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Craughwell AC Supporting Our Supporters
With elections approaching again, the club wishes to highlight the fantastic support that we have received from many local politicians for our athletics facility development since we purchased the 8-acre athletics site in 2014 and in particular the financial support and votes that we received when Galway County Council took the access roadway into the facility into their charge in 2015.
At the time, these councillors collectively contributed €21,000 of their notice of motion funds to bring the roadway up to a standard so that it could be taken in charge by the County Council.
That effort was led by Councillors Moegie Maher and Peter Feeney with super cross-party support from 12 other councillors in several electoral areas in the county including Michael Fahy RIP, Gerry Finnerty, Joe Byrne, Shane Donnellan, Gabe Cronnelly, Malachy Noone, Sean Canney, Anne Rabbitte, Frank Kearney, Jimmy McClearn, Tim Broderick and Martina Kinane. Many of these councillors are seeking re-election in the forthcoming council elections with Anne Rabbitte seeking election to the European Parliament.
Our club straddles three of the local election areas and we would like to wish those seeking election success in their campaigns. The club would never be so cheeky or political to suggest to our members who to vote for. But we do like to give credit where credit is due and want to highlight the fantastic support we have received from these councillors in recent years. And it is with sadness that the club remembers Michael Fahy at this time, may he rest in peace.
FIT4FUN Summer Camp 2019
Time to start thinking about Summer Camps for the kids.
Well we certainly know it is nearly Summer time in Galway with the glorious weather we have been having.
All our primary schools will be finishing up before we know where we are and what then????? -- weeks of boredom. We can alleviate that and break the monotony. Are you looking for an activity break? Are you a member of an athletics club? If not then come along and see what you are missing. Club members (from any club) why not bring along a new friend - this may be the sport they having been looking for.
We are FIT4FUN and would love you all to come and join us. We have fun, games and you can learn new events. Camp is run by qualified coaches and experienced older athletes who are ready and willing to share their knowledge and expertise with you and still enjoy a good laugh along the way.
The Summer Camp will be held on two different weeks over the summer break and we cater for children from Junior infants to 6th class.
Camps will be taking place as follows
July Mon 15th - Fri 19th 9.30am - 2.30pm
Aaugust Mon 12th - Fri 16th 9.30am - 2.30pm
Flyers will be distributed via email to local national schools in the next few days. They can also be requested directly from me. Drop an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. We will also have a copy available on our website.
If you would like a paper copy of application form. I can be contacted at email address as above or phone number. 087 9390366.
Looking forward to two great weeks of Fun and learning and hopefully lots of sun
Timetable for Galway U13-19 T&F Sun 12th May
Please click on image for printable version.
Incredible Day at Galway U9-12s Championships
Craughwell AC took part in huge numbers at the Galway U9-12 Track & Field held in Dangan last weekend with some incredible results. Highlights included a championship record for Lauren Kilduff when she raced to gold in the U12 Girls 60m Hurdles in a time of 11.91. It was the first of many Galway titles for the club in particular for the U12 Girls who took 6 Galway titles in the relay, hurdles, sprint, long jump, high jump and javelin. The Craughwell U11s were also superb on Sunday taking medals in each of the U11 events. Out of the 24 paired and 6 relay podium positions, the U11s featured on the podium 15 times – taking an incredible half of the places available.
Full details of the athletes finishing in the top 4 are as follows:
Club International Selection Grant for Sean Cotter
This one a few weeks overdue! Congratulations to Sean Cotter who received his club grant award for International Selection at training a couple of weeks ago. Sean went on as reported in Eoin's excellent article to have a really fantastic race, scoring on the Irish team that finished Second behind a top-class England squad, Ireland's best result of the day.
The next week Sean shook off the mud from his spikes to win a fantastic Bronze in the national 1500m Indoors at Athlone - yet another brilliant season for the talented wolfpack member!. Well done Sean!! 💪👌
Chairman Mark Gillen presents the award to Sean at training surrounded by some of the Craughwell A.C. "wolfpack" distance running teammates 🐺
News from McNeese
Long Run or Intervals ?? So how far today Guys??
Still sporting club colours naturally
As you will have noticed our Scholarship Athlete news has been very thin on the ground for the past while.
Well the pictures as they say tell a thousand words.
Sadly Damian has been plagued for some time with an ongoing injury. No matter how much physio input both in the States, with our own physio here in Athenry, a great coach also and with another club member who is a sport injury therapist, lasting relief has alluded him. Well after M.R.I. was had, treatment was under review. Time for the head coach to step in and demand full treatment for one of his star athletes (well they must be stars why else have they scholarships?)and this is the outcome Plastered leg..............
But this athlete always remembers his humble roots He is always proud to wear his club singlet and in this case continues to wear his club colours. Yes he also admits he had the poor guy putting the plaster on search for twenty minutes to find orange to have Irish flag on his leg. Alas it was not to be found. So yet again folks CRAUGHWELL A.C. has won..........................Hopefully Damian will make a full recovery not have to look surgery in the eye and be back gaining P.B's and having good news for us next season.
