Baldy Man in the rain

Well done to the many members who braved the weather in Tramore to 'run/struggle/regret' the 8K of variety offered by the 10th anniversary of the annual Baldy man run supported by WAC.

Pictured are Brian O'Sullivan, first male member home, Diane Behan, 2nd lady home, Sylvia Malone (paced by hubbie Kevin), 3rd lady home and Dermot Power winner of O50 category.

Well done also to Caitriona Gough who won the O35 ladies section and Eoin Palmer who won the O45 male section.

Final night of circuits for 2010

Well done Anne Fitzgerald on winning the last WAC event of 2010 in the "Last person horizontal" in the plank competition at Circuits on Wednesday night! Anne was still going 'still' after 5 mins and had the rest of the pack done after 3 or 4 mins.

Great going Anne and thanks to Sinead and Andrew, staff of the Cilbarra centre, who sponsored lovely choclate treats for the last 3 going at the plank. Circuits starts back at 6:50pm on Wed Jan 5th. Open to all members and their friends.

Anyone up for a run on St Stevens Day; 10am from the Woodlands hotel on the Dunmore Rd. 4, 6 or 8 mile run!

Wouldn't you like to be in a club like this?

Christmas party night out recently! What is the common thread? Well, the ratio of ladies to men is about the same as you would get at a Circuit training, Pilates or Yoga class! Speaking of Circuits; tonight (WED) is the last night of 2010 circuits in Cillbarra at 6:50pm. Everyone welcome; €3 each or €2 for Junior Squad members.

WAC Sessions/runs over the Christmas

After training tonight (Tues Dec 21st) the 5:45 Improver/Competing athlete sessions on Tues and Friday will take a break until the week beginning Monday Jan 10th.

There will be casual runs on Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm from the RSC and Wednesday at 6:30 from the Carpark opposite the Majestic hotel in Tramore. These runs will be on each week over the Christmas (weather permitting) and if the RSC is closed for any of the Tuesdays and Thursdays then they will start at the Superquinn carpark instead.

Circuit training in Cillbarra Sports hall finishes after the tomorrow's night session (Dec 22nd) and resumes on Wed 5th at 6:50pm.

Dec 26th Casual 4/6 or 8 mile (depending on amount of turkey consumed) run at 10am from the woodlands hotel .

Dec 27th Annual Baldy Man run in tramore supported by Waterford AC. Race starts at 1pm, entries on the day in the Majestic hotel from 11:30am.

Winter league resumes on Thursday Jan 6th.

The Monday and Wednesday beginner/improver track sessions have stopped now and will resume on Jan 10th and Wednesday Jan 12th:

Entries still being taken: Saturday Jan 15th 12noon: Waterford AC Half Marathon 2010

Munster Masters Indoor Championships 2010

13 is not an unlucky number; its the number of individual munster medals won today at a cold nenagh (Can you guess from the picture??)

Pictured are Mal McGlynn, Jim Baldwin, Kieran Leahy, Tom O'Brien, Jacinta Power and Derek Grant.

Fresh from her Female Athlete of the year from Saturday Jacinta kept Nenagh hot with 4 golds in Long and High Jumps, 60m and shot.

Mal was delighted with his 3rd place in the 3K and without any track work in recent months and 5 weeks to go to the nationals, again in Nenagh, he is looking forward to some serious training between now and then.

Derek Grant continued his recent return to form with a battling 3rd in his 800m followed by a very strong 1500m to win silver.

Kieran Leahy won two excellent silvers in his 60m and 200m against unbeaten Richard MacArthur in recent years and Kieran only narrowly lost out in both races and will be gunning to beat Richard at the Nationals. Great to welcome Kieran back to competitive track and nice to see he is close to the action.... and having mastered the block-start he ran a rapid first leg of the 4 x 200m relay to hand over to Jim who passed the banton to Mal who ably passed it Tom who romped home for a well deserved gold for the team.

Tom also won his double jumps titles and slipped in a silver in the 200m and a bronze in the 60m to enjoy an excellent day of (cold and) hot track and field.

Any masters athletes (Over 35+) interested in competing in the national finals on Sunday Jan 23rd contact tom at tom@waterfordac.com or Derek. Go on; you know you want to! Lots of training sessions if you want to get involved.

WAC Christmas night out

Without the aftermath of the half marathon we went ahead with our Christmas night out in Revolution Bar.....yes, thats where it was; not in Geoffs bar where everyone seemed to get lost in for a couple of hours!!!!but eventually with everyone back in the fold a great night was had. With a few awards presented to Tom and Jacinta as Male and Female Athletes of the year and Tom Murray as Club Person of the year for outstanding service to WAC the night also included plenty of dancing, swopping of training programs, discussions on how to make your own energy bar and sympathising with Tom and Jacinta that they couldn't drink due to their early start the following morning to compete at the Munster Masters Indoor championships!

