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Reports - November 2010


24 November » 17 November » 10 November » 3 November »

24 November 2010

This weekend a number of training sessions for the Irish National Senior Athletics squads will take place. Two athletes from Dromiskin-based St Peter's AC have been selected by the Athletic Association of Ireland to participate in these sessions. Javelin thrower Olivia McDonald is a member of the Throws squad and high jumper Emily Rogers is a member of the Jumps squad.

Olivia will travel to Tullamore for an all-day training session on Sunday, starting at 10 a.m. The training here will be under the direction of Ailish O'Brien, who is the national coaching co-ordinator for the Shot, Discus, Hammer and Javelin. The National Combined Events squad, comprising the country's leading decathletes and heptathletes, will also be training in Tullamore alongside Ireland's best throwers.

After a great year in 2009 in which she won the Irish Senior title, Olivia had a quiet season in 2011, as she continued her recovery from illness. Her only competitive outing this year saw her win at the Irish Under 23 Championships with a throw of 38.37m. Encouragingly this was not too far off her lifetime best of 40.70m.

Olivia has worn the green vest of Ireland on no less than six occasions since 2005. At senior level she has competed in the European Team Championships and the CSIT Championships. Her underage international outings have been in the Celtic Games (three times) and the Anglo-Celtic Schools' International.

Meanwhile Emily will travel to Santry Stadium in Dublin on both Saturday and Sunday, where the training will be directed by Michael McDonald, the national coaching co-ordinator for the High Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump and Pole Vault. Emily, along with the other leading jumpers from across Ireland, is scheduled to train from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Also in attendance in Santry to lend their coaching expertise will be Christoph Edeler, a German High Jump coach, Randy Lewis from Grenada, who is ranked 7th in the world in the Triple Jump, and Darren Ritchie, an 8 metre Long Jumper, who is now a UK Jumps and Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Emily is the reigning Irish Under 17 High Jump champion and has a personal best of 1.66m, a height which she cleared on three occasions in 2009 and 2010. She has also represented Ireland four times in underage international competition since her debut in 2009 – in the Anglo-Celtic Schools' International (twice), the Celtic Schools' Indoor International and the Celtic Games.

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17 November 2010

There was an excellent turnout from St Peter’s AC and all the clubs in the county for the annual Athletics Louth Awards Night, which was held last Friday night in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dundalk. It proved a very enjoyable night with young and old coming together to celebrate achievement, socialise with each other, and look forward to more successes in 2011.

St Peter’s AC had cause for celebration when the results of the Juvenile Track and Field League held over three nights last summer were announced. The club came out on top in the overall under 14 to 19 category for the Fairways Cup, thus retaining this fine trophy for another year.

Four of the Dromiskin-based club’s athletes were nominated for Athlete of the Year awards. Mark Rogers was nominated for the award for boys in the under 14 to 19 age groups and Niamh Fussey was a nominee for the girls’ award in these age groups. Gabriel Bell received a nomination in the younger boys’ (under 9 to 13) category, while Nikayla Hamill was in contention for the award among the younger girls.

All these athletes received certificates in recognition of their nominations. In addition Mark Rogers was selected as the overall winner of the Athlete of the Year track and field award for under 14 to 19 boys. He was presented with a fine trophy to mark this achievement.

Special awards were also made to St Peter’s AC athletes Niamh Fussey, Éamonn McManus and Ian McDonald. In the case of Ian, this was to mark the end of his outstanding career as a juvenile athlete.

After the presentation of the awards everyone enjoyed an excellent meal, which was followed by raffle with lots of prizes and then a disco.

Ava Brennan is a young lady, whom many would expect to be a recipient of one of these awards in future years. Recently she was the only athlete from St Peter’s AC to travel to Mullingar for the Leinster Cross Country Championships, in which she recorded an excellent 14th place finish in the under 10 race.

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10 November 2010

Seven young athletes from St Peter’s AC have been selected to train alongside the best teenage athletes in Leinster this winter. They are part of the 2010-11 Leinster Development Squad, which will convene this Saturday at Santry Stadium in Dublin for its inaugural training session.

Here are brief pen-pictures of the athletes from the Dromiskin-based club who are members of the provincial squad:

Niamh Fussey is a promising young hurdler, who has consistently finished in the medals in recent Leinster championship events.

Hilary Kerr, now in her first year as a medical student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, is the reigning Leinster Schools’ Long Jump champion.

Éamonn McManus made a big breakthrough in 2010 to become a serious contender in the Shot Putt at provincial level.

Emily Rogers has been the leading high jumper in her age group in Ireland for a number of years and has represented her country on more than one occasion.

Grace Rogers is a talented long and high jumper, although her exploits on the Gaelic football field in the colours of Stabannon and Louth have restricted her involvement in athletics over the past couple of years.

Mark Rogers is an outstanding young multi-eventer, whose strongest individual event is the High Jump. He is now looking forward to making his Irish international debut next month in the Kelvin Hall arena in Glasgow.

Darren Tuite did well in the High Jump in 2010, taking bronze at Under 19 level in the Irish Juvenile Indoor Championships.

They should all benefit significantly from attending these squad sessions, as now is the time of year to concentrate on training in order to prepare for the competitions that await during the 2011 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.

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3 November 2010

A small team of six athletes from St Peter’s AC competed in last Sunday’s Louth Juvenile Cross Country Championships for the uneven age groups. These championships moved to a new venue this year, as they were staged at Oldbridge near Drogheda, better known as the site of the Battle of the Boyne back in 1690.

Nikayla Hamill has been troubled by a hip injury recently, but she put this behind her on Sunday with a great run to take silver in the Under 13 Girls’ race over 2500m. Her clubmate Heather Rogers also ran well in this race.

The Dromiskin-based club claimed a second silver medal later in the afternoon through Mark Rogers in the Under 15 Boys’ event over 3500m. Mark’s outings over the country have been more limited than normal this season, as he is currently preparing for his international debut in the Anglo-Celtic Schools’ Combined Events’ Indoor International in Glasgow next month.

Earlier in the day Gabriel Bell, who is still in the Under 10 age group, had a fine run to finish in 7th place in the Under 11 Boys’ race over 1500m. Daniel Mullen also had a good run in this race, while his older brother, Michael Mullen, ran well in the Under 13 Boys’ race over 2500m.

Another event moving to a new venue this year is the annual Athletics Louth Awards Night. It will be held in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dundalk, on Friday 12th November, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the event, which includes presentation of awards followed by supper and a disco, are priced at 25 euro for adults and 10 euro for juveniles. St Peter’s AC members and friends wishing to attend should contact Angela McDonald as soon as possible.

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