Notes September 05-10

 WEST WATERFORD AC CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2010

The club championship was held in conjunction with the summer series again this year and each club member’s best 8 races from the ten race programme determined their overall score and prizes were awarded to the winner in each of the categories which were senior and all the usual age categories. Rory Moloney picked up his first senior prize in the club championship after having a great summer on the road racing circuit. Johnny O’Connor took the honours in the over 40 category with Martin Hayes coming into the fray late to claim the over 45 section of the competition the only Male athlete to retain his title form 2009 was Gerry Cantwell in the over 55’s The final category for Men was filled by Michael Deegan in the over 55’s,
The Ladies was dominated by Norma Wall who also took her first senior title with Corinna Walsh last years senior winner this year winning the over 35 category, Ann Dunford was one of two Ladies who retained their crown from 2009, Ann won the over 40 category while Anne Whelan was the victor in the over 45 category. A winner in the over 50 section in 2009 Helene Hayes has moved up a notch and taken this years over 55 category, The second Female athlete to retain her title won in 2009 was Terri Gough in the over 60 category.
The job of keeping track of everyone’s finishing position was expertly taken care of by Tom Leahy. All winners received their prize at the presentation at An Tober in Ardmore recently. The winners of the club championship for 2010 are as follows:

Men
Senior  Rory Moloney
0/40  Johnny O'Connor
0/ 45   Martin Hayes
0/50   Gerry Cantwell
0/ 55  Michael Deegan

Ladies
 Senior Norma Wall
 0/35 Corrina Walsh
 0/40  Ann Dunford
 0/45  Ann Whelan
 0/50 Bernie Prendergast
 0/55   Helene Hayes
 0/60   Terry Gough

LEDWITH AND McCAMBRIDGE ARE WOODIES NATIONAL HALF MARATHON CHAMPIONS.

TERRI GOUGH SECURES YET ANOTHER NATIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

The Woodies DIY national half marathon championships took place last Sunday, Hosted by St. Abban’s AC in county Laois the race was run over a course which was an undulating course with plenty of long drawn out hills Andrew Ledwith (Fr. Murphys AC) took the spoils and  Maria McCambridge (Letterkenny AC) took the Senior Women’s race.Ledwith came home with 41 seconds to spare over his closest rival in the form of Michael Clohisey (Raheny Shamrock’s AC) The early pace was set by Clohisey, Joe McAlister (St. Malachy’s AC) and Cillian O’Leary (Raheny Samrock’s AC) who went through the first lap with some distance to spare over the chasing group. Ledwith however kept calm and paced himself perfectly coming through strong after 11-12 miles. After closing the gap on the then leader Joe McAlister, Ledwith extended his lead with ease to win in a time of 69.10. The long time leader McAlister took third in 70.04.Maria McCambrige dominated the women’s race clocked a time of 76.15 and coming home over five minutes clear of her nearest rival Lorraine Manning (Raheny Shamrock’s AC) 83.04.West Waterford’s Terri Gough took the over 65 category here to add yet another national title to her long list, As we go to press a full results sheet is unavailable so we have to defer the West Waterford AC runners performances at the championships until next week.

ELITE ADVENTURE AND DEVELOPMENT ONE LAP CHALLENGE HAS STARTED.

The Elite Adventure and Development One Lap Challenge got underway last night Tuesday at St Augustine’s College, The league will continue for the next 5 Tuesday evenings and is open to all over 16 years of age, This league is suitable for everyone from regular runners to those who might just want to come along and give it a try possibly for the first time, You don’t have to a  member of the club to take part in any of our leagues so all are more than welcome weather a club member or not.  Running is proven to be the best way to get and keep healthy and fit so this could be your opportunity to get on the road to a healthy mind and body. The league is held over 1 lap of the college grounds which is just over a mile in distance and is firstly geared for the complete beginner, be it for some that there aim may well be to walk a little and run a little to try and complete the lap and for others they might be looking at trying to run it in a certain time, What ever your goal is it won’t be achieved sitting at home so come along to St Augustine’s college Tuesday at 7.00 PM.( Just do it )   
Next Tuesday night will be the second night of this one lap challenge and we would love to see as many new faces as possible taking part. The run itself gets underway at 7 p.m. so registration will begin from 6.45 onwards. Parking is available at the rear of the college grounds. The entry fee each night is €2 per person.
A full report of last night’s league will feature in next week’s notes. The league will continue for another four weeks – September 14th , 21st , 28th  and October 5th ,
Our sincere thanks go to Geoff Allen of Elite Adventure and Development for sponsoring the league once again this year.

GARVEY’S AUTUMN LEAGUE STARTS THIS THURSDAY .