Timetable for Galway U9-12 T&F Sunday 5th May
Click on image to download in pdf format
Little Athletics for Junior Infants
A new Little Athletics session is commencing for children currently in Junior Infants, at 5.30pm on Tuesdays at Craughwell Astroturf.
It will start on Tuesday 7th May (5.30pm to 6.30pm) and run for the 8 weeks of May and June. The cost is €25 per child for the 2 months. The session will be coordinated by Mark Gillen (086 816 2637) but we will need help from parents of children joining the group to run it.
If we can enlist sufficient assistance from parents during these 8 weeks, we will then be able to continue running it in September 2019 onwards. Unfortunately if we don't get enough new parents to help, we won't be able to do it in September as our coaches are already maxed out in other training sessions.
The club will organise training for new parents so that you are comfortable with the knowledge, but initially its mostly a supervision task as other coaches will be helping.
Note this session is only for junior infants - there are other sessions for older kids as follows:-
- 5.30pm Thursdays senior infants and first class (i.e. U8s and U9s)
- 5.30pm Wednesdays second class (i.e. U10s)
- 6.30pm Tues/Thurs U11s
- 6.30pm Tues/Thurs U12s
etc. ... see craughwellac.com for details of older groups
Well done Sarah & Tom Finnegan!
Congratulations to Sarah and Tom Finnegan who received a Special Achievement Award at the Galway Athletics Awards ceremony held in the Meadowcourt at the weekend in recognition of Sarah's tireless work in coordinating the County Galway Senior Women's Track & Field league team for the past 10 years and Tom's work in officiating at the league events. It takes a huge amount of coordination to pull the team together with the logistics of athletes from different clubs and summer holidays and individual athletes own competition schedules. So well done Sarah and Tom!
Check out John O'Connor's excellent photos of the event at:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77
Congratulations Laura - Galway U19 Athlete of the Year!
Laura pictured with her parents Tom and Lucy at the Awards ceremony
Congratulations to Craughwell AC’s Laura Cunningham who was awarded Galway U19 Athlete of the Year at the County Galway Athletics Awards ceremony held in the Meadowcourt at the weekend. The award marks an outstanding 2018 for Laura with 3 jumps medals in the National Juvenile Indoors in high jump, long jump and triple jump as well as 4x200m relay silver and she followed this up with the National outdoor title in the U19 Triple Jump as well 4th place in high jump and long jump and National relay medals in the U19 4x100m, U19 4x400m and U20 4x100m, an outstanding year by any standards.
Check out John O'Connor's excellent photos of the event at:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77
Laura had an incredible 2018 with no less than seven National medals in the U19 grade at the National indoor and outdoor track and field finals. The indoor season saw her take a brace of silver medals with a 10.38m leap in the triple jump and a 1.55m clearance in the high jump, as well as a bronze in the long jump with a 4.87m leap. She copper-fastened a remarkable indoors when anchoring her club 4x200m relay team to National silver in an excellent 1.47.85. Earlier in the season, she had two 4th placed finishes at National level with 4th in the U20 Combined Events and in the U20 high jump. She was also a leading member of the Craughwell Womens team who won team bronze in the National Indoor League.
The outdoor season saw no let-up in Laura’s top-drawer performances culminating with winning the National U19 Girls Triple Jump title with a leap of 10.58m and two 4th placed finishes in the long jump and high jump. And for good measure, Laura ran the anchor leg for both the club’s 4x400m and 4x100m relay teams, winning silver in the 4x400m and bronze in the 4x100m.
Laura also set a new Galway Indoor Championship Best of 10.02 in the senior women’s triple jump and she continued this form into the outdoor season when repeating this achievement with a 10.90m leap in the U19 triple jump at the Galway Outdoors and added a CBP in the long jump with a 5.02m leap. She won numerous Galway and Connacht titles both indoors and outdoors as well as quadruple Connacht outdoor titles in triple jump, long jump, high jump and relay.
She was also the leading member of the club’s U20 Womens team who were the top club at the National U20 Track & Field Championships, thereby qualifying for the European Clubs Track & Field this year. Laura contested 5 events and the 4x100m relay, placing 4th in the high jump and javelin where she threw an impressive 26.07m and anchoring the relay to the bronze medals. Her willingness to push herself to her physical limits by competing in 7 different events was inspirational for her team.
Laura’s achievements in 2018 are remarkable, particularly winning 7 National track and field medals in the same age group – a rare and perhaps unique achievement in Co. Galway and one that makes her a very worthy recipient of Galway Athlete of the Year.
Timetables for National Juvenile Indoor T&F
Best of luck to all of our athletes competing at the National finals in Athlone this weekend and next weekend.
Timetabels for the 3 days are as follows: