Robbie Howard, younger brother of club members Shane and Roisin, traveled to Milan over the weekend to take part with his team mates from the Owenabue Special Olympics Gymnastics club to compete in the World Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics championships.
Robbie won got gold in the pommel and 2nd in the parallel bars. As a result of the wins he was placed third overall individual.
A very proud moment for the Howard family .

Well done.

On Sunday November 8th the Munster Uneven Age Cross country championships were held in the very scenic setting of Beaufort, Co. Kerry. The McGillycuddy reeks provided a lovely setting for this venue but unfortunately for the first half of the day the athletes and supporters didn’t get much sight of the mountains as the rain poured down and the wind whirled across course. On the journey down from Cork there was some hope that the rain was lifting but that wasn’t the case and it wasn’t until early afternoon did the rain stop. This made conditions very difficult for the younger athletes but they all showed great character and determination and they should all be very proud of their achievements on the day. The course was laid out of over 3 open fields on a relatively flat course.
The under 9’s were the first to compete and for most this will have been their first Munster championship. The Girls U9 team of Sarah Burrows, Orlaith Deasy, Natalia Dawidowicz, Aoife Callan, Orla Ryan and Layla O’Neill all put in a great team effort to finish 3rd club in Munster. Sarah led the team home and she also scored on the Cork team helping them to win Gold. The boys U9 team of Daniel Coughlan, Cormac O’Flynn, Eoin O’Callaghan, Sean Hales, Jack Twomey, Glen DeBurca and Dylan Looney ran a very good team race to finish in 5th place, Daniel and Cormac scored on the Cork team helping the county win the silver medal.
The U11 teams were next up and they had to complete the 1500m course spread over the outer fields on the course. The Girls U11 team of Amy McCarthy, Ciara O’Sullivan, Niamh Quinn, Molly O’Callaghan, Ciara White , Aoibheann Cotter were led home by Amy who ran a great race to win the U11 Munster title. The Munster champion also helped the Cork team win the county title. The club team finished in a very credible 5th place out of 14 teams. The boys U11 team of Dara McCarthy, Joseph Buttimer, Sean Deasy, Dara Walsh , Ciaran Brady, Dara Ryan also finished in a very tight scoring 5th place where only 11 points divided the top 5 teams.
As the girls G13 team of Jane Buckley, Nicola Tuthill, Clare Flynn, Ellen Murphy, Amy O’Donoghue, Lucy T McCarthy and Emille Good competed the ground conditions were getting much softer which obviously made the racing more challenging. The whole team ran a great race to take 3rd club place overall. Jane and Nicola finished in 3rd and 11th place overall winning themselves individual Munster medals. Jane also helped the Cork team win the top county prize. The boys U13 team of Callum McCourt, Gavin Kelleher, Tim McCarthy, Rory Desmond and Ruairi Harrington finished in a very worthy 5th place out of 11 teams competing. Callum scored on the Cork team helping them win the county silver medal place.
The Girls U15 team of Michelle O’Donovan, Grainne Mulcahy, Katie Murphy and Olivia Tuthill had to cover 3500m and the team ran very well finishing in 7th place overall. Olivia scored on the Cork team helping them win the County title.
The boys U17 team of Naoise O’Flaitheartaigh, John Muckian, Conor Calnan and Michael Laffan were the last of our teams to compete and they had a 5000m course to complete. All four lads ran very well with Naoise leading the team home finishing in 11th place winning himself an individual medal and also scoring on the Cork team winning Gold. The team finished in 4th place overall which qualifies them to compete in the all Irelands in 4 weeks time.
Well done to all our athletes on what was a challenging, but I hope rewarding day for all. Thanks also to the parents, supporters and coaches who helped on the day.

Report and photos by Tom Laffan

National Schools Combined Event Championships
 A few of our athletes travelled to IT Athlone to compete in this highly contested competition with the best 4 in each category getting selected for an international competition between England, Scotland  and Wales next month. As expected some wonderful performances and battles were on display, which makes you wonder why AAI never adopted this very successful concept for their CE. Unfortunately the international competition is only for Junior and Intermediate athletes, and the effect of this is shown by the drop in standard and numbers at senior students level.    
 
Aisling Cassidy and Ciara McKeon competed in the Junior Girls event, During the Munsters Ciara beat Aisling in 4 of the 5 events, but this time Aisling beat Ciara in 4 events. Aisling increased her points tally by a massive 238 points which gave her 3083 points which is an all-time best juvenile girl’s pentathlon result in our club. She had PB’s in the 60m hurdles in 9.42s., long jump (new Club Record with 4.78m), high jump (new Club Record with 1.55m) and 800m in 2.34.83. Ciara had PB’s in shot putt with 9.87m and the 800m in 2.41.96. Aisling came 6th overall and Ciara 7th, slightly disappointing having performed so well, but it just shows the calibre of this year’s Junior Girls team, who might get the better of the English girls.
 
Brian Lynch who trains with us had a dream pentathlon (in the intermediate boys category) scoring PB’s in all his events and, similar to Aisling, increased his points tally, from 3 weeks ago, by 227 points. However, the consequences were very different as after his 3rd place in the Munsters he now won the Nationals and qualification for Glasgow.
 
So congratulations to all with your great performances, and Brian good luck in your first international!
 
Report by Frank Stam

Mark O Sullivan was a superb 29th in the elite senior men’s race at the Lottocrosscup International XC in Mol Belgium last Sunday. He was the 6th u23 athlete across the line. He continues his preparations towards the National Inter Club XC Championships on Nov 22nd running for his college Cork IT at the IUAA University Road Relay Championships in Maynooth on Nov 14th.

Great performances in Munster Schools Combined Events – Report by Frank Stam

At this time of year most athletes have their focus on cross country running, but a few others tried to be at their best to qualify for the National Indoor Schools Combined Events in Athlone on 7 November.

In the Junior girls event we had 3 competing and after 5 events Ciara McKeon just got the better of Aisling Cassidy the girls scoring an overall 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Ciara ran the shared fastest time in the 60m hurdles with a big PB of 9.59 sec with Aisling close behind, also with a PB, in 9.64 sec. Both girls also PBed in the shot putt, Ciara with 9.60m and Aisling with 8.79m. Ciara also got new PB’s in her long jump with 4.77m and high jump with 1.54m, while Aisling jumped 4.60m long and then equalled Laura Nicholson’s U15 High Jump club record with 1.51m, and Ella Stack joined that party also clearing 1.51m. While Ciara was slightly ahead in each of the first 4 events, she almost lost that advantage in the 800m when Aisling ran almost 7 sec faster than her. Ella had big PB’s in her hurdles and long jump, but her overall 5th place was just short of the 4th qualifying spot.

Laura Nicholson competed in the Intermediate girls event and surprised many, inc. herself, coming away with a 4th qualifying place. She jumped a big PB in her long jump with 4.59m and her other events were close to her bests, except for her 800m where she showed her metier in running the fastest time of all the girls in a big PB of 2.29.8 min.

Two new training members also had a great day with Brian Lynch finishing in 3rd in a very competitive Junior Boys event, and Daniel Hurley winning the 1st year boys event with quite some margin.

Everybody had “total points” PBs, but because of different (from AAI) hurdle and shot specifications no new club records.

In the past we had at most 1 athlete per year qualified for the national schools CE, so this year we stepped it up. Wishing them best of luck in Athlone in 3 weeks time!