Castlehackett is a small rural community nestled between Headford and Tuam close to Knockma, which is associated with Queen Maeve. The annual 8k run is a fundraiser for their primary school since 2015. The school itself is the typical older type 3 or 4 teacher school and on the race day it was beautifully cleaned and decorated, with many of the pupils “helping out” to provide a great buzz in the hall before and after the race. During the 5K…
The best of the best in Irish Juvenile Athletics descended on a showery and windy Tullamore last weekend to battle for honours at the highest national level. In the U19 girls, Lauren Kilduff put an exclamation point on a stellar Juvenile career with a superb win in the 100m Hurdles in 14.51. Lauren heads to the states on scholarship next year and has gone from strength to strength throughout her Juvenile career. Lauren was joined on the podium by her…
On Sunday, 31st May, several of my friends and I joined 28,000 other women in Dublin for the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon. It is the largest women’s event of its kind in the world and has been going for 42 years but this was my first time taking part. Although I have completed a fair few races at this stage, it was a first for a couple of my friends which added to the excitement. As a girl in my…
Several of the club’s athletes represented County Galway with distinction at the weekend in the Round 1 of the National League in Tullamore with some fine performances to help the country qualify for the August finals with a 3rd place finish in the Women’s competition and 2nd place in the Men’s. Leanagh Gilligan took 2nd place in the Women’s High Jump equalling her PB of 1.55m and went very close to clearing the 1.60m mark. Later in the day Leanagh…
Craughwell AC’s athletes delivered a dominant performance at the recent Connacht Relays for the older juvenile age groups. The club’s U17 Girls raced to the Connacht title in their 4x100m in a time of 52.47 with Aisling Lavan, Isabelle Power, Laoise Scully, Faye Whelan and Adele Casserly. The U16 Girls did likewise in a time of 52.25 with Grace Drysdale, Ruby Maher, Faye Whelan and Adele Casserly. The club fielded 2 strong teams in the U15 Girls who raced to…
Another brilliant day of athletics for Craughwell AC took place at the weekend at day 2 of the Connacht Championships held at ATU Sligo. Killian Burke and Grace Drysdale led the way with each taking double Connacht titles. Killian excelled in the U17 throws, heaving the shot putt out to 9.38m for the gold and doing likewise in the Discus with a huge throw of 22.25m. Grace was equally impressive in the U16 sprints racing to blistering times of 27.13…
Return to form was the theme yesterday at Irishtown IMC as the lads all delivered strong performances despite the wet and windy conditions. William Fitzgerald has been struggling with form since November but we have been systematically trying different things to identify the issue. After a strong 14:23 in Brusssels a couple of weeks ago the confidence was on point for Saturday’s race. William made all the right moves in the 5000m, getting stuck in from the start and shifting…
Craughwell AC’s youngest stars took to the track in Claremorris on Saturday for the Connacht U9-13s Track & Field Championships. There were many exceptional performances across the 4 age groups but none more so than the record-breaking performance from Katie Considine in the U11 Girls 60m where she took the Connacht title in a speedy 9.00 seconds and in the process breaking a 17 year-old record held by Westport AC’s Alannah Gannon. Katie combined with Aoibhin Gallagher-McKeon who raced the…
Limerick marathon took place at 9am Sunday the 3rd of June. I had many conversations about choosing a Spring marathon and Limerick won me over in the end for several reasons. Firstly, being able to sleep in my own bed the night before and not having to deal with a hotel breakfast the morning of (I did have a friend that transported a microwave with her to ensure her porridge was “just right” the morning of!) were key reasons. Well…
Having watched a documentary on Netflix or YouTube probably over 7 to 8 years ago about the Backyard Ultra I was always fascinated by how runners would push themselves to grind out lap after lap to breaking point. My first thought back then was “No Way” not for me. The Backyard Ultra is a race created by American Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell in which you have an hour to do a lap, or yard as it’s called. Each yard is…