If you are looking for your next night out with lots of WAC participation next Thursday is the Santa run at the winter league and their Christmas party is on in the Munster Bar from 9pm

Half Marathon POSTPONED until JANUARY

A decision has been made in the interest of safety to postpone the half marathon until Saturday JANUARY 15th at 12 noon.

Waterford AC regret any inconvenience caused to runners and hope all can make it on this new date.

Half Marathon Latest

The big thaw is beginning! Lets hope the snow will stay away and Met Eireann, Countryfile and everyone else with a balanced view of the likely movements of the weather over the next few days are right!

Official go ahead or Postponement will be announced on Thursday at lunchtime.

All going well;

Goodie bag packing will be at the new stand in the RSC from 6:30 on thursday night so anyone free to help please come along and bring your kids to help out. (Winter league will be cancelled due to the paths not being safe).

Friday afternoon;

RSC track and carpark area will need plenty of brushing and preparation so anyone with a brush and a spade please come along.

Saturday morning;

Lots of jobs around the RSC from 8am so just turn up with a willing gaze and expect a job.

If available to steward; contact Con on 0872028429 if you have not already done so or come to the RSC from 10am to be assigned a spot. (and thanks!)

From 12:15..come to the finish to support the finishers and if available help to give out the Goodie bags immediately as the runners finish..thats over 1000 goodie bags so all hands on deck......also help upstairs to give out the tea, cookies and blaas..

Oh, and smile for the camera..you wouldn't know where Ciaran might be snapping you!

Indoors season begins on Dec 12th

Anyone interested in competing at the Munster indoors Masters championships (Over 35 up) please email tom@waterfordac.com or 0863787051 with the events you would like to compete in. Unfortunately its on the day after our Half Marathon and Christmas night out (which has been moved to Revolution Bar in the city at the Escape night club from 9pm).

Full details on munster athletics website and by clicking on 'Forms' on the left hand side.

The following indoors will be Jan 9th again in Nenagh for the seniors and juniors championships. Again check out the Munster athletics website.

Munster Masters Cross Country Championships

Ladies & Gentlemen, Waterford AC Masters are where its all at;

1st Club in Over 35 Men and 2nd Club in Over 35 ladies it was a super display of cross country running at St Augustines College in Dungarvan today in crisp sunny November conditions.

Frank Quinlan lead home a very strong men's team of David Drohan, Frank Walsh, Jim Baldwin, Finley Weir, Kevin Malone, Darryl Hale, Eoin Palmer and Malachy McGlynn to claim the 1st Club medal and also he and Dave, Frank and Jim were the scoring four to claim County Silver, so great running allround. Frank was 2nd home in the O35 category too.

In a seriously competitive ladies race Diane Behan ran very strong throughout and with Silvia Malone and Cait Caulfield hot on the trail all three got double silver for their efforts as they were 2nd club and were three of the scoring members of the county team. Diane also was 2nd in the O40 individual category.

In an excellent display of controlled running Larry Kennedy came home for individual gold in the O50 category and helped the county team to bronze. Con Kelleher and Derek Grant showed great endurance over the course and narrowly missed on club bronze with West Waterford beating them into 4th by just a few points.

A master display of cross country teamwork by all and not to forget our other Master athletes of Maire Lawlor, Gabrielle Blair and Lydia Thornton who reluctantly hung up their spikes for the day and acted as Munster Officials...and enjoyed cheering on their club members ...and the free tea and chips after!!

Dublin Marathon

Well done Maire Lawlor on a new PB of 3 hr 43 mins for the 26.2 miles at the Dublin Marathon on bank holiday Monday. Other members who joined Maire on her Dublin spin include: Brendan Aspel (3:00), Pat Nolan (3.01), Finley Weir (3.09), Pat Grant (3.15), Mary Jennings (3.18), Mary Burke (3.22), Sarah Lee (3.23), Alan Purcell (3.25), Ray O Mahoney (3.26), Ger Nolan (3.44) and Davey Foley (3.57) Great going all. Photos thanks to Michael O'Connel (Dee's brother...who missed the big shot of the day..he says sorry Mary B)

Well done also to Brea Cooke who did 3hr 18mins in the Venice Marathon on Sunday Oct 24th.

