County B great success with 9 medals

Well done to all our juveniles who competed in the County Waterford B cross country championships held in Dungarvan this Sunday Nov 15th.
All who competed had made the journey to the Munster Uneven age Championships in Tralee last weekend and so were completely ready for the soft conditions in Dungarvan.
As a result there were a couple of excellent gold medal performances from Jake Bagge in the U9 boys and Eimear Elliott in the U15 girls. The run of the day has to go to Gywneth Blair who came from 4th with 200m to go to finish 2nd, narrowly missing out on the gold! If the race was 20m more she would have had it.
Great runs allround and well done to sisters Emma and Ashling Lowe, Jamie McCarthy, Luke O'Brien, Conor Quinn, Emma O'Brien and Claire Purcell for doing Waterford AC so proud yet again. It is very clear that all our athletes who are coming to training regularly are getting fitter, stronger and are out there competing with the best.

Munster Championship Success

Well done to the 32 athletes who made the long journey to Tralee race course on Sunday, Nov 8th, for the Munster Championships and thanks for the 12 parents/coaches who travelled and helped out on the day.

All performed well, in cross country conditions described as soft under foot, from the first race of the U9 girls, Lindsey McGuire, Emma Caulfield, Emma Lowe and Lucy Hogan right through to the Girls under 17 where Siobhain Heylin ran one of her best races to date to qualify for the Munster team and county team at the All-Ireland Championships to be held in Coleraine.

As a result of their great runs many of our runners have made it through to the All-Ireland cross country championships on the Waterford county team to be held in Coleraine early in December.
The following athletes are part of the county team:
Boys U11 Hugo Blair and David McGlynn
Girls U13 Gwyneth Blair
Girls U15 Saoirse Casey Power, Eimear Elliott and Claire Purcell,
Boys U 17 Alan Slattery and Eamon Beardsley.
Girls U17 Siobhain Heylin, and Elaine Stone.

Waterford AC Juvenile Section are delighted that so many of our young athletes performed so well, were well behaved throughout and enjoyed the day. A beautiful meal was wolfed on the way back in Youghal and a restful sleep followed.
Well done to all our athletes and best of luck to those who now go on to the All Irelands.

SUNDAY NOV 8th - MUNSTER UNEVEN AGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Saturday Message to Tralee bound athletes and parents

Tomorrow is the day and we have an early start! Well done for being part of the team!

Don't miss the bus, we're pulling away from the RSC at 6:45am so get there on time! Its tough, its early but you are part of an elite team, not everybody is in a position to represent their club and county in a Munster Championship so lets be up for the competition!

Early to bed tonight, parents and athletes!

Don't forget to bring:

• Healthy packed lunch, (and a few sweets for after)
• A bottle of water,
• Your WAC singlet, (don't worry we have spares for the day if you don't have one or can't find it!)
• A pair of shorts, (We don't have spares on this!)
• Your spikes (if you have them, if not bring a spare pair of runners/shoes for after),
• Wet gear/raincoat, (it is Kerry after all, lots of rain, even on a sunny day)
• A change of clothes including socks (and a towel),

If an athlete is not accompanied by a parent make sure they have a telephone contact so we can advise about the return time at the RSC on Sunday evening.

Waterford AC have booked a full 3 course meal on the way back so spending money should be kept to a minimum! Absolutely no more than €5 should be brought (at the Even age munster championships a tray of chips, which were very popular after the race, were selling for €2:50).

Once our athletes start the journey they are representing Waterford AC. and Waterford county. We are delighted about that and hope they do us proud and enjoy the experience. We expect good behaviour throughout the day and look forward to welcoming them back on many more trips with Waterford AC Juvenile Section.

We have a few more Cross-Country meets coming up this month, our WAC-New-Year-Cross-Country-Sports and PARTY in our Mount Sion training venue in early January followed by the Indoor Season between January and March leading into the Track & Field Season in the summer, ....... so keep an eye on this blog for up to date info.

Don't forget, (or maybe this is news to you, if you are a parent particularly!), that this is part of our Conditioning Phase of our yearly program, so what our athletes are doing tomorrow in the Munster Cross Country Championship is part of a bigger picture and is hard work. Our training since the end of last summer when we started the mile series as part of the Tom Murray Group has proved that with a focused effort our athletes are now in a position to get out there and compete with the best in Munster and we are delighted to announce that not only are we competing but we are now winning also and in the Even Age Munster Championships recently our girls U18 team of Siobhain Heylin, Niámh Tebay, Lucy Power and Elaine Stone have qualified to represent the Waterford AC in the All-Ireland Finals in Kilbeggan, Westmeath on November 23rd. Also it is great news for the club that Conor Quinn will represent Waterford County on the county team in the U12 race at the same All-Ireland finals in Kilbeggan. Well done to to these great athletes and hopefully we might have equally great news to report after tomorrow!

Also, some athletes and parents are travelling this evening or in the morning, under their own steam, so we wish them a safe journey and will meet at Tralee race course tomorrow morning for an 11 o'clock warm up! Racing starts at 12 noon. Don't forget we are all meeting up together for the meal on the way back to celebrate a great day of participation.

