Friday 15th December 7 to 8pm Community Centre Hall

Athletes, Coaches & Parents, you are cordially invited to join us to celebrate the athletic achievements of our members over 2017. It’s been a great year with more athletes competing than ever before, across all the training groups. It will be an exciting night with the achievements of all recognised.

As well as the awards, there is our annual raffle, tickets to be distributed shortly. As always there are a number of exciting prizes. Don’t forget if you’re not in, you can’t win…

Get your Party gear ready. Santa hats and Christmas Jumpers are the order of the day. We look forward to you joining us on the night.

Huge congratulations to all our athletes who competed in today’s National XC Championships.

First up for the club were Shauna and Aoife in the Girls U12 Race. In a very strong field Shauna came 32nd (6th Dublin Team member home), shortly followed by Aoife. Very strong performance by these two athletes in their first National Championship.

Next up for the club was Lorcan in the Boys U14. Again a good performance in a strong field.

Lottie ran well in the Girls U16, despite a stitch in the latter part of the race.

John ran a phenomenal race in the Boys U16. He battled hard in the lead pack, eventually finishing 6th.

Mairead had a good run in the U18 Girls which was combined with the U20 Girls, and of a very high standard.

Last Athlete up for the club was Ciara in the senior Women’s race. By now conditions were deteriorating. Very cold and drizzly, with the course well churned up from earlier races. Ciara pushed hard from the start and was with lead group the whole way. She finished a strong 6th in a high calibre field containing Irish Olympians.

Thanks as always to the coaches for preparing the athletes, and to those who turned up today to support and encourage them. For the parents who battled long queues of traffic to get their children to the race, and their on going support. Finally to all our athletes who competed, we are so proud of you all. It is a phenomenal achievement to make it to National level.

Congratulations to Keith on his debut run for Ireland in British & Irish Masters Cross Country Race in Derry last Sunday. The Irish team had a great run taking home the silver medal.

For those of you who don’t know one of our athletes, Isabel Carron was awarded a full athletic scholarship to North Carolina State University. North Carolina has one of the best women collegiate XC teams in the US, currently ranked 5th. To be accepted into such a programme it is a testament to Isabel’s athletic achievements, which include:-

• Gold at the 2015 Irish National Championships, winning the 3K
• 2x Irish Junior National Champion in the 5,000m (2014, 15)
• 2x Irish Schools Champion in the 3,000m (2013, 14)
• Competed for Ireland at Schools International level both on the Track and XC
• Competed for the Irish National Junior XC team from 2014-15 (at European XC Championships)

However to obtain a scholarship a high academic level is also required, which Isabel more than achieved with her outstanding leaving cert results.

Isabel started at the college in August, and has settled in well to her new academic and training environment, and we look forward to catching up with her at Christmas.

NC State Athletic team are known as the Wolfpack. You can follow the Wolfpack with the following link NC State Athletics

The Dublin Juvenile Uneven Ages Cross Country Championships took place in Santry Demense on Sunday morning, with athletes competing from U/9 upwards. The Dublin Championships is always a big step up in standard compared to the Cross Country Leagues, with the Championships providing an opportunity for our athletes from U11 upwards to qualify for the National Cross Country Championships in Waterford on the 17th of December.

As always all our athletes did the Club very proud performing very well. Up first were our U9 boys Conor D, Conor C & Michael competing in their first Dublin Championships, all three boys finishing well within the top half of a very competitive field. Next up was Keren in the U9 girls finishing in an amazing 4th place. It should be mentioned that these athletes are currently members of our Indoor Group and wouldn’t be doing much distance training. Thanks to Michael for taking care of our athletes on the day, who is very proud of you as you all continue to make huge improvements with every race.

Next up we had our older athletes chasing National Championship Qualification places with the following securing their selection : U11 girls, Shauna 4th and Aoife 5th (backing up their performances of a fortnight ago); U15 Boys : Josh 12th and the U15 boys team (Josh, Lorcan, Hugh & Alton) coming in 3rd; U17 Girls Lottie 5th & Ruby 6th (again backing up their performances of a forthnight ago) and the U17 girls team (Lottie, Ruby, Anna & Kerrie) coming in 3rd.

Following the competion of the Juvenile races, it was the turn of the Senior Athletes. Huge congratulations to Ciara Durkan on winning the Jim McNamara Perpetual Cup, and securing the county title for the Senior Womens’ 6,000m in a time of 20min 27sec. Last but not least was Kevin running in the Senior Men’s 10,000m in a time of 35 min 14 sec.

Thanks as always to the coaches for preparing the athletes and to those who were there on the day to give last minute advice and support. To all the parents for their support and of course to all our athletes who work so hard at training and who represent the club so well at all times.