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 clubs that competed or medaled – it is especially historic to see some clubs claim their first medals or their first in the current generation. Those clubs will be boosted by this and could well be sitting atop the table in the not too distant future.

In case people are wondering why our earlier report said that we got 20 medals in the nationals whereas it is 22 above, the Connacht table is a count of medallists per event as opposed to medals – i.e. in team events such as the u9-11 pairs, they opted to count them as two medals which explains the difference. If we had used medals, our total would have been 20: 7 Gold, 9 Silver and 4 Bronze. We would still be on top though – in fact our lead on the second placed club would have been larger in that case as they had more team medals.

How does this compare?

In terms of total medal count, this ties for our third best ever year, but is our best for Gold medals with a magnificent 7! Our best result ever was in 2018 where we won an exceptional 28 medals in total – reports here, here and here. Of course this year, there were no relays due to COVID-19 so the figures aren’t directly relatable, but given the sprint success there is every reason to think we might have done quite well in the relays.

Thank you!!.. and please help!!

Obviously the main factor in the success is we are lucky enough to have talented athletes and a team of dedicated and experienced coaches that have created a positive environment for people to train in.

Another key aspect has to be that we own our own facility. Because of this, we were able to keep things operating and running consistently. Our children had an open, safe and happy place to train locally with their friends where some other clubs were looking at locked gates and going home to “zoom classes” or more likely playstations/social media scrolling.

To everyone that has supported the facility project to this point a huge THANK YOU!!

To purchase and develop this amenity for the village was a massive long-term risk and it’s paying off with medals, but more importantly the physical and mental health of our kids, and the overall quality of life for everyone in the area. There remains a huge amount of work to do to push the next phase over the line! We want to keep driving on but need support to do so – a lot of support!!

If you would like to see us complete the track in Craughwell, please consider supporting the next phase by:

• Making a charitable donation or offering sponsorship (contact us in confidence!)
• Playing our Lotto
• Recycling Clothes at the Cash for Clobber base
• Taking out a park membership to walk or train at non-peak times
• Supporting the various fundraising activities that will be coming your way soon!!
• Giving us ideas for grants, schemes or any other fundraisers we aren’t thinking of!