St Brendan's AC Munster Indoor & Outdoor Juvenile Champions 2010!!! :)

On Jan 29th a bus load of St Brendan's athletes and commitee travelled to Cahir county Tipperary to accept the Munster awards for best juvenile indoor track and field club and juvenile outdoor track and field club 2010.Club president Patrick O Riordan and myself accepted the plaque for the first time in the clubs history to become the first Kerry club to ever win either title in competitions which have always been dominated by city clubs such as Ferrybank,Leevale,Dooneen etc.


We have come along way in the last six years from a club on the brink of disbanding to one of the top juvenile clubs in the country.It could not have been done without the hard work of all the current and past commitee members and likewise without the current and past athletes.So keep up the good work everyone so we can keep moving forward to junior,senior level and beyond!


Shane :)

Mid Term Extra Training

The following is this weeks training schedule at the track in Castleisland.Do not be late as this will effect events that cross over.Tuesday night training in Ardfert hall and Sunday morning gym session are both cancelled.I will add the throws session later as they have yet to be finalised.

Tue-

1-2.30pm-Hurdles

2-3.30pm-Sprints,Distance

3-5pm-Pole vault

Others-Ailbhe,Una 5.30pm hurdles

Wed-

1-2.30pm-Hurdles

3-4.30pm-High Jump

Others-Ailbhe 5.30pm hurdles

Thur-

1-2.30pm-Triple Jump

2-3.30pm-Sprints & Relays,Distance

Others-Ben 3pm hurdles

7.30-9pm-Nisus Fitness-Flexibility/Recovery session  plus team meeting.

Sat-

Others-Ailbhe,Dylan R.Stephen,Katie 1pm

Munster U14-U19 Indoors-Sat and Sun-Bus at 8am Ardfert,8.10 Tralee.

Shane :)

Weekly Round Up 14/02/2011

Katie Rogers was part of the Kerry womens junior team that won the Munster 4km cross country title for the first time yesterday in Killinaboy, Co.Clare.Katie finished in an excellent 6th place in a high quality race even ahead of last years winner from Cork.Grace Lynch of Iveragh was 2nd,Brigid Dennehy 4th and Niamh Clifford 5th for a combined score of 17 points just beating Clare by 2 points.Well done Katie.

The Munster U9-U13 Indoors take place in Nenagh this weekend the 19/20th.Athletes who have been chosen to attend have been notified.

The Munster U14-U19 Indoors take place in Nenagh on the 26/27th.Entries are in the entries tab to your left.

The club awards will take place in the Ballyroe hotel on March 5th.There will be a sit down meal followed by the awards presentation,music by the club athletes followed by a DJ.Ticket prices,times,award winners etc will be posted by this weekend.

The Kerry awards will take place in the River Island hotel in Castleisland on Friday March 25th.Patrick Gilbert and Michael Grimes will recieve the club awards on the night.Patrick will recieve his based on his national triple jump title and pole vault silver medal last season while Michael will recieve his for his fantastic commitment,attitude towards training and many Munster and county medals last season! The club will hopefully have a few other award winners on the night but these have not been choosen yet.

The Kerry Sportshall Games for all U9-U14 athletes who did not win an individual medal at County,Munster or National track and field last season will be held in Kenmare on March 5th at 11am.This is the same day as our awards night so we will hope to be out of there by 4pm at the latest.

The Munster Convention will be held in An Riocht on March 6th.

Ailbhe,Luke,Dylan Roche,PJ and myself will travel to the National Senior indoors in Belfast this weekend for the first time.All have been going very well in training so new personal bests should be posted ;)

Training on Thursday nights in Nisus fitness Ballinorig Tralee for U14+ athletes will change to 7.30-9pm on February 24th.

The Kerry athletics blog is www.kerryathletics.blogspot.com

Most dates for fixtures have been set and are in the fixtures tab on the left.

If anybody hasnt registered yet please do so ASAP! Also if anybody hasnt paid their club fees please do so ASAP.March fees will be collected Tue March 1st!!!

Shane :)

Eoghan Courtney wins silver at the schools International!!!

Shane-"Making International teams isnt good enough anymore Eoghan,you have to bring home medals from them now"
Eoghan-"Ya i know,ill bring one home this weekend"

And true to his word he did,two in fact with individual silver in the junior pentathlon and his junior team also finished in second place.The day started with the 60m hurdles where he had a PB pf 8.72 seconds in a race where nobody pushed him and he smashed the last hurdle to pieces so without doubt he can go alot faster;the Munster indoor U17 record of 8.54 could be under serious threat on Feb 26th ;) .He followed this up with another PB in the long jump of 5.91m so the 6 metre barriers should be surpassed fairly soon.His third event was the 200m where he was the fastest overall with another PB of 24.29 with his most improved event the shot putt next where he went from 9.50m to 11.15m which was surely a combination of all the strength and conditioning work we have been doing along with the one solitary technical session he did the Thursday before in the pissing rain :) .Going into the last event in second place he finished fifth in another PB of 2.26 minutes to consolidate his position and win the clubs first schools international individual medal with a score of 2969 less than 90 points behind the winner.His team were second to Wales less than 50 points behind.

The weekend before Eoghan also travelled to Cardiff where he captained the Irish U16 team and competed in the 60m sprint and 4x200m relay.Eoghan finished 5th in the 60m in a PB of 7.54 seconds and anchored the 4x200m relay team to second where he recorded the fastest split for his team of 23.6.

