Thanks to our coaching coordinators for producing the Cross Country Newslterr.

Clink the below link to view it.

Cross Country Newsletter

Thanks to John O'Brien for sending us some wonderful photographs of the recent County Juvenile Championships.

Alex Palframan in full flight ! 

Clink on the below link to view the photos.

Photo's from Westmeath County Championship 2016

The results can be viewed by clicking here.

This weekend we had 3 athletes competing in the All Ireland Indoors in Athlone. On Saturday Ruairi Lyons won the clubs first ever National Individual medal on the track when he came second in the Boys U15 1K walk. This was great performance from a young man who has only started race walking in the last two months. A lot of credit must go to Michael Lane who coached and advised Ruairi in the last few weeks. Later in the day, Raphael Salaja came 3^rd in a very competitive Boys U15 60 meters. Raphael has been going very well in training and this performance bodes well for a promising outdoor season for Raphael.

On Sunday, Sam Agbanobi competed in the U13 Boys 60 meters hurdles. Sam easily qualified for the final in a time of 10.25. In the final Sam got off to a great start and was in 3rd position up until the final hurdle, there was a very close dash for the line with a bunch of athletes in contention. Sam finished in a very creditable 5th place. The fact that Sam was diss-appointed with 5th place is a testament to his ambitions as an athlete. To come 5th in Ireland is a magnificent achievement and Sam can look forward to a great outdoor season with renewed optimism.

For the full results click here.

Left to Right : Raphael Salaja - AIT AC, Michael Farrelly - Portmarnock AC, Mathew Buckley - Ratoath AC 

 Left to Right : Eanna Geraghty - Westport AC, James Hanlon - Taghmon AC, Ruairi Lyons - AIT AC

The juvenile club will be introducing RFID coloured silicone wristbands in 2016. These wristbands are intended to replace the current barcoded ID cards which athletes and coaches use for checking in at each training session. Some of the advantages that the wristbands have include :

- Children can wear them while training so they don't have to return them like the cards to their parent, or carry them around with them during training.

- We have aligned the colours of the wristbands to the 4 colours of our FitKids training groups. So, children and group coaches can easily work out which training group a child is in by the colour of their wristband. The 4 coloured training groups are now going to be Blue, Purple,Orange and Yellow. All of the coaches and squad athletes will be given Green bands.

- The wristbands are cool ! they bands look wonderful, they are brightly coloured, branded with the AIT AC logo and name and we believe the children and coaches will love wearing them.

- They will help the club further streamline our check-in process at training sessions. The wristbands are more reliable than barcode's when it comes to reading the ID details. Barcodes can become faded, torn, damaged and result in delays at check-in. After a few weeks we hope to be in a position to have the laptop based check-in replaced by smartphone check-in's so that the check-in person(s) can simply check in people using a smartphone. So, we could even have multiple people checking people in, hopefully reducing delays. We want athletes to be training rather than queueing when they come to training !

Cost.

We have done our best to ensure that the cost of the wristbands is kept low, however we will have to charge €4 per wristband and hope that every athlete and coach will purchase and use the wristbands going forward. We want to de-commission the use of ID cards and the need for manual check-in's over the next few weeks. We hope when the children and parents see the wristbands that they will agree that they are worth €4, even if they didnt have the added function of helping us automatically check in people they look wonderful... See photo below. The club has ordered enough wristbands to cover our current number of members with some contingency for growth over the next few years but as the re-order qty from the supplier is a minimum of 300 we have decided to charge €5 for replacement bands in the hope that children won't lose them. 

On Sunday 10th Jan the club competed in the Annual Sportshall event in Portarlington. This is the 2nd year that the club has been invited to this very well run and enjoyable event. Katie Donoghue,Rachel Donoghue,James Donoghue,Anna Donoghue,Jon Ganly,Zayna Ganly, Hugo McGowan and Jimmy Walshe along with two brillant young guest athletes Abbie and Alan Donoghue represented the club with great distinction. All the children came home with medals and will have gained in-valuable experience from this competition. Jon Ganly came 2nd in the A final in the boys U12 sprints, the young athlete who came first is one of the top sprinters in Ireland so I'm sure they will meet again and Jon can be proud of his performance. Hugo and Jimmy Walshe put in some wonderful performances in the sprints and endurance distance races. All of the Donoghue children were determined as ever and finished on the podium in quite a few races. Young Abbie and Alan probably got the loudest cheers of the day in the Under 7 races, considering they are not yet 6 it was great to see them competing with such vigour.

Many thanks to Eamonn Henry and Olivia from the Offaly Sports partnership for all their efforts in organising the event. Well done and we'll be back next year !

On Saturday 13th February and Sunday 14th February the Leinster Indoors take place in Athlone. Below is a full list of the events and fixtures.

