U13 final, setting a new PB while Cillian Martin had a huge PB, dipping under 9 seconds for the first time in his u14 race.
O’Farrells Complete Sister Long Jump Treble
Earlier in the day, Niamh O’Farrell claimed a dramatic gold in the Girls u12 Long Jump with her last jump with Orlaith O’Grady in 4th and Zara Akinsowan in 7th. Arthur Kenevey continued his super comeback with a 7th in the Boys U14 Long Jump.
The day finished on an historic note when Sarah O’Farrell took gold in the Girls u14 Long Jump. It meant the three O’Farrell sisters claimed an unique treble at this year’s Dublin with Marianne (u16), Sarah (u14) and Niamh (u12) also being Dublin Champions. Also in the Girls u14 Long Jump, Eva McArdle continued her day of days with a new PB and 8th.
The club’s growing multi-events group had a big day out at the All-Ireland Multi Event championships in NIA today.
Marianne has been leading the charge at multi events for a couple of years now and it was exciting for her to be joined by Sarah and Liliya today for their debuts.
Marianne was involved in a titanic battle all day and after the five events just lost out on a podium place despite a stirring run in the 800m.
Sarah had a day of days and with three PBs she was just outside the medals going into the 800m but despite a brave run she just came up short of the medals.
Liliya had four PBs, including a standout 1.39m in the High Jump, and she finished 9th overall, her best ever performance for the Club.
In the end two 4th places and one 9th was a great outcome with club multi-events coach, Cliodhna, saying ‘it was super to see three of the girls so competitive all day at All-Ireland level’.
Earlier in the week, Ella qualified for the Leinster Schools Cross-Country after a strong 7th place in the North Leinster Schools in Phoenix Park.
It was a strong start to the Dublin Indoor Championship in NIA today for our older athletes.
Karlo Sremec set the day up with a great PB and silver medal in the Boys U18 Shot Putt. At the same time the 200m were underway with both Patryk Putek and Alicja Doyle making their finals. Patryk eventually finished 6th in his final while Alicja was 5th in hers.
The hurdles had a big contingent of athletes and in total we had five finalists. Hanna Kacperska showed great composure to firstly qualify for the Girls u13 final after some hurdle technical issues and again in the final to come from 8th to 4th in the final 30m. This qualifies Hanna for the All-Irelands.
The Girls u14 hurdlers were next up and all three girls progressed to the final. In it, Sophie Winkless took Gold, Sarah O’Farrell the Silver and Liliya Riecka was 8th, all running personal bests.
The Girls u16 hurdles saw Marianne O’Farrell take bronze in a very exciting race.
It was also a big long jumping day and it was double gold in the U16 age groups with Patryk Putek winning the Boys and Marianne O’Farrell winning the Girls. Also in the Long Jump a great breakthrough for Lily Nadolinska who made the final with a big PB in her last jump.
Aside from the medalists and finalist, there were many more PBs, close calls and good performances across the board. Thanks as ever to the coaching team and Parents who volunteered as officials today.
Clongriffin AC 