Well done Eoghan on your fantastic achievement!

Peter steals the show!

6 athletes made the trip to Nenagh for the National Junior indoors yesterday and brought home 1 gold,1 bronze,3 fourths and 6 personal bests.Peter O Brien stole the show when he won the 35lb weight for distance with a throw of 7.98m to win competing three years out of age which is a huge achievement.His throws coach James Nagle would have been very proud of his aggressive roaring on his releases :P;for good measure Peter also finished fourth in the shot in a PB of 11.03m.
   PJ galvin showed his consistancy when he again cleared 1.85 to finish in 3rd place but coming very close to the 1.90 mark which is surely to fall sooner rather than later.PJ was actually 2nd Irish national as the winner was a guest from Scotland who cleared 1.95m.
Ben Dennessen had a huge PB of 9.50 in the 60m hurdles when he finished in 5th place with three of the athletes ahead of him irish internationals.Ailbhe Courtney entered the day with a niggling back injury which held her back but she still recorded two indoor PBs of 62.1 in the 400m and 10.00 for the 60m hurdles where she finished fourth.Luke O Keeffe also had a PB when he ran 52.7 in the 400m which is hugely promising as he missed the entire individual outdoor season in 2010 due to illness.Last but not least Dylan Roche finished in fourth place in the 200m but was unfortunate not to make the 60m final after a poor start.

Darragh Lowth also competed today in the rescheduled national cross country in Tullamore.Darragh finished an excellent 13th out of over 120 athletes in muddy conditions which unfortunatly did not suit him.Still a fantastic cross country season for him which will stand to him hugely for the track season.
Well done to all,a promising start to the season.

Next up is the Celtic cup international for Eoghan Courtney who will be running for Ireland in the 60m and 4x200m relay in Cardiff on January 29th.This will be follwed by the Schools combined events international on Feb 6th where he will be competing in the junior pentathlon.

Note-St Brendan's AC registration night for U14+ athletes is this Tue January 18th in the hall at 7.30.e40 for the year and if you are a new athlete who has not brought a copy of your birth cert please do so.

Training times are as follows-There will be a new U13-U15 group added this week-Details to follow.
Tue-Ardfert Hall-7.45-9.15pm
Wed-School-Lunch Time
Thur-Joe O Connors Gym-Ballinorig Tralee[down road accross from hospital beside Rath cemetry]-7pm SHARP to 8.30pm.
Sat-An Riocht-1-2.30pm
Sun-Tralee Complex-9.45-11.15am

Shane :)

Munster Jun/Sen Indoors-Sun Jan 9th

Not a bad start to the 2011 season yesterday in Nenagh with a grand total of 6 gold,7 silver,9 bronze,1 championship record and a host of personal bests.The mens U20 team broke the existing 4x200m relay record by over a second when they ran 1.37.2 to set the clubs first ever Munster junior record.Dylan Roche led the team off and gave Luke O Keeffe a commanding lead which he built on,passed to Eoghan Courtney the teams youngest member who duely increased their lead with Ben Dennessen showing good form to bring it home way ahead of the second place team in their race and 0.2 ahead of the Ferrybank team that won the second timed race meaning both teams were inside the existing record.


The day didnt get off to a great start as the roads were so bad that the bus could not travel so alot of favours were called in to get the bulk of the athletes there.This unfortunatly meant that the pole vaulters could not take their own poles so had to borrow poles and this seemed to affect all their performances.Even so overall we had an excellent day.Performance of the day has to go to Dylan Roche who ran a huge PB when he finished 3rd in a lightning quick 60m sprint in 7.35secs only 0.03 off second and 0.14 off first.Other standout performances included PJ Galvins 1.85m win in the high jump,Peter O Briens 7.59m win in the 35lb weight for distance and Amy Phelans double gold in the high jump and pole vault.Below are all the other medalists-


Junior-U20-
Eoghan Courtney-3rd 200 PB 24.3
Peter O Brien-3rd Shot PB 10.52
Erik Feitshans-3rd 35lb wfd PB 5.61
Una Marley-3rd Pole vault 2.40m
Ailbhe Courtney-2nd 400m PB 62.8
Ben Dennessen-2nd 60m hurdles PB 9.92
David Hogan-3rd 800m 2.11.99
Dylan Roche-2nd 200m PB 24.01
Luke O Keeffe-3rd 400m PB 52.8


Senior-
Eogan O Sullivan-Joint second Pole vault
Michael Grimes-Joint second Pole vault,3rd Triple jump
Amy Phelan-3rd Triple Jump
Mens Relay A-1st-PJ Galvin,David Hogan,Shane Delaney,Edward O Carroll
Mens Relay B-2nd-Jack Cahalane,Erik Feitshans,Peter O Brien,Eogan O Sullivan
Womens Relay-2nd-Amy Phelan,Ailbhe Courtney,Katie O Riordan,Una Marley
Others to perform well but not medal on the day were Stephen Walsh and Dylan Carey both in the 1500m.


Next up is the National Junior championships next Saturday in Nenagh.Ailbhe will compete in the 60m hurdles and 400m,Luke O Keeffe 400m,Ben Dennessen 60m hurdles and 400m,PJ Galvin High jump,Peter O Brien Shot and 35lb wfd and Dylan Roche 60m and 200m.Good Luck to all of them.


Shane :)