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Indoor Opener at AIT Baseline Meet

A number of athletes opened their indoor season last week with some impressive performances in the AIT Baseline Meet held in Athlone. Jerry Keary leaped to victory in the men’s high jump with a best of 1.95m. Laura Cunningham did likewise in the women’s high jump with a best of 1.55m. Arlene Earls ran an impressive 44.21 in the women’s 300m.

Gavin Cooney and Sinéad Gaffney were equally impressive when racing the unfamiliar distance of 1000m, with Gavin 4th in the men’s race in a time of 2.43.76 and Sinéad 4th in the women’s race in a time of 3.07.39 – both times auguring well for 800m PBs later in the season.

Katie O’Donoghue and Orla Ryan made a welcome return to the track, running excellent times of 8.44 and 8.81 in the women’s 60m. Ful results are here.

Next up on the indoor season is a busy weekend in mid-January with the Galway indoors on 13/14 January in Athlone and the first round of the National League on 13 January in Dublin.

I can't conclude this article without a brief mention of the fantastic performances at the National cross-country yesterday in Waterford with the highlights being 3 top-10 placings with Caron Ryan 3rd in the U19 Girls 4000m, Ben Ryan 8th in the U17 Boys 5000m and Sean Cotter 5th place  in the U15 Boys 3500m. Lisa will be posting a full report from an exciting day at Waterford IT. Massive well done to all of our athletes who took part in what is the toughest competition of them all.

Craughwell Phase 3 Development Plan Launched!

Click the picture to see the plan!

Craughwell AC Receives €72k Sports Capital Grant!

Exciting news reached the club this evening with the announcement of the 2017 Sports Capital Grants which included a grant of €72,000 to Craughwell AC towards the provision of an indoor athletics training hall!

The club is indebted to Junior Ministers Ciaran Cannon, Seán Canney and Seán Kyne for the invaluable advice they provided during the preparation of the grant application. Our members’ catchment areas span the constituencies of all three Deputies and on behalf of these members, the club wish to again express their gratitude for their help.

The grant was applied for in February of this year and following assessment by the Department, the Minister today announced the awards. The grant is one of the largest awarded to local projects in County Galway under the 2017 Sports Capital Program and is testament to the marvellous work being done by the coaches and committee within the club, the tremendous dedication shown by our athletes and the fantastic support that the club has received from the parents and the community for the facility development to date. It is also worth noting the diligent work of the civil servants who evaluated the 1000s of applications for grants - something that perhaps we forget about at times as I am sure its a herculean effort to evaluate and score so many 1000s of applications in order to come up with a prioritised list.

The club are fortunate also to have the support of Community Finance Ireland who have agreed in principle to provide a further loan to the club as part of the next phase of development. CFI’s mandate is to lend to the community and voluntary sector and the club have found them to be excellent partners in its facility development. In fact, the club has already received 3 loans from them in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to assist in the development.

Most of all, the club is indebted to the fantastic team of over 40 coaches and committee members who drive the club forwards and to the many wonderful families who financially support the club’s facility development.

The club's Executive Committee are currently looking at all aspects of the funding of the next phase of development and will shortly be communicating the details of the proposed facilities to include in the next phase to members and seeking financial support.  It is hoped to address all of the facilities prioritised by the survey conducted by the club during the summer, including the athletics training hall together with a 4-lane 400m track, throwing areas, a perimeter walking/jogging pathway and toilets/changing room facilities. Given the progress the club has made in the last 4 years, we are very confident that we can deliver these facilities in a short number of years. But it will require a major commitment from everyone within the club.

The grant award is wonderful news for the club and the first step on the way to the next phase. It is also a big vote of confidence in what we are doing both for the social and recreational health of our members and also the development of athletes to their potential, some of whom will hopefully go on to great things as young adults and many of whom will have developed a great habit of regular exercise which will stand to them for their lifetimes.

Craughwell NS Maintain Fine Tradition at Connachts

Craughwell NS continued a fine tradition of success in the Connacht Primary Schools Cross Country Championships which were held on the impressive grounds of St Brigid’s GAA club in Kiltoom, Co. Roscommon at the weekend. The school’s excellent record in these championships goes all the way back to 2003 before any of this year’s athletes were even born when the Craughwell Senior Girls team claimed the Connacht Cross Country title for the first time with Cathriona Farrell 10th, Ashley McDonnell 13th, Yasmine Tobin 24th, Rachel Kenny 41st, Cianna Greene 44th and Jane Healy 51st.

