MASON MORGAGES AND FINANCIAL SERVICES COLLIGAN LEAGUE.
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL COLLIGAN LEAGUE CONCLUDES.
The fifth and final night in Colligan of our Mason Mortgages and Financial Services Spring Running League once again saw a great crowd of 85 runners take to the beautiful surround of Colligan wood on what turned out to be an ideal evening for the final round of the league. The 2 lap saw 12 competing while we had 15 on the 3lap with 58 taking to the hills.It was great to see such great numbers running the Colligan league this year and all looks set now for a bumper summer road racing programme over the months of May, June and July.The five week league in Colligan always seem to fly by and it’s a real indication were on the verge of summer time when this comes to an end.As this was the last night of this league the overall prizes were presented. Our club Chairman Tom Leahy welcomed everyone especially our sponsor Mark Mason of Mason Mortgages and Financial Services, Cappoquin, he thanked all the runners for supporting the league and hoped that they enjoyed coming to Colligan wood for the 5 weeks, especially the newcomers of which there were many this year and we hope now that those who have made the first step to a healthier way of life will continue their running with us here at WWAC.Tom went on to thank all those who helped out with the organisation of the league and of course Coillte for allowing us to use the Colligan venue .League sponsor Mark Mason was on hand to present the prizes and we would once again like to thank Mark for his generous sponsorship and his on-going support to our club.
GARY CANTWELL KING OF THE HILLS 2023.
The main event of this particular league is the 5 miles on the hills circuit with the title of “King of the hills 2023” going to Gary Cantwell, Garry a native of Rathgormac and an Army private by day, Gary is also an accomplished Physical therapist and is currently working with the Waterford Ladies Football squad. Gary was a worthy winner as he ran and won all 5 rounds of the league so defiantly was a convincing winner running his fastest round on the 5th and final round, this was the fastest time recoded by anyone over the 5 weeks of the league. On the final night Gary recorded his fastest time when he clipper around the hills of Colligan in an excellent 31.11.Paul Kennedy was our runner-up this year and Paul a new comer to our leagues really enjoyed his running over the week’s recording a fast 33.19 as his fastest round. We hope to see Paul more regularly now at our upcoming summer race programme where he is sure to figure among the prizes for throughout the summer. We had 8 divisions in the 5 mile hills this year with record numbers taking part, Well done to everyone that took to the hill’s over the past 5 weeks – running the hills will definitely make you stronger and will have you in good shape for the summer races to come.
NIAMH O’DONOVAN EXCELS ON THE HILLS OF COLLIGAN.
Niamh O’Donovan claimed the title of Queen of the hills 2023in style and like our overall men’s winner Niamh completed all 5 rounds of the league and won on each occasion , Niamh ran here fastest night on the final night clocking an great time of 36.40,excellent running by Niamh over the Colligan terrain.Runner-up this year was another Lady who is no stranger to our club races Nicola Moroney who also complete all 5 rounds of the league, Nicola recoded a fast 38.59 as her best time recorded and Nicola finished 2nd in all 5 rounds of the league. Well done to all the Ladies who ran the mighty hills of Colligan this year,it’s no mean feat to complete them hills every week so well done to each and every one of ye, keep up the good work now and we hope to see you all at our race programme over the summer months.
CATRIONA CROWE AND MICHEÁL MOYNIHAN WIN THE TWO LAP LEAGUE.
The 2 lap league this year was divided into Men’s and Women’s tables with the overall Ladies winner Catriona Crowe taking the honours, Catriona ran all 5 rounds finishing 1st on 4 occasions and 2nd on week two. Ctarion’s best time over the 5 week’s was 23.05. The runner up to Catriona was Onra Power and again Onra complete all rounds with one win on week two and 4 runners up spots the remaining weeks.There was little between Catriona and Onra most weeks with Onra recording a fastest time of 23.23, just 18 seconds behind our winners best time.In the Men’s 2 lap we had one clear winner Micheál Moynihan with two firsts one second and three third placing’s to take the title. Micheal a regular at all the club’s leagues clocked a fastest time of 26.24. Ruth Fennell a new comer to this league won Division 2 here Well done to all who ran the two lap league many who were taking up the sport only recently.
SHANE FLAVIN AND ORLA BANNON CAPTURE 3 LAP TITLES.