Waterford AC in Europe

No stopping club members Maire Lawlor, Rosie Van der Valk, Jacinta Brazil, Tina Connolly and Gabrielle Blair in their efforts to get in the weekend long run. For the 3rd year Waterford AC was represented at the Paris 20Km and as well as great running some excellent food and shops were experienced. A long way to go to prepare for the Waterford half marathon but Maire wanted to inspect Eurotunnel anyway so why not!

Great going girls and rumour has it that great times were had but of course what happens on tour stays on tour....but for race times check out http://www.20kmparis.com/

Munster Novice Cross Country

Well done to Cait Caulfield and Aoife McCormack who came home with County medals in the Novice event at the Munster championships in Cork on Sunday. In very tough cross country conditions Cait ran an exceptional race to finish 8th individually in a field that included U23 runners also. Other members who travelled and competed well were Claire Grant, Jim Baldwin, Dave Drohan, Kevin Malone, Alan Danagher and Eoin Palmer.

Also, great runs on the same day at the 10 mile solas run in the city was Diane Behan who beat last year's winner Silvia Malone into 2nd and Frank Quinlan came 2nd in the mens race. Well done to all members who ran the race and best of luck to all those now in the final preparations for the Dublin City Marathon.

Note: If any member who has entered for the Dublin Marathon would like to enter the National championship element of the event please email tom@waterfordac.com (or text 0863787051) with your race number before Oct 20th and he will enter you. There is no extra fee to enter the championship.

County Cross country senior championships

Great running again this week by Pauline Lambe in winning her first Waterford Senior cross country title and leading the ladies team of Diane Behan, Silvia Malone and Suzanne Dullaghan to a winning team title also. Diane won individaul bronze. Two gold medals for one race; can't be bad Pauline!
Also, well done to 'Coach' Brian Swaby and Jim Baldwin who came 2nd and 3rd respectively and lead home the winning team with David Drohan, Barry Lambe, Alan Danagher and Kevin Malone. Great job boys; no photo of ye this time!..Maybe at the Munsters if the camera is upto it!

County Novice and Masters Cross Country

Frank Quinlan sprinted off to a very good 3rd position in his first cross country outing of the year in the Novice mens race and Jim Baldwin followed his great form in Kilkenny and Wexford of the past 2 weeks to win the masters title in a very fast time for the 6K distance. The two helped Alan Danagher and Kevin Malone to team silver.

Our masters women of Diane Dehane, Cait Caulfield and Sylvia Malone did a 1,2,3 in the race and won the team event assisted by Suzanne Dullaghan. Great going all and plenty more cross country to come.

St Senans Open Sports

An excellent weekend of running for the club with Brendan Aspel, Eoin Dullea and Larry Kennedy running the Berlin Marathon and Brendan dipping under the 3 hour mark for the first time.

At the St Senans open sports our Senior ladies of Pauline Lambe, Diane Behane, Cait Caulfield and Suzanne Dullaghan won the team prize with Pauline and Diane being 1st and 2nd respectively. Cait also won the masters category.

Our Junior ladies of Kate Nolan, Niamh Tebay, Caroline Farrelly and Claire Grant won the junior ladies team prize with Kate and Niamh 2nd and 3rd individually.

Richard Lucas won the Junior Men race and Frank Quinlan lead home the senior team which also included Brian Swaby, Jim Baldwin and Kevin Malone. Frank was 2nd individually and Jim was 2nd in the Masters category.

Great representation by the club and lets hope many show for the Masters and Novice County Championship in the St Augustine College in Dungarvan on Sunday next, Oct 3rd. Juvenile races start at 1pm with Masters and Novice after.

Thursday session mile effort

Well done to all our members who had a go at the 5 min mile on the track on Thurs 16th. Well done to Brian Swaby, David Cunningham and Alan Danagher who all got under the 5 minutes and the many others who got close and produced PBs! A sample of some photos are shown above from the session..and well done to Luke & Fergus who both ran the mile in 6 min 22 while they were hanging around for their 7 o'clock juvenile session!

Some of those pictured above are Brian, David, Alan, Barry Lambe, Darrell Evans, Pauline Lambe, Suzanne Dullaghan, Eoin Palmer, Kevin Malone (and Albert & Niamh were keeping an eye on proceedings!!) Also there but avoided the camera include Joan Mahony and Richard Lucas.

