David Matthews, legendary Irish 800m runner did a lap of the course the other day on Instagram and called it tough and muddy. Turns out, the speedy track man’s definition of “muddy” doesn’t match your average Connacht person as the course was immaculate throughout and I’ve never seen the back section as clean. The National Cross Country course in Abbotstown is my favourite course and plays host to the Eurocross later this year. The big lap is a 1.5km loop,…
After all this talk of Ballybrit being such a great course of late (it is), Loughrea AC’s stunning facility at Bushfield came out fighting and showed once again today why it is as good a cross country course as exists anywhere. Full credit to host club Loughrea AC who put on a smashing show and the glorious weather and course combined to make it a brilliant introduction to Cross for everyone that took part. Muireann Kelly got the day off…
“Bring Long Spikes and be prepared for a mudbath” was my advice during the week to anyone who’d listen. A week of persistent rain raised the famous Turlough in Craughwell to full bloom and I couldn’t see it being any other way. I couldn’t have been more wrong! The course defied the bad weather to an amazing degree – with just a single soft spot in the corner and basically no mud – kudos to the drainage experts in Galway…
Round up of an historic weekend which includes an international medal by Evan Hallinan and Jack Miskella Captaining NUIG to Cross-Country glory after 42 years. Evan Hallinan won a fantastic Bronze medal for Ireland in the Irish Schools International in Derbyshire. Evan, representing the Presentation College Athenry, leaped an exceptional 12.80m at the second attempt in the Triple Jump to finish with a precious Bronze medal. This is another milestone on a truly remarkable comeback year for the popular Evan…
Host Club Castlegar once again delivered a fantastic day of Cross Country action. They changed venue to a fabulous course in Ballybritt Racecourse and a classic was delivered. The course was ideal – a tad soft in places but not a whiff of mud and full of challenging hills and twists. I certainly didn’t miss the playground from their old course! Well done to Stephen, John, Phillip and all at Castlegar for delivering a fine days racing. The field was…
IT’S BACK!! Our hugely popular Fit4Youth programme returns with the Autumn series starts on Tues & Thurs at 7:45pm. The programme is aimed at youths aged 13-19 who would like to get fit in a fun, non-competitive environment. For more details contact Tom – see the fit4Youth page for Full Details!! Come join the fun!!
On Sunday, the National Masters Track & Field Championships took place in Morton Stadium, Santry and a full team of Craughwell AC Veteran Sprinters took part, led by inspirational Coach and mentor Ronnie Warde. The relays were the highlight of the day with the Craughwell men taking both the 4x100m and 4x400m titles. In the 4x100m, Cormac Kearney, Ronnie Warde, David Mulligan and Brian Malone flew to victory in 48.72s. Cormac, Brian and Ronnie were joined by John Walkin to…
As the dust settles on another fantastic national Juvenile Championships in 2021, the Connacht statisticians have ignored the fine weather and finished crunching the numbers on their laptops. Amazingly Craughwell AC has come out on top of the table in terms of the number of medallists! Given the population of the village compared to the larger towns and cities in Connacht, this can’t happen often so we should celebrate this unique achievement!! Well done to all the athletes from all…
Sean McDermott did the rally call and team selection and a large Galway team of 16 athletes, including 9 Craughwell Men lined up for Galway in the National League today to win a fantastic National Bronze medal. The weather was ideal and the day was perfect for chatting and competing! Knowing the points were the important thing, William Fitzgerald tracked the leader for the first few laps of his 5000m which ticked by in a slow 76-78s. When he was…
The third and final weekend of the National Track and Field took place on Saturday in fine conditions. This section was the u9-u13 finals and also the Combined Events. Once again we had a memorable day with many incredible highlights. This was a great end to a very successful championships and we added three Gold and two Silver Medals to our total from this years National Juveniles – to make for 20 medals in all! It should be interesting when…