The 3 lap league saw great numbers this year and the title went to Orla Bannon who recorded 4 first placing’s and one second place rewording a time of 33.21 her fastest outing of the 5 rounds. Patrycja Daly was our runner up here ,she ran 4 of the 5 rounds recording three second placing’s and one 3rd place in round one. Patrycja recorded a fastest time of 36.24 for the league. One of closest tables at the entire league came in division 2 Ladies 3 laps with just two points separating first and second, Our winner was Orla Walsh with 23 points from runner-up Catherine Mc Intyre 25 points, only a 2 points winning margin here.Well done to our prize winners and all who run the 3 lap flat.
OVERALL LEAGUE PRIZE WINNERS 2023.
MENS 5 MILE HILLS.
1st Gary Cantwell
2nd Paul Kennedy
DIVISION 2.
1ST David Nixon
2nd Donal O’Mahoney
DIVISION 3.
1ST Yevgeniy Chizhikov
DIVISION 4.
1ST Tom Hogan
DIVISION 5.
1st Tony Dwyer
DIVISION 6.
1st Gerry O’Connor
DIVISION 7.
1st Stephen Aherne.
DIVISION 8.
Kenneth O’Donnell.
LADIES 5 MILES HILLS.
1ST Niamh O’Donovan
2nd Nicola Moroney
DIVISION 2.
1ST Bridget Coffey
DIVISION 3.
1ST Kate Higgins.
DIVISION 4.
1st Helen Leahy
Women.
1st Niamh O’Donovan
2nd Nicola Moroney
2 LAPS FLAT WOMEN.
DIVISION 1.
1st Catriona Crowe
2nd Onra Power
DIVISION 2.
1ST Ruth Fennell
2nd Dorothy Ahearne
2 LAPS FLAT MEN.
1st Micheál Moynihan
3 LAP FLAT MEN.
1st Shane Kavanagh
2nd Ian Cliffe
3 LAP FLAT WOMEN.
1ST Orla Bannon
2nd Patrycja Daly
DIVISION 2.
1ST Orla Walsh
2nd Catherine Mc Intyre
THANK YOU.
As always we are indebted to our steward’s and helpers with the league Declan,Tom,Paschal, Jim, Shirly ,Liam, Ray,Tom and Ann,it goes without saying without their input there would be no league. Thanks to our sponsor Mark who was on hand each week at the league and also presented the prizes to the various winners. For his on-going support of our club which is greatly appreciated. Once again a special thanks of course to Coillte who give us permission to hold this league and without whose co-operation this league and of course the Colligan Cup would not take place each year.
NEW CASH BONUS ANNOUNCED FOR FAST TIMES AT THE AHS TUNING IRELAND 8th ANNUAL BALLINROAD 5K
Our first race in the clubs summer road race programme for 2023 will get underway with the AHS Tuning Ireland sponsored Ballinroad 5k on Friday May 12th at 7.30 pm.Firstly our sincere thanks to John Coleman of AHS for his continued sponsorship of this race which he has sponsored for the past 8 years. John operates a very successful car tuning company from his premises out on Coolagh road., Abbeyside. This year once again we are delighted to be able to help and support the local community in Ballinroad as the local soccer club Ballinroad A.F.C. will be the benefactors of the race, with monies donated towards the club’s underage teams. The race will incorporate a fun run/walk with proceeds from them going towards the clubs fund . Starting at 7.30 pm with Ballinroad community hall as the race H. Q. A huge turnout is expected if previous year’s is anything to go by as we deem the race to be the fastest flattest 5k course around. As you know in West Waterford AC we like to cater for all and have different prize structures in all our races, for the Ballinroad race we will have prizes for the top 5 men and women with lots and lots of spots for down the field finishers. Through the generosity of our sponsor we will this year be offering a cash performance bonus for both men and women,100 euro is an the added offer to the first Male to break 14.50 and the same to the first Female to who can break 17.00. The entry fee is 10 euro pre entry online. (15 euro on race night). The course chosen for the race is an excellent out and back course which is very flat so if it’s your first attempt at the 5k distance or you’re looking for a fast time on a flat- fast course this is your opportunity to shine. See you all Friday 12th May for race one.
BALLINROAD 5K ENTRY LINK.
https://eventmaster.ie/event/BvEWF23c8j
GREAT VALUE 6 RACE PACKAGE.
West Waterford Athletic Club is delighted to confirm dates and times for our summer programme of Road Races 2023. We are finding that many are now using our online pre entry to our races which is a huge help to the race organisers .This year our online entry will be 10 euro per race. Also we are continuing our online race series package which will cost you only 50 euro for all 6 races. Going forward we hope to have more runners entered online as it really helps minimize the workload on the day of the race.
Please note !!
If you’re not an athletic club member when you purchase the package for summer races you will only pay the 2 euro fee once. If you pay for each race separately then you pay the €2 each time you enter each separate race .If you don’t enter online and come along on the night to enter any of the race’s it will be 15 euro so get your online entry in is the answer here.
