On Monday 6th May Celbridge Athletic Club sent a Novice Men's team to take part in the Leinster Novice and Masters Road Race Championship in Gowran Co Kilkenny. This was the first occasion that the club has had a senior men's team that could put in a performance that would leave the team in the mix at the end of the race. The Leinster Novice/Masters Road Race attracts quality athletes from all clubs in Leinster which includes the big Dublin clubs such as Donore Harriers, Clonliffe Harriers and Rathfarnham AC.

The Senior section of Celbridge AC has been going from strength to strength over the last few years and having recently won the Kildare Senior Road Race title and the Kildare Senior Cross Country title in November coach Derek McConnon decided that he had a team of athletes that could now step up to a provincial race. The team of Barry Murphy, David O'Connor, Martin Hoare and Jason Miley were selected to represent the club.

The team had decided that they were going to try group together to give each other some support throughout the race a tactic used by the Irish women's cross country team with great success. As the team crossed the line they could see that they were going to be in with a chance of medals, no other club had four athletes positioned so high, the Celbridge athletes quickly started looking around the finish line for athletes from other big clubs, there was very few clubs with four athletes standing around. Within minutes results came out Celbridge Athletic Club had taken Gold medals and were Leinster Road Race Club Champions for the first time in the club history. The four lads that ran also helped Kildare to take County Silver medals.

This is a great achievement for the club and it shows that the clubs development is moving in the right direction. Celbridge AC management committee would like to congratulate coach Derek McConnon and the team that ran in Gowran and also the other senior athletes that put in such hard work at training to get the club to such a high point. Well done again lads.  

Well the first round of the Kildare Track and Field Championship took place on home soil on Sunday and we were blessed with good weather for the whole day. Management committee, coaches, parents and athletes were all in action with the club organising and running its own on-site tea/coffee shop and it was a massive success taking in a large amount of money for the club. Shane O'Dea organised the shop and full credit to him and the ladies who worked on the day and also the parents who provided the beautiful cakes. Credit also to all the athletes who turned up and gave 100% in every event that they took part in it is especially nice to see new young athletes competing alongside much older athletes who have grown up wearing the Celbridge singlet. Ikenna Ezeugo must get a mention after taking four county medals U.17 200m Gold, U.18 Long Jump, U.18 High Jump and Silver in the Relay. The three U.18 girls who took all the Shot Putt medals Kate Quigley Gold Laura Quigley Silver and Michelle O'Dea Bronze with Laura again on the podium when she took the U.18 High Jump gold. Our Relay girls U.10 took Bronze Ava Cullen, Nina Martin, Taylor Beatty and Rhea Donnelly. Andrew Carroll was also a regular visitor to the medal presentation area taking Gold in the U.15 walk, Silver in the Silver in the High Jump and Bronze in the Shot Putt. Elaine Wilson took a Silver in the High Jump and Bronze in the Long Jump. In the U.13 walk Celbridge again took all the spots on the podium with Rebecca Carroll in Gold, Sarah Forrester in silver and Elena O'Toole in Bronze position. Sandra O'Connor must be given credit for all the walk's medals that the club are bringing home, Sandra trains race walking on Monday and Wednesday evening as well as training young athletes on Tuesday and Thursday evening. Ava Campion took a gold medal in the U.11 ball throw while Eoin Hill took a Bronze medal in the U.15 200m, John Grant took Bronze in the U.13 100m, Radek Tyburszy took Silver in the U.17 200m. Sinead O'Connor was 3rd in the 1500m with Niamh taking Silver in the U.15 800m. Adam O'Connor took Silver in the U.13 High Jump and again Steffen Fleischer must get the credit for all the jumps medals that the club are taking at competition. Jonathan Landy was 3rd in the U.15 walk with Hannah Kearns 2nd in the U12 Shot Putt. Conor Farrell brought home the U.18 boys medley relay team to Silver medal position with an excellent 800m run. This is an excellent medal haul for the club and there was 100s of other young and older athletes who performed admirable for the club and finished outside medal position but gained valuable experience at competition and more importantly enjoyed themselves. If I have forgotton any medal winners text me and I will add on...it is hard to keep up with all the great results on the day. If any parent feels that they can give something in the way of time or energy to the club do not stand back waiting to be asked step up and talk to any of the coaches or committee members. If Celbridge AC is to stay on the winners podium we must make sure we have a good solid foundation and that requires having a good solid reliable team.  087-2655433 Michael   

