World Junior Mountain Running Championships - Italy

Alex Hunter represented Ireland today at the world junior mountain running championships in Italy (6,5k distance with  450m up and downhill). The course chosen was the Giir Di Mont- a grueling, historic and beautiful location in the Lombardy region. Parts of the course were extremely narrow making it very difficult to overtake other athletes so it was vital to get out fast from the start. Over 35 nations competed for both individual and team honours so Alex's finishing position of 39th represents excellent running and suggests he is back to his best & already in great shape for the upcoming cross country season. The Irish u 19 national cross country champion Paul O Donnell (DSD) was 35th while Iosac Coleman was 51st

Great running Alex

Conor Smashes Club Record Again

Conor Duncan smashed his own club senior 800m record tonight. Running in the Antwerp international athletics gala he finished 4th in a fantastic 1 min 51.41 sec - an improvement of over 2 seconds on his PB. His time is all the more remarkable when you take into consideration his curtailed winter training. Conor passed the 400m in 6th but finished strongly up the home straight to get up to 4th. right on the finishing line. He plans to have his final race of the track season next weekend in Belgium before taking a well deserved short break from training

Well done Conor

National Senior Championships

Running in Saturday's heats of the national 800m senior championships, Conor Duncan qualified for the final when finishing third in 1 min 54.19 sec. Conor led the field through 400m in 54 sec and then appeared to go through a bad patch before getting a second wind and finishing strongly up the home straight to claim the last qualifying spot. However, the lack of winter training finally caught up with Conor in Sunday's final where he finished 9th in 1 min 55.62 on tired legs

Also competing in the national seniors  was our 4 x 400m relay squad. After his exertions in the 800m final, Conor joined Naoise McKenna, Peter Kilgannon and Brian Kiernan for the last event of the championships.The four lads gave it everything but with the exception of Peter Kilgannon, who posted 50.5 sec for his leg, they were unable to reproduce their early season form and finished 8th in 3 min 29 6 sec.

Nevertheless they all appreciated the invaluable experience gained competing in their first senior nationals and are determined to be at the sharp end of proceedings next time

Day 3- All Ireland Track & Field Championships

 

Day 3 and final day of the All Ireland juvenile championships took place today in Tullamore, on another hot day the competition was even hotter with exceptionally high standards across all events. 

It was another tough day at the office for our sprinters, Jed Walsh was very unlucky just missing out on a medal by two hundreds of a second in the boys u15 200m. Matthew Buckley was well below his best in the boy’s u16 200m, after qualifying as 3^rd fastest Matthew didn’t have it in his legs when it came to the final and finished outside the medals, no doubt Matthew will bounce back.

Matthew Hayes had a decent run in the boys U15 1500m finishing 9^th, but was disappointed with his time of 4:35 which was 7 seconds off his pb, this was Matthews first track All Ireland and the experience will stand to him. 

Aimee Doherty came away with our only medal of the day taking 3^rd in the girls u14 1500m with a new pb of 4:55.58, Aimee who was in the leading 3 for the majority of the race fell back to 4^th with 250m to go, but showed great determination on tired legs to get back up to 3^rd place in the last 30m.

It was a very tough Outdoor Track & Field All Ireland’s for the Club this year coming away with just 2 medals over the 3 days, however we did have a large number of 4^th place finishes and all our athletes who qualified finished in the top 10, so the signs are good for the future.

Well done to all our athletes who competed this year at all levels and enjoy the well-deserved summer break.

All Ireland B Championships

We had some terrific performances at the B All Ireland Championships today from our eight athletes who made the journey to Tullamore.

Our sprinters were first out  on track and Aobh Forde  was back to her very best after a recent injury, Aobh put in a storming run in the girls u13 80m to take silver in a new PB of 11.17s. 

Kevin Conway who has to be the most improved athlete in the club over the past year put in another great run and was unlucky to finish 4^th in the boys u16 100m in a time of 12.68s.

Our middle distance athletes were in great form also with Caoimhe Fitzsimons putting in her best 600m performance to date taking gold in the u12 girls 600m with a time of 1:53.69s, Aisling Stratford put in a great run also finishing 6^th with a massive pb of 1:48.67s in the girls u13 600m, while Eoin Kane who spent the previous day in bed with a virus put in a brave run to finish 3^rd in the u13 boys 600m.

Laura Smith another vastly improved athlete over the past year had a terrific run in the girls u14 800m and was just pipped for silver by two hundreds of a second, so close, but Laura was happy to come away with her first track medal over 800m.

Our Field eventers had a mixed day, Niamh Murray was well below her best in the girls u13 high jump finishing 7^th. Fionn Drummond who was very disappointed with his Leinster performance bounced back in style to take gold in the u14 boys high jump setting a new championship record of 1.45m in the process.

Well done to all athletes on some great performances.

Morton Games Mile Relay

The Club had a great Night at the Morton International Games last Wednesday at Santry Stadium, this event is getting better every year and it was a great experience for our young athletes to open the meeting with a win in the u15 mile relay. This was our 3^rd year competing in this event and our athletes put on a great show taking gold in a time of 3mins 39 s.

Congratulations to Jed Walsh, Oisin Kelly, Tom Kilgannon, Oisin McKenna, Ella Healy, Matthew Hayes, Emma O’ Connell, Marcus Clarke, Laura Smith, Eoin Kane, Fionn Drummond, Aimee Doherty, Aisling Stratford, Aobh Forde and Laura Kelly. 

Thanks again to Gerry Carr from Clonliffe Harriers for inviting us on the night and we look forward to competing again next year.

