Secretary Ann Dunford’s Report to A.G.M. 2026

As we pause to reflect on the year gone by and acknowledge those who have worked either in administration or on the track, field, roads and cross country courses around the country and beyond, we acknowledge their achievements and document their success in our annual report.

 

Our mission is to get as many involved in athletics as we possibly can, to facilitate their enjoyment of running and see for themselves the benefits of exercise for their health and wellbeing.

At our AGM back in 2024 we saw formation of our Track Committee with the vision of bringing a much needed track to West Waterford. This year has seen much progress on that front and this dedicated group have been meeting all year and will bring you news of their progress in a presentation later tonight.

April 2025

 

We begin our year’s recap with Lucy Holmes who took 2 medals at the Varsities Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium winning silver in the 1,500mts and gold in the 800 in a new Championship record time of 2.07.40 for her college MTU.

 

The Summer Series was launched once again with a 6 race programme while the Mason Mortgages Financial Services Colligan League sponsored by Mark Mason was held in Colligan wood over 5 Wednesday evenings in April.

 

The 11th annual Aglish Fun Run organised by our Vice Chairman Liam O’Donnell raised €3,105 for Children’s Hospital Crumlin on Easter Monday.

Joe Gough won the prestigious Waterford Sports star award for the month in recognition of Joe’s 2 world medals at the World Masters in Florida where he won gold in the 800mts and silver in the 1,500mts O/70. These brought Joes total medal haul in World Championships to 10.

Kate Veale travelled to Slovakia to take part in their National Championships in the 10k walk in search of a qualifying time for the upcoming European Cup of Racewalking in Podebrady. This world silver medal event saw our own Suzana Costin as it’s technical director in her home town, Kate come home 3rd and secured qualification for Padebrady which was her aim.

A special day for Waterford Athletics as Waterford native Brid Golden was elected National President at Athletics Ireland Congress.

The Colligan league concluded with Mark Walsh and Linda Foley crowned hill champions, the 2 lap titles went to Laura Flavin and Micheál Moynihan while the 3 laps were won by Kate Wall and Jason Travers.

 

At the county Track & Field Championships at the RSC Angela Tobin won gold medals in the senior ladies 400 and 1,500mts and bronze in the 100mts. In the Field events Frank O’Brien took a silver in the men’s discus and Fiona Longan also won a silver in the ladies shot.

May 2025

The Summer Series got underway in Ballinroad with the AHS Tuning sponsored Ballinroad 5k and Evan Fitzerald produced a course record time of 14.49 to take the title with former KCK athlete Laura Behan winning the ladies in 18.24.

 

At day 2 of the County Championships the men’s 800mts title went to Gary Cantwell with Damien Murphy second. In the 3000mts we had a 123 of Damien Murphy, Ravis Zakis and Gary Cantwell. In the ladies 3,000mts Kelly Fitzgerald won gold and Natalie Sheehan silver. Pat Kennedy won silver medals in the mens hammer and shot and further medals were won by the men’s relay team taking gold and the ladies relay team taking silver.

 

In Podebrady Kate Veale contested the 20k walk and despite injury hampering her training she put in a solid performance finishing in 29th place in 1.46.17.

At race number 2 of the Summer Series, the Round Tower Ardmore 5 mile Evan Fitzgerald made it 2 from 2 winning in a time of 24.09 while Aoife Cooke took the ladies title in 30.03.

At the Munster Track & Field Championships in Templemore there were numerous medals won by the following:

 

Pat Kennedy, gold in Hammer and Shot O/65

John Laste, gold in Race Walk O/65

Angela Tobin, gold in 400, 800, 1,500 and 3.000mts O/35

Ashley Keohan, gold in the Javelin O/35

Raivis Zakis gold in 3,000mts O/45.

June 2025

June began with the 31st staging of the Dungarvan Leader 5 mile race from Villierstown to Cappoquin with Evan Fitzgerald wining in the 2nd fastest time in the 31 years of the race, second only to John Treacys time, Evan covered the distance in 24.16. For the record John’s time of 23.49 was set in 1999. Kate Veale took the ladies title in 31.52.

At an open meeting in UCD track Lucy Holmes posted a new pb in the 800mts of 2.05.94.

Guesting at the Cork County Senior and Masters Track & Field Championships Ashley Keohan won 2 gold medals in the O35 Discus and Javelin while Tina O’Leary won gold in the O/35 100mts and 200mts.

 

At the Doocey’s Bar sponsored Ballymacarbry 5 Mile Race Evan Fitzgerald was once again first man home in 24.59 with Kate Veale taking her second victory of the Summer in 31.29.