Last Saturday saw Clodagh O’Meara join an elite group of athletes from the school when placing 9th in the race – the highest position ever achieved in this race for an athlete from the school and a fantastic achievement for a very hard-working athlete. Clodagh led her team to the team silver medals with Aisling Whyte 24th, Grace Keaveney 37th, Chloe Hallinan 58th, Siofra Davis 59th and Erin Kelly 69th all running strongly to produce a great team result. Fauve Aylmer also put in an amazing run for Coldwood NS when placing 7th in the race with a storming finish, one of the highest ever finishes in this race by an athlete from the club and a just reward for another hard-working athlete. And in the Senior Boys 1200m, Daniel Galvin (Ballymana NS) had a super run to claim the final individual medal when taking 15th place in a race that continually features the highest standard of running in Connacht for these age groups.

The Craughwell NS Junior Girls team also put in a terrific team performance in their 1000m race, claiming the bronze medals with an excellent performance with Ella Farrelly 17th, Sarah Craven 19th, Lauren Morgan 44th, Katelyn Walsh 52nd, Claudia McGuinness 58th and Ciara O'Connor 59th. Also in action in the junior girls’ race, Saoirse Mullins (Ballyglas NS) just missed out on a medal when taking 16th place with another fine run.

For Craughwell NS this was the 8th time in 15 years that the school has taken team medals in the Senior Girls race and the 7th time in 12 years that they have done so in the Junior Girls race – the most successful school in Connacht in girls’ cross-country in the last 15 years. Full details of past performances and athletes finishing positions are here. I will try to compile similar information for other local schools. Official results from the weekend are here,.

Well done Cillian McDaid!

Huge congratulations to former member of the club Cillian McDaid who is poised to head to the Aussie Rules league. Cillian was a member of the club for many years winning many Galway and Connacht medals and a National silver as part of the Craughwell team in the U12 Boys National Cross-country Championahips in 2012.

Swapping the Irish climate of rain and mud for the life of a professional athlete in sun-baked Australia was a tough decision I'm sure :-).

And huge well done also to his parents Garvan and Louise for helping him to reach such heights! I know from his younger years and also from chatting to Garvan the massive dedication to sport that Cillian has. He is an inspiration to others in our club and the locality of what can be achieved when you dedicate yourself to an activity.  So well done again to Cillian and hopefully it works out brilliantly for him in Australia!

See report below from Fox Sport.

Great Performances at Connacht XC in Moyne

Craughwell AC's Oisin Davis (6th), Sean Cotter (Connacht Champion) and Liam Leen (5th)
at the Connacht U15 Cross Country Championships in Longford

Several athletes from the club made the long journey to Moyne Community School in Co. Longford today for day 2 of the Connacht cross country. Well done to Longford AC and Paddy McPhillips for having the course in excellent condition bar two boggy patches on the way around. The Moyne course was the scene of one of the club’s proudest moments back in 2013 when 4 teams from local primary schools featured in the team medals and Rebekah Flynn strode to individual gold in the 4th class race. So we like it up here … if only they could move it a bit closer to Craughwell 😊.

The U11 Girls 1500m race was off first at noon sharp where Craughwell AC had a mostly U10 team in action. Claudia McGuinness led the team home in 34th place and was followed swiftly by Amelie Bocquet 38th, Kathlyn Walsh 44th, Caoilin Corban 48th and Lillian Walsh 52nd – super performances considering Amelie, Katelyn, Caoilin and Lillian are all out of age. The team placed 5th with 164 points. Next up, the U11 Boys 1500m got away with Darragh Reidy having an outstanding run to place 15th overall and lead Craughwell AC to team bronze with Fionn Higgins 19th, Keelan Moorhead 35th, Sean Lavan 44th and Darragh Kelly 47th. The team took the bronze with 113 points

Craughwell AC's U13 Girls - silver medalists
at the Connacht Cross Country Championships in Longford

