Wow! is all I can say! We all thought that Nenagh was the coolest place in Ireland. Well hats off for Athlone has just pushed Nenagh out into the cold! Hey no offence intended to Nenagh – I love that place and hope to be there many times during the year. But Athlone looks super cool!

The first official competitions to be held in the new indoor arena iare the National Pentathlon Championships this Saturday followed by the AAI Open Games on Sunday, Craughwell will have a small band of competitors in action on Saturday including Katie O’Donoghue, Damien O’Boyle and Sam McArdle. While on Sunday, the AAI Open Games will feature a number of top-class Irish and international seniors in action, along with several of our own top seniors and juveniles including Peter O’Sullivan, Peadar Harvey, Neil Greaney, Conor Gillen, Nicholas Sheehan, Keelan Ryan, John Cormican, Ciara Greene.

It promises to be a super experience and I’d strongly encourage parents and athletes to try to get there for one of the National competitions in Jan/Feb. Not sure what the demand for seats will be like this Sunday but I’d say it will be high. You have a few other opportunities to sample the new facility, including the National Juniors finals and the National Senior finals both in Feburary. And also the Universities Track & Field in February. And of course the Connacht Indoor Track & Field on 3 March and/or the National Juvenile finals on 23rd/24th March if you can wait that long!

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