At an Irish Milers meet in Morton Stadium Lucy Holmes again lowered her 800mts pb dipping under 2.05 to 2.04.53.

July 2025

At the newly sponsored Sherry Fitzgerald Reynolds sponsored Dungarvan 10k Evan Fitzgerald once again led from gun to tape winning in 30.22 second fastest time recorded in this race and only beaten by the famous Liam O’Brien of Midleton A.C. in 1987 when he clocked 29.50.

We had a new winner in the ladies race with Evita Volginaite of Ballymore Cobh winning in a time of 38.47

At the Cork City Sports we had 2 athletes taking part in Lucy Holmes in the 800 and Micheal Power in the 3000 and both performed very well on the night.

At a Summer Race Walking Challenge in St Annes Park Raheny Kate Veale won the ladies 10k event in 52.42.

Micheál Power competed in 2 graded events in England and recorded a new pb of 7.58 in the 3000mts and at his second event he won the b race in the Mile in 3.40.56 his best time in over 3 years.

At the Old Head Financial Ballinameela 5k Evan Fitzgerald once again set a course record going well under the 15 minute mark in 14.48 while another newcomer in the ladies race Rachel O’Flynn (Grange Fermoy A.C.) took the title in 18.57.

At the 123.ie National Masters Track & Field Championships in Tullamore Ashley Keohan won a gold medal in the O/35 javelin while Tina O’Leary took home 2 bronze medals in the 100 and 200mts O/35 while Pat Kennedy in the O/65 also won double bronze in the shot and hammer.

Meanwhile at the National Senior Outdoors Track & Field Championships West Waterford A.C. had 3 athletes representing our club and Kate Veale was first up and defended her National Title in the 5k distance she took her 10th National Outdoor title and 19th National Title overall in a time of 23.46.

Micheál Power qualified to run in the final of the 1,500mts on Sunday where he finished 11th while Lucy Holmes was unlucky not to qualify for the final of the 800 missing out on a fastest loser spot.

August 2025

August brought the staging of our second largest event in our calendar year with the 7th annual Greenway Half Marathon. We welcomed new sponsors on board this year and are delighted to have the support of local businesses for this event.

 

The winner on the day was our own Pat Hennessy in 70.33 taking home the Paul Brunnock perpetual trophy while Marie Howard of Leevale A.C. took the ladies title and the Paula Collins perpetual cup to Cork. We had many individual prize winners in the categories and also first ladies team in Natalie Sheehan, Eveleen Drohan and Linda Foley. Another €2,500 was donated to our chose charity for this event which was St John’s School Dungarvan.

At the World masters mountain running Championships in Meduna. Italy our club had 3 representatives wearing the Irish singlet and these were Angela Tobin, Sean Foley and Joe Gough. Angela got proceedings underway in the 5k event with 800mts of climbing and finished 4th but more importantly led the Irish O/35 team home for team gold. Sean Foley finished 19th in the O/60 category while on Saturday the 35k event with 1,700mts of climbing got underway and once again Angela was in the top 10 in 7th place was once again on the O/35 team to win gold medals. Angela also ran on the Sunday in the 14.1k race and her 7th place again secured silver medals for the Irish team. Joe Gough finished 6th in the O/70 category and the Irish team finished 4th overall while Sean Foley was 15th in the O/60. Well done to all 3 representing our club on the world stage.

September 2025

Joe Gough was once again in action guesting at the British Masters Track & Field Championships where he contested the 800,1,500 and 2,000mts steeplechase. In the O/70 1,500mts Joe won gold and set a new O/70 Irish record on 5.23.59. In the 800 Joe once again took gold in 2.37.91 and on the final day in a new event for Joe the 2,000mts steeplechase he not only took gold in 8.42.14 but set a new O/70 Irish record for the event.

We are represented by runners in many different types of events and one of these is Tomás de Faoite from Ring. Tomás took on the incredible Tor de Geants in the Italian alps which is a 330km loop with an amazing 28,000mts of climbing and descent. To complete an event like this one is amazing and Tomás did this in under 7 days which is an unbelievable achievement.

September is the start of cross country season and at the county novice in Tramore we were represented by our mens team of Padraig Healy, Alan Hogan, Mossie Keogh, Michael Dunford, Yevgeniy Chizhikov and David Mc Nally and they took home silver team medals on the day.

October 2025

Next up for the Cross Country was the senior county championships in The Friary and here our ladies team won team gold with Angela Tobin, Eveleen Drohan, Grainne Moore (who also won U/23 gold) and Tara Ni Reachtagain. Angela and Eveleen took home individual silver and bronze medals.