Entry link below.
https://eventmaster.ie/event/bLlqh9AHjr
SPLASHWORLD 10K WIN FOR NIAMH O’DONOVAN.
The annual Splashword 10k in Tramore was held last Friday evening and a field of 195 competed on the night. The race winner this year was Clonmel ac athlete Evan Fitzgerald in a time of 31.34, the Ladies winner was club member Niamh O’Donovan in 40.54,Niamh who only on Wednesday night was crowned Ladies winner of the Colligan hill league is running brilliantly presently and the Splashworld 10k was a just reward for her current form. Mick Ahern was our first Male home in a brand new personal best time of 35.33 to finish well up the field in 8th position. The club was well represented at the race well done to all who ran on the night. As the race organisers did not include club names on their finishing results, we may have missed someone on our club results below.
Mick Ahern 35.33
James Whelan 37.49
Niamh O’Donovan 40.54
Mick Concannon 44.27
Tony O’Mahoney 44.41
Martin Tobin 45.04
Madeleine Hearn 48.09
Bryan Hallissey 48.55
Kim Daly 52.19
Onra Power 54.06
Helen Keating 54.12
Sinead Ní Fhaolain 55.37
Aisling Cusack 55.37
Susan O’Mahoney 60.44
Anita Beatty 61.56
Bernard Beatty 61.56
Deirdre Daly 63.13
GREAT DAYS RACE WALKING AT PINK ROCK.
5k PERSONAL BEST FOR KATE VEALE.
Kilkenny county board were the hosts of last Sunday open race walking event held at Pick Rock and hosted by St. Josephs AC. It was great to see so many young race walkers participating with 70 walkers in total taking part. West Waterford AC was well represented at the event.The 3 Hickey sisters were in action in their various age categories with Aishling first in the girls under 12 with a time of 6.34 over the 1km distance, followed by Eabha who raced the 2 kms in a time of 12.27 she also was first and older sister Doireann in the under 18 over 3kms was first in 16.50 rounding off a great day for the Hickey family.It was great to see one of the clubs newest race walker’s in action in the girls under 14 when Sophie Beresford in her very first race walk ever clocked a time of 9.22 over the 1.500 kms distance. Kate Veale was in the senior event and walked a superb PB on the road for 5k with a time of 22.35, after a disappointing 20k race last week in Warsaw for Kate she bounced back at the Pink Rock Sunday to break her previous best for the distance 23.13 which she recorded in the Czech Republic in 2020.
COUNTY TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS.
GOLD FOR SAOIRSHE QUINN IN JUNIOR HAMMER
SILVER FOR YEV CHIZHIKOV IN SENIOR 400
BRONZE FOR EOGHAN O’BRIEN JUNIOR DISCUS.
Well done last Sunday to club member’s Saoirshe Quinn who threw 30.00m to take gold in the Junior Ladies hammer at the county track and field championships held at the RSC Sunday, she also took gold in the youths category in the hammer with a distance of 32.90 and Yev Chizhikov who took a silver in the Senior men’s 400 meters , while their team mate Eoghan O’Brien threw a distance of 24.95m in the Junior Men’s discus to take bronze, Eoghan also took a bronze in the Youths Discus with 29.52.The 2nd round of the championships will be held next Sunday at the same venue.
LIMERICK MARATHON.
The Limerick marathon half marathon and 10k was held last Sunday and the club had athletes taking part. In the Full marathon Aimee Moloney had a PB run when she clocked a time of 4.03.22 while Patrick Beausang ran a good time of 1.46.05 over the half marathon.It was a special day for the Concannon family as Mick had the pleasure of running with his son Caoilte De Barra who was running his very first half and both completed the distance with just 1 second separating the duo Mick 1.54.58 and Caoilte 1.54.57,well done to all.
ANTHONY WHELAN 2ND IN BALLYHOURA ULTRA.
Anthony Whelan was back in action Saturday after quite a long break from Ultra racing his last Ultra event was back in 2019 and it was a welcomed and successful return at the IMRA event on Saturday at the Ballyhoura ultra over the hills of the Tipperary/Limerick border covering 62 kms with 1.800 meters of climbing, Anthony is preparing for a big race in June when he will take on the might of Mount Blanc over the longer 90 k distance, we wish him well in his preparation’s and will keep you posted on his progress.Another club member to take on the ultra saturday was Paddy Brunnock, Great to see Paddy running so well as he finished 24th overall and can be well pleased with this performance.
