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Reports - December 2009


30 December » 23 December » 16 December » 9 December » 2 December »

30 December 2009

At the end of each year it is customary to evaluate success in the sport of athletics with reference to championship medals won, records broken and representative honours gained. An alternative, albeit lesser-used, method is to rank performances using the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) scoring tables. This can often provide an interesting alternative perspective and even some surprising results, which is no less the case when considering the performances achieved by the athletes of St Peter’s AC during 2009.

According to the IAAF tables, Hilary Kerr led the way for the Dromiskin-based club with the top three performances of the year. Her 26.74sec clocking in the 200m is worth a massive 883 points. She also clocked 13.03sec in the 100m, which registers 864 points, and had a Long Jump best of 5.39m, which equates to 857 points. Emily Rogers’ High Jump best of 1.66m is next on the scale at 827 points. Not too far behind, at 770 points, comes her cousin Grace Rogers’ Long Jump best of 4.98m.

Five more seasonal bests by St Peter’s athletes are worth between 600 and 700 points. Olivia McDonald threw the Javelin 40.50m, which is regarded by the IAAF as being worth 696 points. Grace Rogers had two further performances worth 659 points each – her 30.31sec 200m time and her 1.50m clearance in the High Jump. Just one point behind Grace’s pair came the leading performance by a male athlete in the club, which was Ian McDonald’s 5.74m leap in the Long Jump. Emily Rogers’ Long Jump best of 4.38m, which is rated at 644 points, completes the club’s Top 10 list for the year.

Given that Hilary Kerr’s 26.74sec 200m, which she registered when taking bronze in the Under 19 race at the Irish Juvenile Indoor Championships in Magherafelt, tops this year’s list, it is also interesting to note that the highest-scoring performance on record in the history of St Peter’s AC was achieved by her older sister in the same event. Back in 2005 Emily Kerr ran 25.79sec into a headwind when finishing 2nd in the Under 18 final at the Irish Juvenile Championships in Tullamore. This is worth a whopping 948 points on the IAAF scale.

Emily has not been so active in the sport in recent years, so it remains to be seen whether she will make a comeback and better her previous best performance, or if one the current crop of outstanding young athletes in the club will achieve an even more impressive performance in the years to come.

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23 December 2009

As 2009 draws to a close the members of St Peter’s AC are now looking back on a very successful year for the Dromiskin-based club. They won a hugely impressive total of 29 medals in national championship competition during the year – 12 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze.

Olivia McDonald led the way with an incredible five national titles. She won the javelin in each of the Irish Senior, Universities and Under 20 Championships, and was also crowned Scottish Under 20 champion in this, her favourite, event. In addition, together with clubmate Frances Rogers, she took gold in the team shot putt at the Irish Senior Championships.

Frances was also an individual shot putt champion in 2009, taking the Irish Under 19 indoor crown. She won silver in the corresponding outdoor championship and, perhaps most impressively of all, also claimed shot putt silver in the Irish Senior Championships.

Like Olivia, Emily Rogers had an unblemished record during 2009 when it came to contesting national championships. She leapt to an amazing four national high jump titles, becoming Irish Under 16 champion indoors and out, Irish Schools’ Under 15 champion and Community Games Under 16 champion.

Emily’s brother Mark Rogers won more national medals than any other St Peter’s athlete in 2009, as he added one gold, three silver and three bronze to his collection. These medals were won in four different events in the Irish Under 14 Championships both indoors and out. He won gold in the indoor high jump and bronze in this event outdoors. In the pentathlon Mark was a double silver medallist, while in the 800m he won silver indoors and bronze outdoors. His seventh medal in a remarkable year was bronze in the indoor shot putt.

Hilary Kerr was also an extremely prolific medal winner with three silver and three bronze to her credit. Four of these came in her favourite event, the long jump, where she won silver in the Irish Under 19 and Under 20 contests outdoors and bronze in both the Irish Schools Senior and Irish Under 19 Championships indoors. Hilary is also a formidable sprinter and medalled in both the Irish Under 19 100m (silver outdoors) and 200m (bronze indoors) finals.