Waterford AC Juvenile Section looks forward to a great day in Kerry tomorrow, and well done in advance to all for participating!......Sher what else would you be doing on a wet Sunday afternoon in Kerry?????

Thursday Training moved to Fridays

Due to the winter league starting this Thursday Nov 5th the thursday training sessions at the RSC will be moved to Fridays, same time of 7pm.

Note The RSC is not available this Friday, so the first Friday session will be Friday 13th November.

There will be NO training on Thursday this week!

Munster Even Age Championships

For the 4th Sunday in a row Waterford AC have been represented at Cross Country competitions with this week 25 of our members travelling to Dungarvan for the Even age Munster finals.

Our U18 team of Siobhain Heylin, Niámh Tebay, Lucy Power and Elaine Stone came away with the team Silver, with Siobhain narrowly missing out on a place on the Munster team for the All-Irelands. Well done girls and considering all the girls are out of their age (ie still U17) then a great performance will be expected again at the UnEven age championship on Nov 8th.

While our U10 team were highly tipped to medal as they had won the County Championship at this age group they struggled to repeat the great work with a couple of illnesses effecting the run on the day. Great experience was gained however by all, particularly in the very large fields of runners and the soft conditions underfoot.Well done to the team of , Jake Bagg, Hugo Blair, Luke Kervick, Fergus O'Brien, Greg Hayes and Cian Kervick.

The other team fielded on the day was the U12 girls of Gwyneth Blair, Kellie Grant, Chloe Cooke and kellie Dullaghan and again with most of the team giving away a year they will be expected to have a much easier day out at the Uneven age Championship in three weeks time.

Other great individual performances were had by Linsey McGuire, Ashling Lowe and Emma Caulfield in the girls U10, Conor Quinn, David McGylnn, Jamie McGuire and Luke O'Brien in the boys U12, Dayna Grant, Ciara Dwyer and Emma O'Brien in the girls U14 and Alan Slattery in the boys U16.

Well done to all and thanks again for parents (and grandparents) for making the day out another great day for the Juveniles.

Next Event will be in three weeks with the Uneven Munster Chapionships in Kerry: more details to follow.

County Cross Country Uneven Ages Success

Another great turnout for the club at the County Cross Country Championship for U9,11,13,15 and 17 in Dungarvan on Sunday last, with 30 runners participating.

Lindsey McGuire started proceedings for the club with a great performance to win the Silver medal in the girls U9 and helped her team of Emma Caulfield, Emma Lowe and Lucy Hogan to win the team Bronze.

The boys U9 team of Jake Bagg, Ewan Nolke, Mark Hogan and Peter Hogan followed with more success to win the team Bronze in their race.

The U11 girls team of Cliona Brennan, Aoife Dullaghan, Ashling Lowe and Collette Hogan ran very well but were narrowly beaten out of 3rd place.

The boys U11 saw a great performance by Hugo Blair to win the individual Bronze and helped his team members of David McGlynn, Jamie McCarthy and Cian Kervick to win Team bronze also.

The U13 girls team of Gwyneth Blair, Ciara Dwyer, Julie Power, Chloe Cooke and Kelly Grant ran very well in a very competitive race but missed out on the medals on the day.

With illness a factor we struggled to field teams in the age groups for Boys U13 upwards but those competing got good experience in soft ground conditions, which will be good practice for the Munster Even age Championship, again in Dungarvan next Sunday (at the earlier 12 noon start). Those who competed were Conor Quinn, Ethan Robinson, Saoirse Power, Dayna Grant, Luke Kervick, Aaron Robinson and Eamon Power.

The day was finished off for the club with a great individual performance by Siobhain Heylin in the girls U17 to take 2nd and the Silver medal.

All in all everyone agreed it was another great day for the club.

County Championship Success

Sunday, Oct 4th, Waterford AC had a great day at the County Waterford Cross Country Championship held in Dungarvan. This was the Even Age Counties, U8 to U16 with the Odd ages, U9 to 17 next sunday at the same venue and time of 1pm.

The club had a great turn out with 34 athletes competing through all the ages. Well done to all and thanks to the parents for making the effort to travel, and for their great support.

The medal haul was 4 Gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze: Megan Warring started the day off with a great 2nd place in the U8 girls with Garvan Blaire and Ethan Flynn flying in for 1st and 2nd in the Boys U8. Hugo Blaire and Luke Kervick did the double for 1st and 2nd again in the U10 and were helped by Fergus O'Brien and Cian Kervick to the overall team Gold. The boys U12 team of Conor Quinn, David McGlynn, Ethan Robinson and Luke O'Brien won Bronze and the U14 girls of Saoirse Power, Ciara Dwyer, Dayna Grant and Emma O'Brien also won Bronze. Siobhain Heylin and Níamh Tebay won Gold and Silver respectively in the U18 girls to finish the day for the Juvenile club.

Well done to the senior club on winning the womens Gold in the Novice race and the mens individual Silver and Bronze as well as the Team Gold.

A great day out for Waterford AC...Well done to all involved.