It was a busy weekend of athletics with every group in the club taking part in events. The senior group had a number of members taking part in the Kildare Marathon series with Shane McCarthy running the full marathon and doing it in a time of 2.57.55 while Declan Donnelly ran it in 3.19 and Elleanor O'Neill running her first marathon in 4.21. In the half marathon Tony Nason ran it in 1.32 while Frank McDonald ran the 10K in 41.35. Martin Hoare was in warmer climate he took part in the Valentia Triathlon and finished in 29th place while Darren Cranston did a Half Ironman and finished in 16th place.

In the younger age group the Kildare Championship took place and first for a mention must go to the younger athletes who took part in their first ever Championship, in the under 9 group Michael Grant made the final of the 100m while Sam McElligott and Fionn Reilly ran a great race in the under 10 80m. Precious Ezeuko, Leah Murphy and Barbara Okeono did their club proud in the 100m. Also taking part was Jane McAuliffe, Tara Nevin and Georgia Mooney who all ran great. The boys were not to be outdone with Ciaran Peacock, Paddy Merrick, Cian Connolly all running excellently. In the under 10 girls race Ava Campion, Eleanor Clancy and Ellen Gannon all showed great skill and were unlucky not to be in the medals.

The club took home a bag load of medals and we dont have enough space to name all the athletes who put in performances that the club can be very proud of, but we will name some of the new faces on the medal podium, Laoise Lenehan took a medal in the under 11 200m sprint and was 10meters clear of the rest of the field. In the master section John Pender took Gold in the 200m, that was his first club medal. Raymonn Comer took the gold in the under 14 long jump and was the only athlete in that age group to jump over 4m. The inter women took the gold with Christine Campion Aoibheann O'Farrell Paula Reilly and Vivien Fleischer all on the podium. The club were very proud of all the athletes that took part in the first round of the Kildare Championship and we look forward to the second round.             

Fixture Changes in Kildare & Leinster

There has been changes to the fixture list for both Kildare and Leinster events so we need athletes and parents to check these dates and let us know if you are available to attend 

20th Sunday May Greystones Leinster Combined Event

20th Sunday May Round 2 Kildare League Naas

27th Sunday May Leinster Relays Tullamore (Coaches need to know who can go, so please make contact)

30th Wed May Round 3 Kildare League Naas 7pm start time

4th Monday June Leinster team event Celbridge (Our first Leinster Competition)

9th Sat June Leinster U.9/U.11 & U.12 Championship 

17th Sunday June Kildare Championship Round 2 St Cocas Kilcock 

This weekend the first round of the Kildare Championship will take place in Le Cheile Leixlip starting at 12md. Athletes are asked to be in Leixlip for 11.15am to get numbers and warm-up. Click here for a list of the events. All athletes can take part in track events, Kildare County will only allow clubs to put three (3) athletes from each club in for field events so cocahes have done trials over the last few training sessions and will be telling athletes who are available on the day.

Celbridge AC Senior running group and some coaches are running a 100Km relay race in Donadea Forest Park on 27th May. We hope to raise money for both the club and Local SVP.
Each member will be asked to take a sponsorship card and make a few guesses, a guess costs €2, we want people to guess what time it will take the runners to finish the 100K. (Little hint, Coach Michael Tynan of the U.11/12 group runs 1K in 4min 10sec......yes that is good...for his age!!)
If any member of the club would like to take part in the relay please give your name to Eamonn or Jay. It will be a great fun day out, nothing to serious. 27th May.

K Club BHAA 10K

Maybe it was the fresh spring air or perhaps the thought of the scrumptious feed that the K Club BHAA race is now famous for but Saturdays 10K Road Race in Straffan saw a host of PB's by Celbridge runners. The club also saw the return of new mothers Linda Earley and Bridget Buckley to the racing circut, congrats to both and we hope to see you down training again soon...with pram's. Here are the results:

Jason Miley 35:58 Shane McCarty 37:52 (PB) Simon Hanratty 37:55 (PB) Damien Gannon 38:31 (PB) Shane Hunt 38:39 (PB) Karl McKenna 38:44 (PB) Declan Donnelly 39:13 (PB) David Clancy 39:49 Frank McDonald 40:16 (PB) Darren Foster 40:35 Maire Diggin 42:59 (PB) Linda Earley 43:58 Bernie Kavanagh 44:22 Bridget Buckley 45:54 Theresa O'Reilly 46:33 (PB)...15 runners and 9 PB's, good result lads! 

Peter Donohue also was out running last week, he took part in the London Marathon and finishd the run in an amazing time of 3hrs 1min. Martin Hoare also was on tour he ran the Boston Marathon in terrible weather conditions....baking heat...so much so that race organisers told people that it would be dangerous to run if you were not in top shape, Martin ran the race in 3hrs 17min. well done to all runners it is great to see the senior athletes doing so well.        

Well it is hard to keep up with all the events even at this early stage of the T&F season, Sunday saw the first T&F event of the season in Crookstown and a number of Celbridge athletes turned up and brought home a bucket load of medals, Vivian Fleischer took Gold in 800m and 100m in the Junior race Christine Campion took Silver in the 100m and was also seen throwing a shot. Siobhain brady took Silver in the first Discus competition in Crookstown new cage and Silver in Junior Shot. Elaine Wilson took Bronze in Discus and Shot while brother Ciaran took gold in Junior Shot. Raymonn Comer took Gold in LJ and Silver in 100m. Sinead O'Connor took Gold in 800m with sister Niamh taking Silver in 800m. Michelle O'Dea took Gold in 100m with Katie Donaghy taking the Bronze. John Grant took Bronze in LJ. Ciaran O'Shaughnessy took gold in 100m and gold in 800m then went on to lead home the boys U.16 Relay team to Silver, Check out our facebook page to see who the other boys were ;-). the U.14 boys relay team took Silver

In the Junior Great Ireland Race which took place in the Phoenix Park Jack Kyle put Celbridge firmly on the distance running map when he finished the 2.5K race in third place, this was a great result for the Club and Jack. A large number of the senior athletes also ran the 10K race and we will update you as soon as I can get alll the times in order.

The next event is the Kildare League for U.8 to U.15 on Saturday next in Celbridge starting at 12md, we need all our young athletes at the track at 11.30am for warm up.               

Here is some important pieces of information for club members:

1) Celbridge Athletic Club are taking part in the Tesco tokens for club collection, is you are in Tesco make sure you ask for the tokens and bring them down to your coach, we got a lot of very good equipment last year for the tokens, we are also collecting Lucozade sport tops for another competition so if you have see any bottles around take the top and bring it down.

2) Celbridge Athletic Club is holding its 5K road race on 12th August 2012 at 10.30am in Catletown House. In order to make the race a success the club are asking if parents/members can provide any form of sponsorship to support the race, be it financial or a product that can be given out after the race (fruit, drink or energy bars etc) nothing is too small. Naming rights and product placement are available to sponsors. Contact Derek on 087-0779490 or talk to any coach. This will be a great race so now is the time to link your name or your company name to it !!             

The following link is a letter regarding the new Membership fees for 2012 as agreed at an EGM in November.  MEMBERSHIP FEES  

2012 form now available for download in "Membership Form" section or by CLICKING HERE  Forms will also be available at the track from Tuesday 10th January.