Three other St Peter’s athletes won one Irish championship medal each in 2009, and for each of them it was their first national medal as a member of the club. During the summer Lauren Finegan won silver in the Under 13 javelin and Tom McGrane won bronze in the Over 45 hammer. Finally Nikayla Hamill rounded off a great year for the club when she took bronze as part of the Leinster Under 12 team at last month’s national cross country championships.

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16 December 2009

Last Sunday the European Cross Country Championships were staged at Santry in Dublin. This was the first major international athletics event hosted by Ireland since the World Cross Country Championships took place here back in 2002.

The Athletic Association of Ireland pulled out all the stops to ensure a successful day. Central to the smooth running of the event were the efforts of the volunteer officials. Among these were Kathleen McConnell and Angela McDonald from Dromiskin club St Peter’s AC. They had to travel to Dublin both last Thursday and Saturday to prepare for the big day, and were in situ in Santry from 7:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

As 2009 draws to a close the members and parents of St Peter’s AC are now looking forward to the club’s annual Awards Night, which will be held in the St Joseph’s GFC clubrooms on Saturday 16th January. Any athletes who have not yet returned perpetual trophies which they were awarded last year should return these to Angela or Kathleen at tomorrow evening’s club training session. This will be the final training session before the Christmas and New Year break.

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9 December 2009

Last weekend two athletes from Dromiskin-based St Peter’s AC, which draws its membership from across a wide area of County Louth, were involved in squad training sessions with other leading athletes from around the country.

Shot putter Frances Rogers made the journey across country to Tullamore. There the Irish senior silver medallist took part in the national throws squad session. Unfortunately her clubmate Olivia McDonald, the reigning Irish senior javelin champion, was unable to join her in Tullamore due to illness.

Meanwhile multi-eventer Mark Rogers, cousin of Frances, made the somewhat shorter trip along the M1 to Dublin’s Santry Stadium to participate in the Leinster squad session. His older sister, high jumper Emily Rogers, had also been invited to take part, but was forced to decline due to an ankle injury. However this injury thankfully proved minor and has since cleared up.

Indoor training sessions continue each Tuesday and Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. in St Joseph’s GFC Community Centre in Dromiskin. Younger athletes (8 to 12 years old) train until 7:30 p.m. while the older athletes continue training until 8 p.m. Any prospective new members will be made most welcome at any of these training sessions. More information about St Peter’s AC can be found on the club website www.stpetersac.com.

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2 December 2009

Last Friday night the annual Athletics Louth Awards Night was held in the Valley Inn, Monasterboice. There was an excellent turnout of athletes, officials, coaches and family members from throughout the county. Liam Hennessy, president of the Athletic Association of Ireland, honoured the sport in Louth by attending the event. The various awards went to several of the county’s clubs, with St Peter’s AC picking up its fair share.

Four of the Dromiskin-based club’s athletes were nominated for Athlete of the Year awards. Mark Rogers was nominated in both the track and field and cross country categories for boys in the under 14 to 19 age groups. Nikayla Hamill was also a double track and field and cross country nominee for girls in the under 9 to 13 age groups. Gabriel Bell received a nomination in the younger boys’ track and field category, while Grace Rogers was in contention for the track and field award among the older girls.

All these athletes received certificates in recognition of their nominations. In addition Mark Rogers was selected as the overall winner of the Athlete of the Year track and field award for under 14 to 19 boys. He was presented with a fine trophy to mark this achievement. Special merit awards were also made to St Peter’s AC athletes Megan Finnegan, Daniel Mullen and Frances Rogers. In the case of Frances this was to mark the end of her outstanding career as a juvenile athlete.

The results of the Juvenile Track and Field League held over three nights last summer were also announced at the Valley Inn function. St Peter’s AC had double cause for celebration as the club came out on top in both the overall under 16 to 19 category for the Fairways Cup, and in the award for best club in the throwing events. In addition St Peter’s was ranked 3rd overall in the track events.

After the presentation of the awards everyone enjoyed an excellent meal, which was followed by a very enjoyable disco.

Earlier last week Athlete of the Year Mark Rogers showed a welcome return to form following his long layoff a few months ago due to injury. Representing St Joseph’s CBS in Drogheda, he had a great victory in the CBS Schools’ Cross Country Championships, which is contested by all the Christian Brothers’ second-level schools in Ireland.

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