Good luck to all of Craughwell AC's athletes who are taking part in the U9-12 team competition and relays at the weekend in Tullamore. As has become the norm, our young athletes did us proud in the Connacht finals with many athletes qualifying for the National finals with some trememdous performances, bringing home more medals than any other Connacht club.

The National finals take place next Saturday 14th June in Tullamore, commencing at 10.30am. Any athlete in the 2-person team events should arrive before 9.30am in order to check-in for their event and to warm-up. Any athlete on a relay team should aim to arrive by 1.30pm at the latest.

Tullamore is about a 90 minute drive from Craughwell. Shortest route to take is to turn right in Ballinasloe for Shannonbridge, Co. Offally. Continue along this this road and eventually you come to a T junction at a small village called Blueball. Turn left here and after 4 or 5 miles you are in Tullamore. The athletics track is in the town, along the way in from that side. Keep an eye out for a small sign and a big gate on the right hand side along the main road through the town. If you reach the town centre, you're gone too far!

Craughwell results and full results of the Connacht finals are as follows.

Sprints

The club continues to make more and more progress in the sprint events. 6 sprint teams qualified for the All-Irelands – 1 U10 team, 3 U11 teams and 2 U12 teams. This was a very impressive achievement accounting for one-third of the qualifiers in the sprints. There was hard luck also for Dylan Finn and Cillian Dolan who missed out on qualification by 0.02s in the U10 boys sprint. Craughwell's sprint results were:-

Middle-Distance

We had 6 teams in action in the middle-distance race, with 3 qualifying for the Nationals amidst some very tough competition. And for the other three teams, they were very unlucky with each of them taking 4th place despite some exceptional runs.

Long Jump

The long jump provided another strong performance from the club, with the club taking 7 out of the 18 qualification places for the National finals. There was dissappointment too for some teams who didn't jump as well as in the Galway finals and missed out on qualification. But next year is another opportunity for them and they will be back at the top then! Results were:-

High Jump

The high jump yielded three sets of medals for the club – taking half the qualifcation places with some very good performances. Results were:-

Ball Throw

One team qualified in the ball throw, with some exceptional standards amongst some of the age groups. It was hard lick for Lisa Doran and Niki Cahill who took 4th place in their event.

Shot Putt

The club had 1 medal winner in the shot putt in the U12 boys event and 2 other teams placed 4th and 5th – unlucky not to qualify:-

Relays

As usual, the relays provided some high drama. For possibly the first time ever, the club qualified in each relay for the National finals, coming very close in some cases to having 2 teams qualify. Star performers were the U10 girls and U11 boys where the girls took 2nd and 3rd place and the boys took 2nd and 4th places:-

All in all, it was a great day for the club. Full results of the competition are at :-

Connacht U9-12 Results 2008.pdf