Our men’s team won bronze medals and this time we were represented by Aidan Connell, Justin Ryan, Padraig Healy, James Coade, Mossie Keogh, Yev Chizhikov and Michael Dunford.

At the Munster Novice Cross Country West Waterford were represented by men’s and ladies teams and also in the ladies Junior under 20 race. Both teams finished 5th club while Fia de Paor in finishing 15th U/20 was a scoring member of the Waterford county team winning bronze medals.

At the European Masters Track & Field Championships held in Madeira over 7 days Joe Gough came through his heats comfortably in the 1,500mts 400 and 800 where he contested all 3 finals. Having broken the Irish O/70 record in qualifying in both the 1,5000 and 400 Joe went on to finish second in the 1,500mts and while Joe did not medal in the 400mts final he made up for this by winning his favourite event the 800mts in 2.29.39.

November 2025

The 31st annual Fordes Daybreak Winter League got underway and a record breaking crowd of 470 runners left the Sports Centre for week 1 of the event. An amazing number of runners for our town and event we can be most proud of as it encourages everyone, runners and non-runners to take part over the winter months. Evan Fitzgerald not for the first time broke the record for the long route recording a time of 25.44.

The 30th annual Murray’s Pharmacy Brickey 5th was held in conjunction with the Brickey Rangers GAA club and victory here went to Evan Fitzgerald for the third year in a row and the ladies title went to Kealy Tideswell of Clonmel A.C.

At the National Senior Cross Country Championships were are proud to once again be represented at the event by Pat Hennessy, Sean Curran, Padraig Healy and Micheál Power making the long trip to the Derry venue. All 4 athletes ran well on the day but unfortunately Micheál had to withdraw from the event with one lap remaining due to injury.

At the Munster Masters Cross Country Championships held in Tramore Angela Tobin put in a superb performance in the ladies O/35 taking silver while the men’s O/35 team of Raivis Zakis, Philip Harty, Padraig Healy, Mossie Keogh, Aidan Ryan, Yev Chizhikov and David Mc Nally won team gold.

December 2025

The 1st of December is now the traditional opening day of our biggest club event in our club calendar, the John Trecy Dungarvan 10 Mile Road Race. This is by far our most popular event with 3,750 spots on offer and the fact that it brings so many visitors to our town makes it a very special day for our club.

The 17th annual Paddy Joe Curran Turkey Trot sponsored by Cleanzone Technologies was held at the Marine Bar headquarters with Robert Wade home for a holiday from America taking the honours and Kealy Tideswell from Clonmel A.C. again winning the ladies race. It’s worth noting that this race and it’s hardworking committee raised €6,020 for the worthy cause that is the Solas Cancer Support Centre.

At the National Novice Cross Country Championships in Abbotstown, Dublin we had our largest ever club team participating and all ran really well. Our first runner home was Gearoid Coffey in 56th place followed by followed by Damien Murphy 64th , Justin Ryan 94th, Gary Cantwell 143rd, James Coade 172nd, Alan Hogan 181st and Mossie Keogh 182nd finishing 15th club from 25 entries.

At the winter league Charity night €2,750 was donated to the Dungarvan Lourdes Invalid Fund to help fundraise for locals to go on the annual pilgrimage in May.

The St Stephens Day run/walk in association with Dungarvan GAA club was another great day out with €3,812 raised in aid of the Sham Ryan rehabilitation fund. Sham is a local man who suffered anaphylactic shock following multiple bee stings and will need a lot of support on his road to recovery.

January 2026

We were back for the new year with week 8 of the Winter League and in preparation for the upcoming Colligan Cup race we held a predict your time night in order to ease everyone back after the festivities. The winners on the night were Jessie Mulcahy in the long route and Tina Crotty in the short.

4 days later at the Kiely Monumental Colligan Cup we again had a female winner and for the second year in a row Melanie Kelly was first home after the clock with Robert Hellinga first male and Robert also took the Victor Mullins trophy for first newcomer.

An historic EGM was held on the 29th January to ratify the signing of a 50 year lease with St Augustine’s College to begin the next stage of the process of securing a running track for our club. Not surprisingly the motion to enter into the lease was unanimously accepted and so begins the next phase of this ambitious project.

February 2026

It is estimated that a record crowd of over 5,000 people were present on the first Sunday of February for what is now the largest 10 mile in the country outside of Dublin. The 34th annual John Treacy Dungarvan 10 saw a record number of finishers, fantastic weather, happy runners and a great buzz around the town.