Irish Masters T&F Championships

No stopping those WAC Ladies on their mission to follow their munster relay title with a National one! Jacinta Power, Suzanne Dullaghan, Gabrielle Blair and Elaine Barry were that winning team, in both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays, narrowly beating our second WAC team of Cathy Cronin, Maire Lawlor, Deirdre Chapman and Mary Jennings. The mens team of Brendan Aspel, Jim Baldwin, Eoin Palmer and Tom O'Brien got silver in both of their relays so the challenge is now on for the men to see if they match the ladies in the Indoors at the end of the year!!

Individual National Champions now include Jacinta Power (Long & High Jump), Gabrielle Blair (400m), Mary Jennings (800m, 1500m, 3000m and Discus), Suzanne Dullaghan (100m, 200) and Tom O'Brien (Long Jump). Some of these also won silver and/or bronze in other individual events.

Elaine Barry, Maire Lawlor and Brendan Aspel won bronze in their respective 200m, 1500m and 5K and Deirdre Chapman won 4 silvers in the throwing events of Hammer, Shot, Discus and Javelin (of which 2 only missed gold by the smallest of margins!..next year!!!)

In summary 23 individual medals and 6 team medals were achieved by the club so well done us!!! Team manager for the day Derek Grant says "Track & Field is where its all, and of course a bit of cross country, and a bit of road, and race walking"!

Thinking of getting involved? Contact Derek, Tom or Jacinta.

Cork Graded Series No. 5

A great night of athletics again in Cork's CIT on Tuesday last with the club represented by Pat Breen, Alan Danagher, Jacinta Power and Tom O'Brien.

Pat and Alan focused on the 800m and ran great PBs and Tom and Jacinta were using the session as a sharpener upper for next Sundays' National Masters T&F Championships and both won their respective high jumps. All four competed in the 4 x 200m relay and came 3rd.

Some photos from the night also!

Great day out at Munster Masters in Cork

With a medal haul of 37 medals at the Munster Masters T&F in Cork on Sunday Aug 1st Waterford AC had a great day out with great team and individual experiences! The ladies 4 x 100m relay got things off to a flyer in romping home with gold followed by the mens relay winning bronze. Other gold, silver and bronze performances continued through the day and all agreed it was an excellent day out for the club.

The ladies relay team was Jacinta Power, Gabrielle Blair, Elaine Barry and Suzanne Dullaghan. The men relay was Finley Weir, Paul Walsh, Frank Quinlan and Dave Drohan.

Other members who made the trip and enjoyed, competed, medalled, supported and/or officiated were Rosie Van Ver Valk, Maura Lawlor, Cathy Cronin, Deirdre Chapman, Derek Grant, Ger Nolan, Paul Connolly, Martin Flynn and Tanya McDonnell.

Full results on http://www.munsterathletics.com/ and thanks to the club coaches who helped out with the introductory days of T&F earlier in the summer in preparation for these championships: these were Albert Tebay, Derek Grant, Brian Swaby, Mal McGlynn, Jacinta Power, Harry Culbert and Tom O'Brien.

Many will now go on to compete at the National finals in Tullamore in 2 weeks time on Aug 15th and we wish these athletes the very best in their endeavours.

Masters Pentathlon National Titles

Well done to Waterford AC members Jacinta Power and Tom O'Brien who both won national titles in the Over 35 Pentathlon in Tullamore on Saturday July 31st.

Jacinta did PBs in the 100m Hurdles, High Jump and 800m and gained valuable points in the Shot and Long Jumps to hold out a very close competition and win with a very respectable points total of 1865 points.

Tom did well to come back from a fall at the last hurdle of the 110m hurdles to progress through the other events of Long Jump, Shot Putt, High Jump and finish with a win in the 1500m by a sufficient margin to win the competition with a total points tally of 2367 points.

Thanks goes to Coach Brian Swaby who has guided both of these athletes through this multi event discipline over the past year since both competed in the Indoor Pentathlons where Jacinta won Bronze and Tom Silver. Great to see that both have worked through the year to improve both their points score and finishing place and with the help of Brians guidance are now firmly established as multi-eventers and encouraging other members to compete in track & field events at all levels. Any members interested in masters multi events should talk to Jacinta or Tom or email tom@waterfordac.com for more information.

Cork Graded Series no 4

Well done to Keith Egan, Pat Breen, Alan Danagher and Isaac Lineen who represented the club at the graded series in the Mardyke, Cork on Tuesday July 27th.

Pat did an excellent PB of 5 mins 2 sec for the mile and recent recruit to the club Alan Danagher's training is really kicking in with a 5 min 17sec in his mile race. Keith was 2nd in the B 200m and Isaac was 3rd in the A 200m.

The lads got a super 2nd place in the 400-200-200-800m Medley relay. Pat lead off the team in the 400m leg and passed to Alan for 200m who passed to Isaac for his 200m and Keith brought the team home in the 800m.

