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Reports - March 2011


30 March » 23 March » 16 March » 9 March » 2 March »

30 March 2011

Next Saturday and Sunday the Irish indoor athletics season draws to a close with the staging of the second weekend of the National Juvenile Indoor Championships in Nenagh. Dromiskin-based St Peter's AC will have two athletes making the journey to County Tipperary – brother and sister Mark Rogers and Emily Rogers – both of whom will be competing on Saturday.

Emily will be in action in the Under 18 High Jump, in which event she won the Leinster Under 18 title and took bronze in the Irish Senior Championships on successive weekends last month. Emily's seasonal best is 1.63m and her personal best is 1.66m, and she will be hoping for a good performance in Nenagh, both in terms of her placing in the competition and the height she jumps.

Mark has had considerable success across a wide variety events over the years and he will be contesting the Under 16 800m on Saturday. In recent weeks his training has been more focussed towards the 800m, so it will be interesting to see how he fares this time out. He won bronze in the Leinster Championships and silver in the Ulster Championships last month, the latter in a personal best time of 2:11.93.

This time of year is always very significant for the club's athletes as they prepare for the rapidly approaching outdoor track and field season. Last Sunday's changeover to Summer Time means that the regular Tuesday and Thursday evening St Peter's AC training sessions can now be conducted in the athletics field behind the St Joseph's GFC pitch. For more information on training and competing with the club, visit www.stpetersac.com.

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23 March 2011

Last Sunday Mark Rogers and Martin McGrane of St Peter's AC travelled to Magherafelt for the first weekend of the Irish Juvenile Indoor Championships, which were staged in the magnificent £5 million Meadowbank Sports Arena in the County Derry town. It turned out to be a very successful day for the Dromiskin-based club, as both athletes significantly exceeded pre-event expectations.

Mark, who was ranked 4th nationally after the qualifying provincial championships, put his recent injuries well behind him on Sunday. The young Togher athlete scaled 1.78m, just 2cm below his personal best, to take silver in the Under 16 High Jump. Victory went to his great rival, Sam Healy of Belgooly AC in County Cork, who cleared 1.81m. Adam Murphy of St Laurence O'Toole AC in Carlow, who had beaten Mark in the recent Leinster Championships, had to settle for bronze with a best of 1.75m.

Martin was ranked just 8th on paper coming into these championships, but he really rose to the occasion to set successive personal bests in each of the last three rounds of the Under 14 Shot Putt. His final round putt of 9.25m secured the bronze medal for the young Dundalk athlete, who was competing in a national championships for the first time. Jack Manning of Kilkenny City Harriers won gold with an impressive 11.24m performance, while Cathal O'Brien of Craughwell AC in County Galway took silver with a best of 10.79m.

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16 March 2011

Last Sunday St Peter's AC was quite well represented at the Boyne AC Indoor Meet in Gormanston College. Nine young athletes from the Dromiskin-based club were in action at the County Meath venue, and they produced some impressive performances.

Ava Brennan ran very well to win bronze in the Under 11 200m final, having earlier qualified from her heat. She also impressed when up against the older girls in the Under 12 60m. Having come through her heat and semi-final, she finished a very creditable 4th in the final.

Gabriel Bell was unfortunate to suffer an injury in the Under 11 200m, having earlier finished a fine 5th in the Under 12 60m. The Girls' Under 12 Relay team of Ava Brennan, Erin McGowan, Claire McKenna and Katie Rogers also had a very good run to finish in 4th place.

Sarah Larney, Pádraic McGinn, Dylan Rogers and Isabel Rogers also competed in Gormanston and performed very well. It was particularly heartening for all at the club to see Claire, Sarah and Isabel make their competitive debuts in the colours of St Peter's AC.

Next Sunday Martin McGrane and Mark Rogers will represent St Peter's at the first weekend of this year's Irish Juvenile Indoor Championships in Magherafelt. Martin will be in action in the Under 14 Shot Putt and Mark in the Under 16 High Jump. In contrast to Mark, who has regularly competed in the Irish Championships and indeed has several national medals in his collection, Martin will be competing at this level for the first time.

Both of them qualified by taking silver in their respective events at the recent Leinster Championships in Nenagh and both also won gold in these events at the Ulster Championships in Belfast. They will be up against some tough competition in the All-Irelands however. Based on the results of the various provincial championships, Mark is ranked 4th in the High Jump while Martin is ranked 8th in the Shot.

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9 March 2011

Next Sunday it is hoped that several athletes from Dromiskin-based St Peter's AC will make the short 30-minute journey southwards along the M1 to Gormanston College in County Meath. There the Boyne AC Indoor Sports will provide an ideal opportunity for athletes to experience some relatively low-key competition after months of hard training during the winter.

The competition, which gets under way at 2 p.m., features a 60m sprint and a longer race for the various age groups from U8 (born in 2004) up to U17 (born in 1995) for boys and U18 (born in 1994) for girls. The longer race will be 200m for the age groups up to and including U11 (born in 2001) and 600m for the older athletes.

There will also be inter-club relay races, which will undoubtedly prove exciting for athletes and spectators alike. In addition Boyne AC plan to include a Senior 1 mile race in Sunday afternoon's programme. So long as the weather conditions are favourable, this will be staged on the outdoor cinder track rather than in the hall where the juvenile events take place.

This will be the final opportunity for most athletes to compete indoors before the outdoor track and field season gets under way next month. The dates of the various outdoor competitions during the early part of the season are now available on the Calendar page of the club's website www.stpetersac.com.

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2 March 2011

The Annual General Meeting of Athletics Louth was held recently with representatives from clubs throughout the county in attendance. St Peter's AC was represented by Mary Agnew (the County Board Chairperson), Kathleen McConnell (the Registrar), Tom McGrane and Tommy Mulholland.

Kathleen's report showed that there were 1083 athletes registered in the county during 2010, a welcome increase of 6% on the previous year. The athletes are split almost equally between male and female members. 64 of the total were members of St Peter's AC, which ranks the club 8th out of 12 in terms of membership statistics. However the Dromiskin-based club undoubtedly ranks much higher than that in terms of success on the track.

The meeting agreed to stage this year's Louth Junior, Senior and Masters' Championships in conjunction with the Louth Juvenile Championships at the Bush track in May. In recent years the Junior, Senior and Masters' Championships had been contested on a Wednesday evening in July. However it is now expected that all Louth athletes will strive for county glory on the weekends of 7th/8th May and 14th/15th May, with the detailed scheduling of the various events yet to be determined.

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