November '22 Round Up

Weekend Update 06^th November ‘22

A rather quiet weekend on the athletic circuit in the Cork area for a change.

First up on Friday evening was event 2 of 7 of our Winter League – a 3km ‘Guess your Time’ at Aura Leisure centre. Mark Coady was top scorer on the night propelling him to the top of the overall leaderboard. He was followed closely by Donal Sheehan and Ian Murphy. There were 20 competitors in total and the times recorded will be collated for the next round, which will be a ‘handicapped times’ event giving all athletes equal opportunity to get big points.

On Sunday 06^th November 14 of our Juvenile athletes made their way to Limerick racecourse for the Munster Athletics Senior, Under 19 & Juvenile UnEven-Age Cross-Country Championships 2022. The U19 Girls were the big winners on the day winning team gold in the U19 and Junior Women events. Led home by Avril Cashman (2^nd), Emma Landers (3^rd), Alex Cashman (4^th) and Robyn Buckley (8^th) and Izabella Chidlow (17^th) – yet more individual and county medals for this great group of young women. Ciarán McNamee was the sole representative in the Junior Men’s race coming in a very respectable 9^th place in tough conditions. Clara Dineen and Gabrielle Flavin ran in the U9 Girls and Tomás McGrath in the U9 Boys. Tadhg Collins and Ciarán McGrath represented in the U11 Boys and Ruby Devereaux ran a great race in 20^th place in the U13 Boys in a large field of 109. The ultra-consistent Aine Collins was 15^th in the U15 Girls in a field of 78 and Quin Buckley ran a good race in the U15 Boys.

Well done to all Youghal AC athletes over the weekend and also to those training for upcoming Beat the Train, Clonakilty and Waterford races.

Weekend Update 13^th November ‘22

It was all eyes on the 10m Beat the Train on Saturday morning at 10:00am and 32 Youghal AC athletes made the way to Kilmeaden on a damp but dry morning. It’s been a long time since so many green and white hooped singlets have been out on force, but 10-mile races seem to bring the best out of the Youghal club. Members old and new took to the start line and there were some great performances, especially from our newer members, some competing in their very first race for the club.

The results were as follows:

Pl Name Time

2 Keith, Kelly 55:38

40 Micheal, Cronin 01:08:11

57 Deirdre, Ansbro 01:10:14

69 Brendan, Coleman 01:12:09

74 David, Kilgannon 01:12:40

81 Shane, Greene 01:14:04

86 Janette, O'Sullivan 01:14:28

116 David, Fox 01:18:13

122 Alan, Hannigan 01:18:41

128 Brian, Landers 01:18:55

143 Mary, Flynn 01:20:07

148 Vincent, Lucey 01:21:06

161 Claire, Murphy 01:22:47

171 Gemma, Ryan Ahern 01:23:48

175 Nuala, Murphy 01:23:58

176 Emer, Hannigan 01:23:59

188 Ali, Buckley 01:25:20

196 Carol, Stone 01:26:28

216 Mary, Brooker 01:27:54

217 Claire, Kilgannon 01:28:11

219 Carol, Murphy 01:28:13

238 Sophie, McDermott 01:29:38

250 Emma, Martin 01:31:45

258 Mary, Kingston 01:33:08

270 Alicia, O'Halloran 01:36:54

271 Joanne, O’Halloran 01:36:55

276 Una, Murphy 01:38:22

289 Keith, Ansbro 01:40:16

290 Caroline, Lucey 01:40:16

292 Sally, O’Brien 01:41:20

293 Alison, Flynn 01:41:30

295 Isabel, McCarthy 01:42:48

Well done to the irrepressible Keith Kelly on his 2^nd place finish and Deirdre Ansbro and Claire Murphy, who were 3^rd and 2^nd in their respective age categories.

It is great to see so many new faces up at Tower Park during the week for training sessions and the hard work paying off with members securing a plethora of PB’s in recent races.

Well done Ferghal Curtin on his performance to come 6th at the recent NCAA Cross Country Championships in Alabama. He has qualified for the Div 1 final in Oklahoma next Saturday 19th November.

Follow Up.....

Further afield at the NCAA DI Cross Country Championships in Oklahoma overnight - Ferghal Curtin came in 93rd in a field of the 252 of the strongest xc athletes in the US. Ferghal ran a time of 30:10. Enjoy the R&R after a busy few weeks

Weekend Update 20^th November ‘22

Another busy weekend of athletics and Youghal AC athletes were out in force across a range of distances and disciplines.