Next the U13 Girls 2500m got underway with Aoibhe Carr establishing a fast pace early in the race, followed by Fauve Aylmer, Clodagh O'Meara, Jade Moorhead, Erin Kelly and Grace Leen. 2500m is a tough distance for this age but the girls rose to the challenge. Aoibhe got a stitch midway through the race but bravely battled on. Clodagh and Fauve started to move up through the field and had an outstanding second half of the race to take individual 4th and 5th places. Aoibhe was in next in 19th place, showing fantastic determination not to let the team down when having to run the second half of the race with a stitch and noticeably unwell for 30 minutes after the race. Jade had her strongest performance this season in cross country with a fine 27th place finish. Erin had a brilliant run to plae 49th as did Grace in 52nd, both girls showing great determination to finish out the race and complete a wonderful team performance by the girls which saw them take the team silver with 55 points. Additionally, Clodagh and Fauve scored for the Galway team which took home the gold medals in the county competition.

Craughwell AC's U13 Boys - silver medalists
at the Connacht Cross Country Championships in Longford

The whistle went for the U13 Boys 2500m immediately the girls race concluded. Mathys Bocquet stepping up an age having taken Connacht silver last weekend in the U12s, again showed what a talented cross-country runner he is when taking up a place in the top 3 which gradually pulled away from the field through the race. As it came into the final 200m, it was only then that Mathys faded a little to take individual bronze – a marvellous performance out of age. Mathys was followed in by Evan Hallinan with his best run of the season to date to take 15th place. Hot on his heels Daniel Galvin also with his best run of the season took 18th place, while Cian Lavan put in a blistering finish to take 20th place. And in his first race for the club, Mark Kilgannon had a super run to take 35th place and was followed by our 6th man Killian Walsh battling hard in 45th place. Another super team performance which saw them clinch the team silver medals with a points total of 56, narrowly behind South Galway who took the Connacht title with 53 points.

In the U15 Girls 3500m, Aoibhinn Keane stepping up an age and put in a super run to finish 14th out of age while in the U15 Boys 3500m, Sean Cotter again demonstrated his extraordinary talent to take the Connacht title with an impressive run and was followed in by great runs by Liam Leen and Oisin Davis in 5th and 6th. A 4th scorer here would have guaranteed them the team gold but alas was not to be as Ross McGuinness had picked up an injury.

In the U17 Girls 3500m, Ciara Sheppard had an amazing run to take 7th place possibly Ciara's best ever run in cross country but even more amazing considering she was out of age – getting stronger and stronger with every run. In the boys William Fitzgerald raced to individual bronze, an incredible performance considering that yesterday William raced to victory in the 5k in his home town of Peterswell. William was followed in by Kyle Moorhead with a fine run to take 8th place with Patrick Noonan hot on his heels in 9th place and Sean Noonan completing a fine team performance with 11th place and helping the team to the silver medals with 31 points. And Luke Evans rounded out the Craughwell performances with a fine individual silver medal in the U19 Boys race.

Full results are here: CONNAUGHT_UNEVEN_RESULTS_SUNDAY_5TH_NOV_MOYNE

Christmas Clearout? Clothes Recycling Collection

The club's next clothes collection will take place on 22nd November.

So if doing a pre-Christmas clearout, why not do it early and get it into our recycling facility on our new grounds beside Craughwell NS.

Please don't leave clothes in the toilets/changing room container on the school grounds - we have a purpose built one now on our grounds adjacent to the pedestrian gate to the school.

These collections raise vital funds for the club's facility development at no cost to members.

Thanks for your support!

Craughwell AC Lotto Relaunched

Run for Mary, Sat 4th Nov 2017

Medals Galore at Connacht X Country Championships

U16 Boys & U16 Girls - Galway County Gold Medalists

Glorious blue skies, and warm sun greeted runners in Sligo last weekend (Sunday 29th Oct). With magnificent views across the rolling land scape towards the Keelogyboy mountain range and Lough Gill, today was one of the days that the best possible thing you could do is run cross country.

Notwithstanding the fabulous day, those of us who have been to Calry before, know how tough this course is. Running downhill between two adjacent fields through a narrow gap, is hard work for even the best x country runners. There is also a deceptively long incline of 250m that not only has to be climbed every km that is run, but also it makes up the finishing stretch coming up to and into the shoots.

We had Craughwell AC representation for most ages today and lots of fantastic performances. The first race kicked off with the U12 Girls, 2000m race, that consisted of 2 full laps. Running in this race were Claudia McGuiness and Muireann Leen who both had fantastic starts, and joined the leaders for the first 200m, however, the leaders charged ahead and our girls maintained fine positions throughout the race with final positions of 55^th (Claudia) and closely behind 57^th Murieann.

