Craughwell AC’s juvenile club embarked on its most ambitious undertaking in its history last weekend when travelling to Glasgow for the Scottish U13, U15 and U17 Indoor Championships. Plans were made as far back as last September and as excitement mounted, the weekend finally arrived with the main group travelling by coach to Shannon Friday night and from there to Glasgow Prestwick/PIK.

PIK is about a 50 minute journey from Glasgow central train station. We had the option of train or coach transfer to the hotel but opted for coach transfer as it would keep the group together. The train would in fact have been ideal also as the Quality Central hotel where we were staying is right beside the central train station, with an exit from the station directly into the hotel (www.qualityhotelglasgow.co.uk). The Web page says the hotel is located “beside” the central train station – that could be rephrased to “on top of”. 

We arrived at the hotel shortly before 7pm. We had a meal booked in the hotel for 8.30pm for the group of 59 – for convenience really since we knew nothing about the many restaurants in the locality and wanted to get the group fed and watered and to bed at a reasonable hour. The meal was nothing to write home about but the hotel itself was ‘cool’. The hotel is quite old – 800 years old according to some of the Craughwell athletes, but with its age comes character and it certainly had that in abundance. We weren’t long in the hotel before word had already spread through the group about the haunted 6th floor! The long corridors were more reminiscent of an old castle than a hotel. All we were missing was a tartan floor for sprint work as the main corridor must be at least 100m long.

We arose early Saturday for the first day of competition. The U13 and U15 age groups were in action that day – with 21 athletes taking part from the club.  There were some great performances by many Craughwell athletes. Everyone without exception approached their event with professionalism and competed to the best of their ability on the day. Their performances, attitude and behaviour during the whole weekend are a credit to themselves, their families and the club! The following were in action on day 1. Results are available at www.scottishathletics.org.uk. 

 Highlights of day 1 were:-  

• Shaun Gallagher’s incredible 400m – see separate article.
• Niall Rooney and Jack Raftery in the high jump. Niall jumped very well in the high jump to equal his PB of 1.50m and take 5th place overall. Jack underlined his own potential to jump 1.40m, only 3cm short of his PB – a great achievement considering Jack hasn’t jumped in competition or training sessions since last July.
• Ruairi Finnegan in the U15 800m. Running a PB of 2.24.40 in the heats, Ruairi’s time was good enough to make the B final. There was some slight confusion as another Ruairi Finnegan had made the A final, which initially confused officials and they hadn’t listed the 2 Ruairi’s in the qualifiers. The confusion was sorted out and Ruairi surpassed all expectations by knocking a whopping 8 seconds off his new PB to finish 3rd in the B final in a fantastic time of 2.16.71.
• Linda Porter in the U15 Girls 1500m. As the race unfolded, Linda stuck into the back of the leading group of 4 runners. She looked comfortable but looks can be deceiving and Linda was finding the pace hot. A gap slowly opened between Linda and the leading three, but she stuck to her task to finish strongly and take 4th place in a time of 5.13.38 … 8 seconds behind 3rd place. A very good performance by Linda, particularly since it was just 2 days after a hard race in the Connacht Schools cross-country where she took 2nd place and led her Loughrea VS team to gold medals.
• Ashley McDonnell and Debi Kenny in the U15 Girls Long Jump. Ashley led the Craughwell contingent with a jump of 4.66m, only 6cm short of her PB. Debi also jumped well, leaping 4.28m and getting back to the form which saw her take 2nd place last year in the Connacht Outdoors.
• Claire Ryder double in the U13 Girls long jump and 200m – see separate article.
• Great sprinting by all the Craughwell athletes in the 200m races.

 The following athletes were in action on day 2: 

Highlights were:-

• Strong participation in the U17 Girls long jump – it’s great that this age group is getting back into the sport having rejoined the club last summer.
• Scottish title for Cathriona Farrell in the high jump – see separate article.

The entire weekend went very well. I’m sure not everything was perfect, but we got there and back without any mishaps, everyone put 100% into their events and all of the athletes were exceptionally well behaved for the entire weekend. A few of the parents had to be kept under close supervision each night in the hotel bar, but thankfully they behaved themselves so hopefully we’ll bring them next year again! We will have to insist though on an athlete accompanying each parent as the club cannot take responsibility for minding these parents for a full weekend in Glasgow! 

Thanks to everyone involved for making it a great weekend. Special thanks to Sue and Julie for providing the entertainment for the weekend. Who needs Tommy Tiernan when Sue’s around!