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!