U12 boys were next to the line and with one of the finest performances of the day Mathys Bocquet in a race with 58 contenders stormed to 2^nd place taking an individual silver medal, first Galway boy in and helping the Galway team to a Silver Country medal. Other U12 boys included; Darragh Kelly 11^th Galway runner in (placing 46^th overall), Eoin Spellman, 12^th Galway runner in (49^th overall). Much to his disappointment Eamonn Corban picked up an injury into the first lap and had to pull out of the race.

U14 Girls only had one Craughwell runner; Aoibhin Keane who had a great race to finish in 27^th position and at the same time brought home a Galway County Gold Medal.

Next to run were the U14 boys (3000m); were Ross McGuiness and Darragh McCartin. Ross charged ahead with 2 other runners who held comfortable leads throughout the first 2k. On the final and exhausting last km, Ross fell back a few places but still managed to finish 6^th overall. Ross was the 2^nd Galway County runner to cross the finish line. Darragh had a very steady run maintaining throughout the entire race his 16^th position. Both boys were exhausted but delighted to have achieved this today. Ross and Darragh both stood on the podium for bronze County Galway medals.

There was little or no time between any of the races today and as soon as U14 races were complete it was straight to the line for the U16 girls. Without rain today, the fields although “muddy” were nothing compared to previous years, and although there had been 4 races completed, under foot conditions were still fine. Craughwell AC had 2 U16 girls; Ailbhe Miskella and Ciara Sheppard. Both girls got off to fantastic starts and Ailbhe in her customary style immediately charged to the front to run alongside the top 10 in this race. With her fabulous ability to maintain her position during races, she sat in and around 9^th position for the first 2 laps, Ailbhe’s endurance ability coupled with her power, usually allows her to work her way up to over take a few runners. With 2 laps completed and coming into the third lap, Ailbhe gained a few places and with the last hill to go even managed to close the gap between herself and the 7^th place finalist, with only 50m between the two, Ailbhe sprinted up the hill to finish 8^th. Ailbhe was the 3^rd Galway girl in. Ciara also put in tremendous effort and although preferring to hold back a little at the start of the race, (to avoid the “rampage” that occurs), ran steady first 2 laps and then began her strategy to gradually gain places. With 1km complete Ciara was sitting in 15^th position, appearing comfortable and preserving her energy for the second half of the race and gradually she  began to gain places and overtook 5 runners to storm to the finish line with a brilliant 12^th position. Ciara was the 5^th Galway girl in and both herself and Ailbhe helped the Galway Team to a Gold County Medal

Unfortunately, neither U16 girls or U16 boys were able to field a team in their races, but with fine performances from all individuals Galway County Gold Team medals were achieved.

                             Galway Country Gold Medalists                     U16 Bronze Medalist- Sean Cotter (U15)

                         (missing from photo is Ciara Sheppard)

With U16 boys lined up and ready to go with Sean Cotter, Kyle Moorhead and Liam Leen (only recently came back to x country), from the gun start Sean stormed ahead to take an immediate lead. Within the first 100m he was joined side by side by 2 other runners who accompanied him for most of the race. This is a tremendous achievement as Sean is an U15 and particularly as I observed him “hobbling” out of school last Thursday evening, following an injury to his foot. He rested for a few days and somehow managed to charge into the Sligo hills (“bog”) with the determination we are now used to. During this 4000m race Sean held his strong position, fighting off any contenders. However, during the last 1000m he began to fall back to third position and the gap widened and made it very difficult for Sean to fight for first or second place. Sean still managed victory with an individual bronze medal and earned his place on the Galway County Team (Gold Medallists). Next U16 Craughwell runner to charge up the hill towards the tape was Kyle Moorhead, (16th) followed closely behind by Liam Leen. Both runners held their positions throughout the race and Liam Leen (running out of age and with very little training behind him in the last 12 months) coped incredibly well with the steep accents to finish in 20^th place.

Dearbhla Walsh, who has taken some time out from running this year to pursue other sports and study put in a fine performance in the 4000m girls U20 and coming around the first lap was in a strong 4^th position and was only overtaken by one runner throughout the entire race and finished in 5^th place.