Athletics Leinster 2016 Indoor Championships (Provisional)

Provisional Schedule of Events for 2016 Leinster Indoors Day 1 – Juveniles Day 1 (Relay’s) (13th February 2016)

Track Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Girls U14 / U15 1km Walk Boys U14 / U15 1km Walk

Girls U16-U19 1.5km Walk Boys U16-U19 1.5km Walk

Girls U13 4x100m Relay Boys U13 4x100m Relay

Girls U15 4x200m Relay Boys U15 4x200m Relay

Girls U17 4x200m Relay Boys U17 4x200m Relay

Girls U19 4x200m Relay Boys U19 4x200m Relay

Girls U14 800m Boys U14 800m Girls U15 800m

Boys U15 800m Girls U16 800m Boys U16 800m

Girls U17 800m Boys U17 800m

Girls U18 800m Boys U18 800m

Girls U19 800m Boys U19 800m

Odd Relay Finals Odd Relay Finals

Girls U12 4x100m Relay

Boys U12 4x100m Relay

Girls U14 4x200m Relay

Boys U14 4x200m Relay

Girls U16 4x200m Relay

Boys U16 4x200m Relay

Girls U18 4x200m Relay

Boys U18 4x200m Relay All 800m Finals

All 800m Finals

Even Relay Finals Even Relay Finals

Field Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Girls U18 High Jump

Boys U18 High Jump

Girls U19 High Jump

Boys U19 High Jump

Girls U18 Shot Putt

Boys U18 Shot Putt

Girls U19 Shot Putt

Boys U19 Shot Putt

Girls U15-U19 Pole Vault

Boys U15-U19 Pole Vault

Girls U16-U19 Triple Jump

Boys U16-U19 Triple Jump

Athletics Leinster 2016 Indoor Championships (Provisional)

Day 2 – Juveniles Day 2 (Hurdles) (14th February 2016)

Track

Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Girls U18 200m Boys U18 200m

Girls U19 200m

Boys U19 200m

Girls U12 60mH

Boys U12 60mH

Girls U13 60mH

Boys U13 60mH

Girls U14 60mH

Boys U14 60mH

Girls U15 60mH

Boys U15 60mH

Girls U16 60mH

Boys U16 60mH

Girls U17 60mH

Boys U17 60mH

Girls U18 60mH

Boys U18 60mH

Girls U19 60mH

Boys U19 60mH

Girls U12 600m

Boys U12 600m

Girls U13 600m

Boys U13 600m

All 200m Finals

All 200m Finals

All 60mH Finals

All 60mH Finals

Girls U16 1500m

Boys U16 1500m

Girls U17 1500m

Boys U17 1500m

Girls U18 1500m

Boys U18 1500m

Girls U19 1500m

Boys U19 1500m

All 600m Finals

All 600m Finals

Field Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Girls U17 High Jump

Boys U17 High Jump

Girls U15 High Jump

Boys U15 High Jump

Girls U13 High Jump

Boys U13 High Jump

Girls U12 Long Jump

Boys U12 Long Jump

Girls U14 Long Jump

Boys U14 Long Jump

Girls U16 Long Jump

Boys U16 Long Jump

Girls U18 Long Jump

Boys U18 Long Jump

Girls U15 Shot Putt

Boys U15 Shot Putt

Girls U17 Shot Putt

Boys U17 Shot Putt

Girls U13 Shot Putt

Boys U13 Shot Putt

 Athletics Leinster 2016 Indoor Championships (Provisional)

Day 3 – Juveniles Day 3 (Sprints) (5th March 2016)

Track Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Girls U16 200m

Boys U16 200m

Girls U17 200m

Boys U17 200m

Girls U12 60m

Boys U12 60m

Girls U13 60m

Boys U13 60m

Girls U14 60m

Boys U14 60m

Girls U15 60m

Boys U15 60m 200m

Finals 200m

Finals Girls U18 400m

Boys U18 400m

Girls U19 400m

Boys U19 400m

All 60m Semi’s

All 60m Semi’s

Girls U16 60m

Boys U16 60m

Girls U17 60m

Boys U17 60m

Girls U18 60m

Boys U18 60m

Girls U19 60m

Boys U19 60m

All 60m Finals

All 60m Finals

All 400m Finals

All 400m Finals

Field Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Girls U12 High Jump

Boys U12 High Jump

Girls U16 High Jump

Boys U16 High Jump

Girls U14 High Jump

Boys U14 High Jump

Girls U13 Long Jump

Boys U13 Long Jump

Girls U15 Long Jump

Boys U15 Long Jump

Girls U17 Long Jump

Boys U17 Long Jump

Girls U19 Long Jump

Boys U19 Long Jump

Girls U16 Shot Putt

Boys U16 Shot

Putt Girls U14

Shot Putt

Boys U14 Shot Putt

Girls U12 Shot Putt

Boys U12 Shot Putt

 Athletics Leinster 2016 Indoor Championships (Provisional)