On Saturday morning we had a great group of our couch to 5km ‘newbies’ at Pobalscoil na Tríonóide ParkRun to take on the distance for their very first time. Well done to all and coaches Janette and Zara for encouraging them towards the event over the past 9 weeks 🏃‍♀️

On Sunday morning Micheal Cronin made his way over the Kerry county-bounds to take part in the Gap of Dunloe Marathon, one of Ireland’s toughest – so tough only 34 took up the challenge. Wearing the Youghal AC colours for the first time he came home in a great time of 4:15, only one week after completing the Run in The Dark 10km and Beat the Train 10mile races in a 3-day period. Titanic effort in a 10-day period 🏃‍♂️

Still all to play for after Week 3 of our Winter league subsequent to Sunday morning’s 3k out and back the New Boardwalk from Claycastle turning at MyHotspot. 16 Runners toed the line on a chilly damp morning for this handicapped event. All were done and dusted in time to get in front of the telly to cheer on our Competitors at the National Cross-Country Championships in Donegal.

Top 10 standings after 3 rounds are:

Shane Greene 54pts, Mark Coady 51, Donal Sheehan 50, Georgie Bulman 43, Ted Kelly 42, Sean Ahern 40, Darragh Martin 39, Ian Murphy 38, Dave Fox & Sean Casey & Sally O'Brien 37pts. Sally O'Brien tops the ladies standings with a slender margin to Celia O'Regan 34 and Nuala Cooper 31. See you all on the new date of Friday 15th December for a 5k Time Trial.

Donal Sheahan, who took part in the Winter League had a quick turnaround and drove up the road for a 11am start to the Cloyne Commons 4k, the first race of their winter series 💪. A race in which Keith Kelly continued his recent good spell of results with a 3^rd place finish. Edmund Nicholson and Barry Drake also took part on the day in a field of 293 runners 🏃‍♂️

And, last but no least, we had 8 athletes competing in Donegal at the All Ireland Cross Country Championships. In the U18 & Junior Women’s race Avril Millerick lead her team to gold with fantastic performances from Emma Landers, Avril & Alex Cashman and Robyn Buckley in behind. Ciarán McNamee ran a great race in the Junior Men’s completing the course in a superb 20:19 for 6km. Quin Buckley and Aine Collins had great runs in the U14 Boys and Girls races respectively gaining great experience at All Ireland level in the meantime. Full report to follow…

National Cross-Country Championships at Rosapena Golf Club, Co Donegal Sunday Nov/20th

List of Qualifiers

Girls U/14 - Aine Collins

Boys U/14 - Quin Buckley

Junior Women U/20 - Robyn Buckley, Avril Cashman, Avril Millerick, Emma Landers, Alex Cashman

Junior Men - Ciaran McNamee

Aine Collins and Quin Buckley acquitted themselves really well on their debuts at All-Ireland level finishing 75th and 101st respectively. The cauldron of noise, congestion and excitement will all have been new to them and undoubtedly, they will benefit greatly from the experience.

In the Junior Women’s race, expectations were high after a 2nd place team finish in 2021. The preparation was good, even though we had some untimely injury interruptions to Robyn and Avril Millerick. What transpired will live long in the memory as Youghal AC won the National Junior title with a 56 pts score, 100pts clear of the 2nd team with Avril Millerick 5th, Emma Landers 12th, Avril Cashman 18th, Alex Cashman 30th, Robyn Buckley 83rd. The performance was nothing short of phenomenal! Avril Millerick has given herself an excellent chance of being selected for the Euro Cross in Turin on December 11th having already had an unbelievable year winning 2 x National Titles on the track as well as the Autumn Open International in October. Emma, Avril Cashman and Alex also achieved National Honours on the track this year, all winning silver medals in national finals. The Girls and their families can now look forward to a sunny weekend in Spain for euro clubs in February.

Up Next was Ciaran McNamee who has been making steady progress all year. Ciaran finished a very credible 64th in an absolutely ‘stacked’ field. His time of 20.19 over the 6k hilly course was a great improvement for him. As a juvenile, Ciaran achieved many top 10 finishes at National level and he has now signed off on his Junior career. The future is bright now for him and he will continue to improve over the coming seasons because his commitment and dedication is unparalleled.

Next up for our underage athletes is the final domestic competition of 2022, when we make the short trip to Conna on December 4th for the all-Ireland uneven ages.

Weekend Update 27^th November ‘22

Well done to our terrific 3 today who battled wind and rain at the Clonakilty Waterfront 10km and 1/2 Marathon today (26th November).

Brian O’ Connell ran a great race to break the 1:40 barrier in the half . Kate McFarland ran 56:52 and Zara Kelly 1:24:11 in the 10km

Lovely to see @o_neill_ann_ volunteering at an aid station along the route. Fair play Ann