Juvenile Notes, 23rd January 2012

McGRATH’S NEWSAGENTS COLLIGAN CUP

The annual juvenile Colligan Cup was held on Sunday last.  This year we were delighted to welcome back our sponsor Albert McGrath. The McGrath family has a long-standing involvement with West Waterford athletic club both at senior and juvenile level and have sponsored this event for the last few years. Forty-nine athletes took part in the race this year which was down on last year and the estimated times varied from 8m 30mins to 16mins. The countdown clock started at 16 mins and each athlete started at his or her own time. The first person home was Fionn Dwyer who finished 2mins 10 ahead of his predicted time of 16mins. Next home was Sarah Wyley just over a minute faster than her predicted time. Our athletes must be getting better at predicting their times as only 11 runners finished ahead of their predicted time this year as compared to 18 last year and 33 the year before. Some like Emma Hallahan and Lucy O’ Brien were just seconds ahead of their times.  The clock struck zero as our winner Gillian Whelan crossed the finish line. Just three seconds later Shane O’Riordan finished with Mark Blackwell a further second behind. Kate Kiligrew took the fourth prize five seconds outside her time and the final prizewinner was Eoin O’Brien 7 secs outside his time. After that the athletes came hot on each others heels as the next fifteen athletes finished within 25 secs of their predicted time. Aoife Hamilton who ran 8.49 recorded the fastest time by a girl. The fastest boys were Shane O’ Riordan and Sean Curran who both completed the course in 8.38. Only two other athletes broke the 9.00 barrier Liam O’Reilly and Eoin O’Brien.

Katie Hamilton made the biggest improvement from last year being almost two minutes faster. Meg Ryan and Emma Hallahan improved their times by over a minute and Lucy Holmes, Thomas Hoarty, Liam Hamilton and Conor Coleman all improved by over 30secs.

Our thanks to all the members of the juvenile and senior club and to the parents who helped in the running of this very successful event. Albert McGrath was on hand to present the prizes to the five prizewinners at the conclusion of the event. 

Actual Times Run

Sean Curran 8.38
Shane O’Riordan 8.38
Liam Reilly 8.41
Eoin O’Brien 8.42
Aoife Hamilton 8.49
Lucy O’Brien 9.01
Cian O’Riordan 9.18
Meg Ryan 9.42
Katie Hamilton 9.57
Cormac Mahony 10.02
Sean Ronayne 10.08
Rachel Wyley 10.08
Patrick Walsh 10.09
Emma Hallahan 10.10
Niall Blackwell 10.14
Alan Curran 10.19
Caoimhe Dwyer 10.30
John Blackwell 10.39
Thomas Hoarty 10.42
Lucy Holmes 10.44
Conor Browne 10.49
Conor Coleman 11.00
Sarah Wyley 11.03
David Roche 11.13
Liam Hamilton 11.14
Gillian Whelan 11.30
Grainne Lane 11.31
Jack Keane 11.43
Ciaran Frisby 10.55
Patrick Ryan 11.38
Ross Dunford 11.56
Donnacha Roche 11.58
Eva French 12.06
Micheal Dwyer 12.18
Judith Campbell 12.21
Conor Dee 12.24
Adam O’Riordan 12.42
Oisin O’Riordan 12.46
Emily Murphy 12.53
Mark Blackwell 13.04
Kate Killigrew 13.05
Jack Hickey 13.13
Hannah Hallahan 13.33
Evan Mansfield 13.37
Fionn Dwyer 13.50
Aidan Mansfield 14.06
Ronan Mansfield 15.33
Aaron Ronayne 24.42

Kate Reigns Supreme

A large group of West Waterford supporters attended the Park Hotel Supreme Sports Star Awards to support our two nominees David McCarthy and Kate Veale. Her family, friends and west Waterford supporters greeted the news of Kate’s victory with great jubilation. Kate is the first athlete from West Waterford to win the overall title and only the second female to win this award the other being Susan Smith of St Paul’s A.C. Kate beat off some stiff opposition to win this title that included two times winner Tom Queally and World Academy racing champion Craig Breen. Kate has been the recipient of many awards since her victory in the World Championships but recognition in you hometown is surely the sweetest of all.

Schools Cross Country

On Thursday next the East Munster Schools Cross Country will be held in the new W.I.T. Sports Campus at Carriganore with the first race starting at 12.30pm. There will be races for Minors, Juniors, Intermediates and Seniors boys and girls. West Waterford athletes will represent all the local schools in this event. The first 15 individual and first four teams will qualify for the Munster Schools Cross country in February.
Training this week will continue in St Augustines on Tues at 4pm

The juvenile committee extents sympathy to Sinead Flynn and her family on the death of her grandmother, to Nickey Sheenan and his family on the death of his mother and to Michelle Dwyer on the death of her uncle. May they rest in peace.