The last and final race of the day was the U18/U20 and men’s race. Although it was great to observe the talent of these endurance runners it was at the same time a “battle field” in terms of the numbers of runners and a real task to work out who was in which age group. Piecing together the results proved incredibly difficult with 81 runners in total. Jack Miskella U20 had a superb race and held his 2^nd position throughout the entire race to take home anIndividual Silver Medal. William Fitzgerald was the first U17 Craughwell athlete to cross the finishing line in 5^th place followed by Patrick Noonan and Sean Noonan (15^th & 18^th). All performed incredibly well and their overall race positions (amongst U18-Senior men) were 6^th, 18^th, and 21^st.

U18 boys came away from Sligo with Silver County medals.

Full results of the day are here:- 2017.10.29.amended.ConnachtEvenAgesXCResults.pdf

Laura Claims Bronze in National Combined Events!

Ben Garrard (Yeats College) and Laura Cunningham (Pres Athenry)
who placed 4th and 3rd in the Senior Boys and Senior Girls categories
at the Irish Schools Combined Events Championships in Athlone

The Irish Schools Combined Events Championships took place yesterday with some exhilarating performances by the club’s athletes. In the Senior Girls grade, Laura Cunningham (Pres Athenry) put in a fantastic series of jumps to clear 1.61m on her first attempt to win the high jump. Next event up was the 60m hurdles where Laura was leading the race as she crossed the final hurdle but disaster struck as her trailing leg just caught the hurdle and brought her down in a heavy fall. Laura bravely got up and crossed the line in a time of 12.85 losing over 400 points as a result of the fall.

But despite bad grazing on elbows and knees, the undeterred Laura leaped 4.76m to take valuable points in the long jump and move into 3rd place and followed it up with an 8.08m PB with the 4kg shot to hold 3rd place going into the final event 800m. With a margin of just 43 points separating 3rd from 4th which equates to a gap of just 4 seconds in the 800m, it was all to play for in the final event. With a time of 3 minutes from the Connacht championships Laura ran an exceptionally well-paced race to better this time by 11 seconds when running 2:49.24 and in the process, seal the bronze medal – an incredible performance considering the heavy tumble she took in the hurdles which possibly denied her the gold medal.

Also putting in a series of brilliant performances, Ben Garrard (Yeats College) put himself in contention for a podium finish when running an impressive 9.47 in the hurdles and 24.70 in the 200m, leaping 5.68m in the long jump and heaving the shot out to 8.66m. This placed Ben 4th going into the 800m 157 points adrift of 3rd place or approximately a 10 second gap to recover in the 800m. Ben put in a remarkable run to open a substantial gap on his opponents, blazing around the first 400m in 60 seconds and finishing in an excellent time of 2.02.93.

As we waited with bated breath by the scoreboard for the official results and updated scores, the official arrived with the sheet and alas despite such an outstanding 800m, Ben hadn’t close the gap to 3rd place who had recorded a time of 2.09.37 – Ben would have needed him to run 2.12.56 to have overhauled him. So close but an excellent effort from Ben … a 2.02.93 off very little 800 training in the last 4 months augurs very well for the future.

Also in action in the younger age groups, Ellie Cronin (Pres), Freya Bohan (Pres) and Alisha Larkin (St Raphael’s) battled hard in the Junior Girls and Chloe Farragher (St Brigid's) in the Minor Girls. Ellie ran a brilliant hurdles despite a wobbly start and recorded an excellent 9.92. The long jump didn’t go as well for Ellie and a break on the first jump was followed up with a 3.73m from behind the board and the third jump was a narrow break – unlucky for Ellie. Her high jump went well with a first time clearance of 1.51m to finish 2nd in that event and she followed this up with a 6.93m shot putt. Freya battled hard also with an 11.60 hurdles, 4.53 long jump and 1.36m high jump while Alisha did well also in her first multi-events with an 11.37 hurdles, 5.55m shot, 4.32m long jump, 1.27m high jump and 2.59.42 800m. In the minor grade, Chloe raced to 11.60 over the hurdles, 7.37m in the shot and 1.21m in the high jump.

Full results are here:- girls    boys

Well done to our raffle prizewinners!

Well done to the prize winners in our raflle which was held on Friday night last. The winners are listed below ... hope you enjoy your prizes! And thanks to everyone for supporting the draw, the proceeds of which all go into our facility development in Crinnage.