Sarah Collins (Finn Valley AC), winner of the Woodie’s DIY Inter Club junior cross country title, set a new Irish junior 5,000m record in Koblenz Germany last night. She was 12th in her race and first junior home in a time of 16:41.29 to better Suzanne Huet’s 2007 best of 16:48.17. Her time is just outside the 16:40.00 B standard for the World Junior championships.

National record holder Deirdre Ryan will lead a very strong Dundrum South Dublin team in Portugal. Ryan cleared 1.80m in terrible conditions at the recent Diamond League Meeting in Shanghai and will be aiming to improve on this mark in Portugal.

Linda Byrne spear heads a strong group of athletes competing in the distance events for Dundrum. Byrne goes in the 5000m while club mates Clare Tarplee, Aoife Byrne and Hazel Murphy compete over 800m, 1500m and 3000m respectively. Clare Bergin another of D.S.D’s Olympic hopefuls and fresh from running a personal best (53.66) at last weekend’s Loughborough International is set for the 400m. Bergin will also be a key member of both the 4*100m and 4*400m relays for D.S.D.

Clonliffe Harriers AC is fielding a team of mainly young and developmental athletes. Keith Pike who made his debut at this level in last year’s competition will double in the 100m and 200m. Andrew Heaney another of Clonliffe Harriers young stars competes in the high jump.

Tomas Rauktys is in great form as of late having recently thrown a huge personal best of 17m in the shot putt. Rauktys will compete in his specialist shot event and also the discus in Slovakia.

John Fagan will be a busy man doubling up in the 400m flat and hurdles as well as the 4×400m relay. Fagan is Clonliffe’s only winner at a European Clubs having won the 400m Hurdles in Berne in 2010. Gary O’Hanlon leads the Clonliffe contingent in the middle distance events. O’Hanlon goes in the 1500m with club mates Dave Fitzmaurice and Brian McMahon compete in the 3000m and 5000m respectively.

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He said that “There has been a steady but very visible improvement over the winter from athletes that have attended national squads and other event clinics. These training days are a great opportunity for these athletes to train with their peers and receive good technical coaching. It was also heartening to see a number of coaches attending these sessions to observe.”

Sweeney was also delighted with some great early season marks, in particular Dempsey McGuigan who once again broke the Irish Junior record in the hammer with 70.02 (achieving a World Junior Championship qualifying mark with the 6kg implement) and Clare Fitzgerald who has reached 51.22m in the discus. (longest throw by an Irish woman in over 25 years)
The schools competitions are now kicking off as well as Graded Meets in Dublin and around the country and The AAI Games take place on May 20th. All these competitions should give us a picture of how successfully athletes have prepared over the winter.

Another excellent piece of news is that a motion was passed at AAI congress over the weekend that ‘The AAI Winter Throws Championships’ will become a permanent championship fixture on the calendar. This is great news for the throwing community.

Any athletes or coaches that have queries regarding National Throws squads please contact David Sweeney (National Throws Coordinator) at throws@athleticsireland.ie or Tel: +353-(87)-235 3079

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The Buncrana race has the unique distinction of attracting large numbers of competitors from both North and South of the border and while the bulk of the field are made up of Donegal and Derry athletes, many athletes from further afield make the journey every year for this quality race. This year the organisers have added a new dimension to the race- there will be a team race consisting of 4 to score, decided on positions, with only one male and one female team permitted per club. The competition between the local clubs has always been fierce and Buncrana often seem to be good neutral ground especially between City of Derry and Letterkenny AC in the men’s race with the dominant women’s teams often coming from a wider pool featuring City of Derry, Inishowen AC, Finn Valley, Foyle Valley, Letterkenny, Springwell and some of the Belfast area clubs.

The defending champions are Donegal couple Ciaran Doherty from Letterkenny AC and Theresa Mc Gloin from Finn Valley AC. These two are great supporters of the race with Mc Gloin winning on no less than three occasions, while Doherty secured his first win in 2011 and despite the strong head wind, ran a great time of 14.59. The weather can be a factor in any road race but only twice in the last 8 years has the wind been against the athletes. The course records for the race are impressive, with Letterkenny’s Maria McCambridge breaking the record in 2010 which was previously held by Mc Gloin running an excellent 16 mins and 7 secs. The men’s race record has been held by St Malachy’s athletes for the last 5 years and the latest figures of 14 mins 40 secs were set in 2010 by Joe McAllister, who broke clubmate Kevin Seaward’s 2007 record by 4 seconds.

There are a number of Derry and Donegal athletes who could threaten these figures on the right day and there is always a good chance that a visiting athlete will come up for a crack at the record. Indeed, rumour has it that visiting Kenyan athlete Freddie Keron Sittuk could extend his visit to Ireland in order to have a go at the record. One thing is certain, he will not have it all his own way if he ventures to Buncrana on the 30th!

Despite all this talk of records and the fleet of foot, the main aim of this race and indeed of both road race series is to provide competition for all levels of runners and joggers. It doesn’t matter if you have just started jogging and have to take walk breaks every so often, you are more than welcome to Buncrana. The only thing that we ask is that you do attempt to run/jog the 5km. It doesn’t matter if you have to walk a bit in the middle but this is not a walking event.

So get yourselves ready for Wednesday the 30th of May!

The race starts at 7.30 and registration on the night will be open from 5.30 at Scoil Mhuire secondary school which is adjacent to the Shore Front car park. Given the popularity of the event and the fact that we are using chip timing again this year we would ask any of you who have access to an email account to please, please, pre-enter by emailing your name, club, age on race day and gender to furey5kentry@gmail.com before 6pm on Tuesday the 29th May. Any of those who intend to register on the night please get there early as we will be closing registration at 7.10pm sharp and don’t want to have to disappoint you.

Poster attached and further race details along with previous results, reports, finish videos and course profile are available on www.sparta-athletic.co.uk.

For further details contact Eoghan or Dara Furey at 00353879474883/00353866061514 respectively or at eoghanfurey@gmail.com/darafurey@gmail.com also check out the Furey Insurances 5k series facebook page.

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For all the latest news and results, please check out the Irish Schools Facebook Page

Following the meeting the athletes nominated for selection are:

50km Race Walks:
Rob Heffernan
Brendan Boyce
Colin Griffin
Men’s Marathon
Mark Kenneally
Women’s Marathon
Linda Byrne
Ava Hutchinson
Caitriona Jennings

After the normal right of appeal, as set out in Athletics Ireland nominations policy, nominations will be forwarded to the Olympic Council of Ireland for selection to the 2012 London Olympics Irish Team.

Guest speakers on the night will include Olympic Marathon Hopefull Linda Byrne and strenght and conditioning coach Peter Mathews. Please see the attached flyer for further details:

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