Just to add the Senior and Masters Kildare Championships took place in a very wet and windy Naas on the Sunday previously.  Great to see a good turn out in the senior section.  Great to see a previous juvenile in the club return to compete as a senior.  Neil Halstead made his return to competition by taking the senior long and high jump county titles.  Other results are: Senior women 100m - Vivian Fleischer 2nd, Master women 100m - M1 Andrea Fleischer -1st ,M3 Paula Reilly - 1st, M4 Finola Moore - 1st, Inter Men 100m - Tomas McNamara - 3rd,Master Men 100m -  Damien Kirwan M3 - 1st, Senior Women 200m - Michelle O'Dea - 2nd, Senior Men 200m - Simon Munro - 1st, Conor Burke - 2nd, Senior Men 800m - Conor Burke - 2nd, Senior Women High jump - Vivian Fleischer - 1st, Finola Moore - 3rd Senior Women Long Jump - Vivian Fleischer - 1st,  Senior Men High Jump - Neil Halstead - 1st, Simon Munro - 2nd, Michael Tynan - 3rd, Senior Men Long Jump - Neil Halstead - 1st, Simon Munro - 2nd.  Our ladies and men also competed in the medley relay and got 2nd and 4th respectively.  Well done to all.

Kildare Championship First Round 

Round 1 of the Kildare Track & Field Championship takes place this coming Sunday 28th April for Master/Intermediate and Senior athletes, The competition starts at 12 noon in Naas. Click here for timetable of events. Athletes should try be at the venue by 11.15am at the latest to register and warm up.

The 2nd round of the championships for juvenile athletes takes place in Celbridge on Sunday 5th May starting at 12md, again athletes are asked to be at the track by 11.15am to warm up and get registered. Click here for a list of events.

The 3rd date for the Kildare Track and Field Championship which again is for Juvenile athletes is set for 12th May starting at 12md in Crookstown List of events can be found by clicking here.

Coaches have to know whether athletes are available for competition as there is a rule in the Kildare championship which permits clubs to only put 3 athletes per age group into each field event as a result of this rule coaches will be running trials over the next few training sessions to select athletes for each field event. Coaches would be obliged if parents of young athletes notify them of the dates that they are available to take part.       

Not only was the weather un-seasonably hot in Rotterdam but some of the performances from Celbridge athletes last weekend matched the rise in the mercury levels. A party of 6 were among a large contingent of Kildare runners competing in the internationally renowned marathon and they certainly represented the club with distinction.

First home was Martin Hoare, who after running in Boston last year in sizzling temperatures couldn’t believe his bad luck with the rise in temperatures last weekend. Un daunted Martin ran an excellent personal best finishing in 2 hrs 52 mins 3 sec. Obviously Maynooth hasn’t being experience the severe cold weather the rest of the country faced over the last few months. He was closely followed by David O’Connor who also posted a personal best in running 2 hrs 54 mins and 18 secs. Martin and David ran together for the first 35k and it was only over the last few kilometres with David cramping due to the heat that Martin managed to pull away.

Also under the magical 3 hrs in running another personal best was Philip Niland. His time of 2hrs 59mins and 42 secs was either perfect pacing or just cutting it too close for comfort. Shane McCarthy found the weather particularly hard. Despite being under 3hr pace up to 35k he struggled for the last 7k but still managed a very creditable time of 3 hours 1 min 40 secs. Damien Gannon again displayed his renowned reliability in finishing in 3 hrs 12 mins and 10 secs while Darren Foster despite suffering with the heat still managed to battle his way around the course in 3hrs 30 mins and 9 secs. Great praise should be given to all the lads on their performances particularly those who ran PB’s as there was numerous DNF’s on the day.