The first night of the Garvey’s Supervalu Autumn League will take place tomorrow night Thursday at the St Augustine’s College by kind permission. This league is open to everybody over the age of sixteen and all are welcome. This league caters for all levels of runners, from the beginner to the regular runner. You can even decided yourself what distance might suit you as its open for participants to run 1 lap which is 1.2 miles in distance 2 laps 3 laps or the full 4 laps which is roughly 5 miles.
You can of course start at say 1 lap this week and after a few weeks try and move up in distance if you wish, It may be some peoples goal to be able to complete 1 lap by league end or it may be that some participants will be trying to complete 2.-3 or even the full 4 laps over the duration of the league.You need not run every night of the five weeks, just come along when you can. The entry fee each night is €2. Registration for the league begins at 6.15 and then the league itself gets underway at 6.30 p.m. Parking is available at the rear of the college. Our sincere thanks go to Garvey’s Supervalue Dungarvan and the Coolagh Road for coming on board once again as sponsors of this league .The dates for this league are: September 9th, 16th, 23rd ,30th  and October 7th.

BRIGID COFFEY WINS ATHLETE OF THE MONTH FOR AUGUST

Congratulations to Brigid Coffey who was this month’s recipient of the athlete of the month award for August on a score line of 9 points. Josie Ui Chuirrin had 10 points but as Josie has already won a monthly award, it automatically goes to the athlete with the next highest score which was Brigid. Many of those in the top ten for this month have previously been monthly winners; which indicates how active the competition is at this stage. Next week, we will provide you with the overall score since January which will give you all an idea as to where you are in the over all tables. When you run a race, it’s imperative for you to contact Norma Wall (0879385965) so you can be allocated your points. Please do so relatively soon after the race or at least in the same month that you ran the race, please don’t assume that other people will do so on your behalf, if you want the point then the onus is on you.
The following are the top scorers for August:

Josie Ui Chuirrin 10
Brigid Coffey  9
Paul Brunnock   8
Onra Power   8
Triona Wall  8
John Foley  7
Joe Gough   7
Caitriona Kiely 7

GER WYLEY SPORTS SUMMER SERIES VOUCHERS

Just a reminder to all those who didn’t attend the presentation of prizes for the Ger Wyley Sorts/Nike summer series that they can pick up their summer series voucher at Wyley’s sport shop. The number of people entering the series increased once again this year with the number of those receiving €25 vouchers and €75 well up on last year’s figure. Our thanks to our loyal sponsor of the series Ger Wyley Sports, please support all our sponsors when possible, Roll on 2011.

START OF WINTER LEAGUE NOT FAR AWAY.

As we hit the shorter evenings and that slight bur comes into the weather our thoughts turn towards the All Rounder Sports Winter league. With the huge numbers taking part in our summer series and summer leagues at St. Augustine’s College these past couple of months we are expecting a bumper turn out for this years Winter league once again. As usual we have the 5.7 mile course for regular runners and the 2.5 mile course which is geared mainly towards beginners, which ever you decide to do this year there will be a welcome for all levels of runners. We do urge beginners to maybe consider coming along over the next couple of weeks to St .Augustine’s where we are staging two leagues, one is called the Elite Paintball and Development 1 Lap Challenge over1 lap of the Friary grounds (1.2 miles ) on Tuesday evenings at 7 pm and the Garvey’s Supervalu league over your choice of 1-2-3 or 4 laps of the college grounds on Thursday evenings at 6.30 pm. Both these leagues are geared towards getting ready for the winter league and it would be hoped that those taking part will go on to continue there running by taking part in the Winter league each Wednesday from the Sports Centre Quann’s. A meeting will be held in Minnie’s Bar on Wednesday, September 15 at 9 pm. We would like to invite anyone who would like to get involved in the organisation of the league in any way at all to come along to the meeting where we will be putting various plans in place and hopefully some new ideas that anyone might have, all are welcome to this meeting.
We will have much more info on the winter league in the coming weeks on our notes and on the club web site.www.westwaterfordathletics.org

BLARNEY HALF MARATHON THIS SUNDAY.
 
The Munster Half Marathon Championships will be held on this coming Sunday September 12th in Blarney Co.Cork as part of the Annual St. Finbarrs AC organised  half marathon. The race has a starting time of 11 a.m.and entries will be taken on the day (up to 10.30 a.m.) entry fee will be €25.00. As in previous years the race headquarters will be Blarney GAA Club.  This year’s race is sponsor by John Buckley Sports, Chip timing will be used.

CORK TO COBH 15 MILE ROAD RACE

PRICE REDUCTION IN ENTRY FEE.