Conor Duncan Brakes Club senior 800m record

Conor Duncan continues to improve with every race. After a winter blighted by injury, Conor has raced himself to full fitness over the past 7/8 weeks. Competing today at Le Cheile, he finished 5th in the Irish Milers Club grade A 800m and in the process broke Ronnie Quigley's long standing club record. Typical of Ronnie, he was the first to text and offer Conor his congratulations. After an opening 55 seconds first lap, Conor looked very comfortable until he hit a strong head wind up the home straight but he battled all the way to hit the line in 1 min 53.77 sec. In the right race and with better weather conditions, Conor can surely lower that record even further before the track season is over. Noel Crowther and Naoise Mckenna also competed over 800m. Both lads unofficially ran approximately 2 min 08 in their respective grades

Sophie Breaks senior 800m club Record

Sophie Quinn  broke Deirdre Healy's senior 800m club record at the AAU club championships today. Running in 35C heat and oppressive humidity, Sophie finished 3rd in 2 min 21.92 sec. Not content with that Sophie lined up for the 1500m the next day. Running in what even the locals described as "savage conditions" she posted a 1500m pb of 4 min 57.22 to take the silver medal. Next on the agenda is a well earned couple of weeks rest  for herself and Adam in Disneyworld

Morton Games

Conor Duncan was an impressive winner of the IMC grade B 800m in 1 min 54.6 sec at the Morton Games tonight. Conor moved clear after 400m which was covered in 55/56 secs and went on to win by almost 2 seconds. He lines up at the IMC le Cheile  meeting next Saturday determined to run sub 1 min 54

Our juvenile relay squad  also  had a convincing win in the club relay after dominating proceeding right from early on.

Great to see Ratoath athletes doing so well at such a high profile event as the Morton Games

Tommy Boshell - a man of many talents

Most current club members would know Tommy Boshell in his capacity as a dedicated administrator at club, county and national levels. Indeed, when he was not busy cutting weeds, sorting out the long jump or shot put circle at our local track, inevitably with the able assistance of Ronnie Quigley, he somehow found the time to act as Meath county board secretary, treasurer, delegate to the Leinster board and in 2016 was elected President of  the Meath County Board.

What many of you might not know is that he was a top class athlete and still holds the club senior records for both 1500m (4 min 04 ) and 10k (32 min 46 sec). Tommy was spotted at a sports hosted by St Andrews a/c in 1964 when he won the 800m. Within a year he had won the Meath youth championship and was third in the Meath junior cross country championships. In 1965 he was 4th in the All Itreland youths cross country behind the legendary Donie Walsh. He went on to win the Leinster junior xc in 1968 and was 9th in the nationals behind John Hartnett who subsequently won the world junior cross country championships.. By the mid 1970's Tommy was already assisting on the administration side but he still managed to finish 6th in the 1974 Leinster senior cross country and was just outside the top 20 (21st and 23rd) in the 1972 and 1973 senior nationals During his athletic career, he won 6 Meath senior XC titles in addition to 5k and 10k track titles. Not a bad record by any means so don't be fooled by the modest Tommy telling you he did a "little bit of running" in his younger days

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Day 1 & 2 National Juvenile Championships

Our medal haul of 1 silver from the first two days of the national juvenile track and field championships last weekend was down on recent years. However,  while some of our athletes were naturally disappointed to narrowly miss out on a national medal, all of the Ratoath athletes gave it everything and should all be proud of their efforts.

Sophie Quinn won silver in the u 13 600m in a fabulous new PB of 1 min 40.46 sec. Sophie went through 400m in a swift 62.5 sec (over 2 seconds faster than the club senior record of 64.8 sec) but was unable to hold off the fast finishing Hannah Murray down the home straight. Aimee Doherty was another to run an outdoor PB (2 min 24.02 sec) when finishing 4th in the u 14 800m, Aimee runs her preferred 1500m next weekend and is determined to make the podium. so watch this space.  Both Cara O Sullivan and Laura Kelly were also 4th in their respective high jump events - just out of the medals by the smallest of margins. Rafa McCaffrey competed in both the u 16 triple  ( 11.86m) and long jumps (5.82m) where he finished 4th and 6th respectively, Caoimhe Fitzsimons, Matthew Buckley (6th u 16 100m  11.80 sec) and Jed Walshe ( 5th u 15 100m 12.45 sec) were also out of the medals but all three have the talent, character and determination to be in the mix next time

Ratoath AC couch to 5K

 
Registration Thursday 20th of July 6:30-9pm Conways Spar Ratoath or on-line https://athleticsireland.primo-events.com/ps/event/RatoathAC5K2017

Fit4Life:  Couch to 5K Beginner-Advanced programme

7 week training programme

Training Times:         Monday 8-9pm, Wednesday 8-9pm,
                                       Additional day Friday 9.30am-10.30am

Where:                      Running track at Jamestown (grass track) beside 
                                  Ratoath College

When:                       Monday 24^th July – Sunday 10^th September 2017

Ratoath AC 5K:         10^th September 2017 –Ratoath AC annual 5K road race

Cost:                          €30 non members (includes 7 week training programme and entry to 5k)

   Couch25k training programme free to members .. €15 for race fee

Registration:              Conways SPAR, Fairyhouse Road, Thursday 20^th July 6.30pm-9pm

Queries:                      ratoathathletics@gmail.com

Suitable for all levels of exercise ability including walkers, joggers and beginner/intermediate/advanced runners.

Adults & Older teenage children age 16+