Not to be outdone the ladies in the travelling party ran in the 10k held in conjunction with the marathon. Rebecca Gannon despite running 51.09 which was a whopping 5 minutes of her personal best was disappointed not to break the 50mins. It will surely come over the next few months. Colette Carragher who accompanied injured team manager Jay Carragher on the trip ran a very creditable 63 mins.

The Team Manager despite his injury which he said the recovery from which has been put back several months with his rushing from point to point supporting the lads reported that conditions were very warm and the lads where not helped by the cold weather at home in the lead up to the race. However he is now planning to make an international marathon an annual trip for the club and is looking for suggestions for 2014. The only proviso is that there must be a local restaurant serving “leg of lamb” the night before the marathon.

It was a bitter cold windy day in Leixlip for the Kildare Senior Road Races Championship which was hosted by Le Cheile AC on bank holiday Monday last. The women were first up and Celbridge AC had five athletes taking part, three of whom were making their debuts for the club. The tough 4k race started and finished outside Leixlip amenities and despite their brave efforts the women finished just outside the medals in 4^th place. The ladies team which was led home by Fiona McManus (9^th) included Teresa O’Reilly (12^th), Rebecca Gannon (19^th), Aishling Barry (20^th) and Laura O’Keeffe (injured).

The men who had a tough undulating 10k course fared better following up on the first County Senior Cross Country title won last December in Castletown the team won the first County Senior Road Race Championship title for Celbridge AC. Led home by Barry Murphy in 3^rd overall and followed closely by Jason Miley (5^th), James Hoare (6^th), Philip Niland (7^th) and Martin Hoare (10^th) and with such great packing the team comfortably won the title. Celbridge AC are showing great strength in the senior section and put out a second team of Frank McDonald (19^th), Brendan Coffey (21^st), Damien Gannon (24^th), Darren Cranston, (25^th), Karl McKenna (26^th) and Declan Donnelly (34^th) this team finished a commendable 5^th out of 7 club teams.

So a good weekend and another first for the club who now hold both Senior (Road & Cross Country) Male team championships titles.

Saint Patrick weekend saw the staging of the first Kildare County Championship Road Race of the year at Naas Rugby club. First race of the day was the combined Intermediate and Masters ladies race in which Celbridge had 6 runners. We had mixed fortunes in the race. The ladies Masters team of Bernie Kavanagh (6^th),  Teresa O’Reilly (7^th) and Rebecca Gannon (11^th) won the county title, while the Intermediate team of Rebecca (13^th), Sinead Goss (17^th), Sinead Mulcahy (20^th) and Clionadh Fagan (21^st) finished 5^th team.  Bernie also won the county title in her age category. Well done to all, particularly those who ran their first championship race for the club.

In the combined Men’s Masters/Intermediate race we had our usual big numbers (14) competing with two teams entered in each category. Philip Niland finished 2^nd in the Masters race and David O Connor 3^rd in the Intermediate race.  Celbridge finished 3^rd in each of the team races. The scoring four on the intermediate team where, David O’Connor (3^rd), Philip Niland (5^th), Shane McCarthy (13^th) and Damien Gannon (24^th), while the Masters team where Philip, Shane and Damien. Shane also finished 2^nd in is age category.

Others to run well on the day where Frank McDonald, Karl McKenna, David Clancy, Darren Cranston, Declan Donnelly, Niall Kearns, Darren Foster, Alan Thomas, Kevin Ecock and Gearoid Gleeson. So a good start to the season with plenty of medals won. Next road race is the Senior Kildare Championship which takes place on Sunday March 31^st. The race takes place in Leixlip so we expect a big turnout.