One of the must do events for those training for the upcoming October bank holiday Monday marathon in Dublin is the Annual Cork to Cobh 15 miler which this year is sponsored by Sports Supplies and takes place on Sunday October 3rd with a starting time of 9.30 AM. The race will start in the usual starting line at the Montenotte Hotel taking in the scenic coastal route to Cobh Harbour passing Fota Wildlife Park on the way finishing in Cobh Town Centre. A very popular decision has been taken by the race organisers the Cork BHAA that will go down well among all participating runners is the reduction in the entry fee for this year race. The committee have decided that because of the current down turn in the economy they have decided to bring down the entry fee this year from the usual 20 euro to a pre-enter fee of just 10 euro, However this is for pre entry only and a fee of 20 euro will be charged for those who leave it to enter on race day. Please also note those who wait to enter on the day are not guaranteed a race t shirt or goody bag.  The closing date for entry to the race is September 26th. Registrations and changing will take place at the Monetenotte Hotel on the day from 7.30 am. The organisers will arrange to transport any running gear you may have from the city to the finish line in the town of Cobh. Entry forms may be downloaded from www.corkbhaa.com

31st ANNUAL DUBLIN CITY MARATHON

The 31ST Annual Dublin City Marathon will take place on Bank Holiday Monday October 25th next. As is evident from the huge numbers out training presently there will be a big number of club members taking part again this year. The marathon will incorporate the National Marathon Championship of Ireland as has been the norm now for the past couple of years and all West Waterford club members will need to be entered for this. Your entry which you pay and sign up to online yourself covers you to receive a number and run the marathon, But for the championship part of the race the club will have to enter you separately. So if you a want to be included in the championship as a West Waterford AC member you need to contact Ann Dunford (086 0619711) and let her know that you will be participating. If you happen to know your marathon number, please let her know that as well. The onus is on each member to contact Ann so please do so.

CROSS COUNTRY AT ST. SENAN’S, KILMACOW

The annual St. Senan’s cross-country race officially gets the cross country season off to a start so for all you cross-country athletes, it’s time to dust off the spikes and get ready for the opening race of the season. The day itself starts at 1 pm with the juvenile programme which will be followed by the senior programme. The race itself is 8,000 metres for the senior men’s race and 3,000 metres for the senior women. Prizes will be awarded to the first 3 senior men and women and to the first three vets and to the first 3 juniors. There will also be team prizes with 4 to score on the team. Anyone interested in travelling are asked to contact either Ann Dunford (086 0619711) or Norma Wall (087 9385965) and travel arrangements will be made in due course.

WEST WATERFORD AC MT MOTORS OPEN CROSS COUNTRY RACE

The club's 18th annual Cross Country event of the year takes place on Sunday October 10 at St. Augustine's College with a 2.30 pm starting time. The race is once again sponsored by Michael Tutty of MT Motors and thanks to Michael for his generous sponsorship and indeed for all his help and support at all our events. As in previous years the race is open to all and caters for all levels of runners from elite runners, club runners, fun runners and joggers, all are more than welcome. The race itself will see the men cover 4 laps of the Friary grounds (8k) and the ladies will cover 2 laps which is 4k in total. There will be prizes on offer in the usual categories with plenty of spots prizes too. An added bonus to the race is the fact that it incorporates the county senior championships for men and women.

RUNNING QUOTE.

Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.

CHANGE IN CROSS COUNTRY DISTANCES
 
As approved by Congress the distances for cross country races have been increased. The effect will be mostly seen in Juvenile distances where some big increases are evident especially in the older age groups. Some adjustments have also been ratified for senior athletes also and are listed below.
 
Inter Club Distance
 
Senior Men 12,000m
Senior Women 8,000m
Junior Men 8,000m
Junior Women 6,000m
 
Inter County Distance
 
Senior Men 10,000m
Senior Women 8,000m
Junior Men 6,000m
Junior Women 4,000m
 
Inter Club & County Distance
 
Novice Men 6,000m
Novice Women 3,000m
Intermediate Men 10,000m
Intermediate Women 4,000m
Masters Men 7,000m
Masters Women 4,000m

JOE GOUGH WINS IN COOLQUILL.

West Waterford’s Joe Gough was in the winners enclosure again last Friday evening when winning the over 55 category in the Coolquill AC organised Michael Cahill 5k road race .Joe clocked an excellent 17.41 for the distance.

TERRI GOUGH BUSY AS A BEE.

West Waterford’s Terri Gough is not one for resting on her laurels (and she has many of them) I doubt it if many or indeed anyone around the country has as many national medals accumulated over so many disciplines in the sports. From cross country running to road running and track and field and indoors Terri has been claiming titles for the past couple of decades.Now a keen participant in the Ladies over 65 category just this past weekend she claimed yet another national crown when winning the National half marathon in Carlow to add to her bow, but would you believe that the previous day she took part in the Dingle marathon and completed the undulating course in 5 hours 12 minutes before making her way to Carlow for Sunday .Hi life begins at !! congrats to you Terri keep it going..