Day 4 – Junior, Senior & Master Indoors (6th March 2016)

Track Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Women 200m Heats

Men 200m Heats

Women 3km Walk

Men 3km Walk

Women 200m Finals

Men 200m Finals

Women 800m

Men 800m

Women 60m Heats

Men 60m Heats

Women 1500m

Men 1500m

Women 60m Final

Men 60m Final

Women 400m Heats

Men 400m Heats

Women 60mH Heats

Men 60mH Heats

Women 3000m

Men 3000m

Women 60mH Finals

Men 60mH Finals

Women 400m Final

Men 400m Final

Women 4x200mRelays

Men 4x200mRelays

Field Gender Age Category Event Gender Age Category Event

Women High Jump

Men High Jump

Women Long Jump

Men Long Jump

Women Triple Jump

Men Triple Jump

Women Pole Vault

Men Pole Vault

Women Shot Putt

Men Shot Putt

All events are provisional. Beware this is not a timetable, this will go out closer to the date of competition. For more info please contact the Leinster Indoor Competitions Secretary Andrew Lynam at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Next Sunday the All Ireland Cross Country Championship for Un-even ages takes place in Dungarvan. The club has 7 athletes who have qualified for the event. In the U11 Girls race Tegan Foley has qualified as a member of the Leinster team as a result of her 11th placing in the Leinsters. Tegan is joined by Lisa Seery and Laura Madden to represent Westmeath in the same race and we are so fortunate to also have qualified for the club competition with Tegan, Lisa and Laura ably supported by Katie Boyle and Sarah Fitzgerald. It is great achievement for these young girls (some of who are just doing athletics for a year) to qualify for the All Irelands. Irrelevant of the results in Dungarvan the club are very proud of them and their achievements so far this year.

In the U15 Girls race Lisa Gavin and Inez Arqued have both qualified on the Westmeath team. Lisa finished in 13th position in the Leinsters (just outside of the individual medals) but has been showing great form in training and is sure to put in another great performance in Dungarvan. Ines is running out of her age grade but has still managed to make the Westmeath team at this grade. Both girls have been flying in training and should do very well on Sunday.

Below are the full details of the event on Sunday.

GloHealth Novice & Uneven Age XC Championships - St.Augustine's College, Dungarvan, Co.Waterford

Girls U11 1500 meters starts at 11:30am.

Girls U15 3500 meters starts at 12:20am.

(click here for details of the race location in Dungarvan)

Lisa, Katie, Lisa and Laura after a hard training session preparing for the All Irelands.

 Lisa Gavin proudly displaying the Gold medal she won at the Leinsters.

The juvenile clubs last training sessions in 2015,  before the Christmas break, are on Monday the 7th of December and Wednesday the 9th of December. We will returning to training on Monday the 9th and Wednesday the 11th of January in the New Year.

The juvenile club had athletes in action in Moyvalley on Day 2 of the Leinsters and also in Wexford on Day 3. In Moyvalley, Ruairi Lyons, Dara Mulvihill, Aoife  Campbell and Roisin Mulvihill competed with great gusto but were un-fortunate not to figure in the medals. In the JFK Arboretum in New Ross Tegan Foley had the distinction of winning the clubs first ever individual cross country Leinster medal in the Girls U11 race. Tegan ran a wonderful race to finish in 11th position overall and helped the club secure 4th position in the team club competition. Lisa Seery finished in 29th, Laura Madden 35th, Katie Boyle 77th and Sarah Fitzgerald followed Katie home in 78th position.

Girls U11 Team (L to R): Lisa Seery, Tegan Foley, Sarah Fitzgerald, Katie Boyle and Laura Madden

In the Girls U15 race, Lisa Gavin ran a determined race and was very unlucky to finish one place outside of an individual medal in 13th position. Lisa is improving with every race and will no doubt be challenging for honors at Leinster and All-Ireland level in the future. Lisa helped the Westmeath team to win team gold and has qualified for the All-Irelands. Inez Arqued was running 1 year out of her age grade and still managed a magnificent 39th place finish. Charlie Norton was our sole representative in the Boys U13 race and ran a solid race. Well done to all the young athletes who braved the rain and wind in Moyvalley and New Ross and good luck in the upcoming All-Irelands.

Girls U15 : Lisa Gavin and Ines Arqued

For more photos from the 2 days of competitions click on this link.

AIT AC is launching a new training jacket for our athletes and coaches next week. Below are images of the jackets. They cost €28 each.  There is an option of having your child’s name/initials embroidered on the sleeve for just €2.
 
These jackets will make ideal presents. To ensure you have your jacket by Christmas, orders will be taken at training on Monday 19th  and Wednesday 21st ofOctober ONLY. Payment has to be made in full next week for an order to be processed.
 
If you have any queries please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.