Great going lads (and photos to follow). The last in the series will be on Tuesday Aug 10th with 100m, 800m, high jump and Javelin so any members interested in travelling contact Tom O'Brien for travel arrangements and entries. It might be a good outing for Masters athletes who plan on competing at the National Masters in Tullamore on the following weekend!!

Best of luck to all our Masters athletes who compete in the Munster T&F Championships at the CIT track on Sunday next and Jacinta Power and Tom O'Brien who compete in the National O35 Pentalon finals in Tullamore on Saturday. Lots of medal stories next week and fun days out for our members we hope.

European Masters Decathlon

Well done to Tom O'Brien who competed in the European Masters Track and Field Championships in Hungary this week. He competed in the Men Over 40 Decathlon and finished in the top 8. He set a new Irish Masters Decathlon record for Men Over 40 by scoring 4731 points.

National League Round 2

The next round for the National League is July 18th and the venue is Santry in Dublin for both Ladies and men.

Trials for the 100m and 400m relays will be on Tuesday next at 6pm at the RSC so all team members who competed in round 1 and anyone else interested in being involved should come along at 6pm. With the mens team in postion 8 out of the 16 teams and the ladies joint 8th out of 17 it is all to play for so all hands to the pump for the team.

Any queries to tom@waterfordac.com or Brian at 0872343520

The draw for round 2 is

Division 1 Men (Santry)
Ferrybank AC
Tallaght AC
Slí Cualann AC
Kilkenny City Harriers AC
Waterford AC
Olympian AC

Division 1 Women (Santry)
Clonliffe Harriers AC
Raheny Shamrocks AC
Wexford County
Kildare County
Waterford AC
Slí Cualann AC
Tallaght AC

Cork Graded Series No 2

Three club members travelled to Cork for the 2nd night of the Cork Graded Series on Friday, June 26th, held at CIT.

Keith Egan got off to a winning start with a win in the grade C 800m. In a very tactical race Keith controlled it from the front and with 150m to go kicked hard and left the field well behind.

Brendan Leahy followed in the Grade A 100m with an excellent 2nd in a time of 10.99 secs. A nervey race with 2 false starts before the final off Brendan finished strong to just dip under the 11 sec barrier for the first time this year. Good preparations for the All Ireland senior Track & Field championships coming up in 2 weeks where he will compete in the 100m and 200m on July 10/11 in Santry stadium in Dublin.

Tom O'Brien came 2nd in the 100m Grade B race with a new PB of 11.7 secs and narrowly missed a PB of 1.72m in the high jump..but thats for another day.

Next outing in the series is Monday evening, July 12th at the Mardyke in Cork at 7pm with events including 400m, 3K and Javelin.

National League Round 1

Well done to the 18 members of the club who competed in the national League Round 1 in Tullamore on Sunday June 13th.


The ladies team was Deirdre Chapman (Walk, Discus & Javelin), Jacinta Power (100mH, 400mH and High Jump), Diane Behan (3000m, Long Jump, Hammer & 400m Relay), Louise Brent (100m, Triple jump, Shot & 100m Relay), Caroiline Farrelly (200m, 400m and both 100m & 400m relays), Niamh Tebay (800m and both relays and Siobhain Heylin (1500m and both relays). A great team performance throughout and thanks is due to Tanya for acting as club official for the day, without whom we would have been docked points.

The mens team was Brendan Leahy (100m, 200m and both relays), Isaac Lineen (400m and both relays), Keith Egan (800m and 400m Relay), Richard Lucas (1500m), Frank Quinlan (5000m), Samuel Simon (Long Jump and 100m relay), Laurence Houlihan (Pole Vault & High Jump), Pat Breen (Discus & Javelin), Killian Hearne (100m relay), Tom O'Brien (400mHurdles, Triple Jump , Shot & 400m Relay) and special mention to Derek Grant who did the Walk and acted as the required club official for the day and of course Team Manager for the national league event Brian Swaby who also competed in the Hammer & 56LB for distance.

A great day of athletics and the club are in a great position after round 1 to make the final..but lots of training to be done over the next 4 weeks: Track options are Monday 7:30, Tues 5:45, Wed 7 for circuits, Friday 6pm (unless Wat Utd playing) and some of the lads meet on Mon,Wed & Fri at 12:30 for sessions....all at the RSC (except Circuits).

Date for the diary: Cork graded series no 2, Fri June 25th in CIT starting at 7pm: 100m, 800m, high jump, discus and 4 x 800m for both Ladies and Men!