Everyone plays their part in this event and it is one we are most proud of however we must record our appreciation to all our volunteers, our committee, medical team, our stewards and in particular Karen Ryan who co-ordinates them all on the day, a huge task in which Karen excels each year. We also have the hardest working group of outdoor staff in Conor Norris, Jamie Mills and John Mc Grath who we are indebted to and without whom we could not hold our races. The hours they put in around the 10 mile weekend, may go unseen by many but is there for all to see with the smooth running of the event and is definitely appreciated by all of us.

For the record the winner for 2026 was Jake O’Regan, St John’s A.C. in 48.47 while in the ladies race we were delighted to welcome 7 time American National Marathon Champion and 2 time Olympian Emily Sisson to Dungarvan and she did not disappoint. Emily is married to Waterford native and athlete Shane Quinn and once she committed to run in Dungarvan we were very excited to see how she would perform, she ran really well and recorded an excellent time of 53.22 to take the ladies title.

Once again we had numerous category winners while our men’s team of Evan Fitzgerald, Aidan Connell and Pat Hennessy combined to win the John Treacy Team Challenge for the fastest combined time and Pat Hennessy, Raivis Zakis and Mikey Coleman were 3rd club team on the day. Again due to the generosity of the participants €6000 was donated to the Childres Health Ireland a charity combining Crumlin and Temple Street Children’s hospitals. Another fund raising idea for this year’s race was sponsored mile markers and this was a tremendous success with many local businesses lending their support to the event.

On that Sunday night our club social event celebrating the 10 Mile and also the prizegiving for our Winter League prizes took place. A special presentation was made to our league sponsor to thank him for his many years of sponsorship and also to wish him well as he retired from Fordes Daybreak.

The Winter League long route for 2025/2026 was won by Jack Mc Carthy while the short route winner this year was James Fennell. Fastest man and woman on the long route were Gavin Whelan and Niamh O’Donovan while Ellen Ryan and Yev Chizhikov took the prize for running all 11 nights. On the short route fastest man and woman were Mick Concannon and Jessica Saunderson while prize in the draw for those who did all 11 nights went to Micheál Moynihan and Siobhan O’Mahony.

At the Munster Indoor Track & Field Championships held in Nenagh we had 4 athletes travelling and it was a very productive day as first Kate Veale took gold in the 3k Senior Walk In the O/80 Terri Gough won 3 gold medals in the 60mts, shot and weight for distance. Pat Kennedy won a silver medal in the shot and then a bronze medal in the weight for distance. Finally, Tina O’Leary took a bronze medal in the O/35 200mts and was just outside the medals in 4th place in the 60mts

March 2026

The phenomenal athlete that is Kate Veale claimed her 9th National Senior Indoor Walk title in a row in the 3k walk in Abbottstown claiming the title in 13.50.48.

There was another great day for West Waterford at the Munster Road Race Championships held in Castleisland when Angela Tobin took an individual medal in the O/35 age category and led the club to novice bronze medals and O/35 team bronze. On the team with Angela we had Tara Ni Reachtagáin, Elaine Langley and Anita Beatty. In the men’s race we were represented by Pat Hennessy, Naoise Mac Murchadha, Liam Beresford and Mark Flynn who won Senior men’s bronze medals

At the National Indoor Masters Championships, we were once again delighted to have 3 athletes in attendance with Mikey Murray returning to the national stage and making it a very successful return with gold medals in the O/45 category for shot, weight for distance and triple jump. Terri Gough also won 3 gold medals in the O/80 60 and 200mts and shot. Finally Tina O’Leary had another good day out winning gold in the 60mts O/35.

Finally

This concludes our report on the club’s activities during the year but I want to acknowledge and thank our hard working group of coaches who turn up each week to help others achieve their potential giving up their free time to help with the different groups of beginners, couch to 5k and Regulars and Improvers . We have a dedicated group that includes Jim Fleming, Tom Leahy, Dermot Ryan, Claire Kennedy, Linda Guilly, Mick Concannon and Michael Coakley and Deirdre Daly.

If I have omitted anyone I apologise.

Membership for 2026 stands at 325 today which is a fantastic number for a small area. Once again this year we directly donated €24,000 to various charities and indirectly to many other clubs and societies in contributions from our races something we can be very proud of. I would like to thank the local papers for their support, all our loyal sponsors, James and Kelly for keeping our social media so active and up to date and of course our stewards and volunteers at all the races. To all those who have lost loved ones during the year I extend our sympathies on behalf of all our members.

I want to thank all my fellow officers for once again supporting me throughout the year especially Tom, Declan, Ray and Karen and each and every person who plays their part in the running of this club and it is a busy club with so many events during the year. This would not be possible without the contribution from all the committee members. Finally, I wish the incoming committee well in the year ahead

Ann Dunford