We had a huge club entry for the annual Jingle Bells 5k on Sat on a very wild and windy day in the Phoenix Park. Some fantastic results but of particular note, again, is Ryan O’Neill, first home for Rathfarnham finishing 14th overall in 15:28, and Mark Ryan winning M40 in 15:35. Terrific running in difficult conditions. Other notable results: Matthew Kane 3rd in M40 Donna Mahon 4th in F50 Jackie Kingston 8th in F60 Vanessa Sallier 10th in F50 Dermot Shiels 10th in M50 Sean McCreery 12th in M50 Helen French 13th in F50 Sean Doyle, Mike Long, and John McCabe, 18th ,19th , and 20th in M60 Paul Fleming and Cyran Aylward 18th and 19th in M40 Alicia Armstrong Maughan 20th in Jnr F Ryan O NEILL - Jnr M -00:15:28 Mark RYAN -M40 - 00:15:35 Matthew KANE - M40 - 00:15:44 Alexey MARCHENKO - M - 00:16:19 Paul FLEMING - M40 - 00:17:09 Ciaran AYLWARD - M40 - 00:17:09 Gael HERNANDEZ - M40 - 00:17:16 Marc FITZACHARY - M40 - 00:17:30 Jonathan HUGHES - M40 - 00:17:33 Micheál MURPHY - M40 - 00:17:49 Dermot SHIELS - M50 - 00:17:43 David REIDY - M40 -00:17:56 Sean MC CREERY - M50 - 00:18:34 Ross GRIFFIN - M40 - 00:19:02 Pearse COYLE - M50 - 00:19:07 Denis DALY - M50 - 00:19:47 Michael STUART - M50 - 00:19:51 Donna MAHON - F50 - 00:20:52 Barry MULVHILL - M50 - 00:21:00 Sean DOYLE - M60 - 00:21:56 Mike LONG - M60 -00:21:54 Vanessa SALLIER - F50 - 00:22:20 Grainne BLACK - F40 - 00:22:05 Helen FRENCH - F50 - 00:22:34 John MC CABE - M60 - 00:22:40 Alecia ARMSTRONG MAUGHAN - Jnr F - 00:24:41 Jos LALOR - M40 - 00:25:41 Miriam MC CORMACK - F50 - 00:25:04 Jackie KINGSTON - F60 - 00:27:44  Great running everyone!

A busy day for Rathfarnham athletes in Tramore, County Waterford today at the National Juvenile Uneven age group and Novice Cross Country Championship. Fionan O'Keeffe was first out in boys U15 racing up a year ran a very commendable 38th out of 138 qualified athletes. Next up in boys U17 we had Aidan O'Connor running well up the field throughout to take 21st place. Ryan O'Neill was our final juvenile athlete out and was running his final club XC race as a juvenile as he moves to junior category in January. Fittingly he delivered his best performance to date taking 4th place to earn a precious individual national medal. This was Ryan’s first national cross country medal and demonstrates his ongoing improvement. Ryan also lead home the Dublin team to take County and Provincial gold medals. The XC participation of all club juvenile athletes the past few months will provide them with an invaluable strength and endurance base for the forthcoming indoor and out door track season. In the women’s novice race the Rathfarnham team finished 14th overall lead by Aisling O Connor with a fine 18th place finish and backed up by Grainne Black, Laura Mills and Louise Cassidy. John Macaulay was the sole men’s runner. Well done all participants today. In other news in the BHAA 6k XC race in Tallaght Jared Murray continued his competitive return taking a comfortable win whilst Laura McDonnell took the win in the ladies race. Terrific results. 

We had a terrific Rathfarnham WSAF representation for the Valencia Marathon yesterday with 6 athletes travelling to sunny Spain. Colm Murray was our first finisher in 2:59:13, and of particular note, Martin Kelly clocked a new PB of 3:09:23 after breaking his foot before last year’s Valencia! Colm Murray - 2:59:13 – M55 -(his 21st sub 3!) Luke Howard - 3:08:13 – M35 Martin Kelly - 3:09:23 – M60 - (4 min PB ) Seán McCarron - 3:32:12 – M40 Catherine Kelly - 4:34:48 – F60 Keren Ziv - 4:38:34 – F45 Closer to home in rainy Waterford, David Power was 5th overall in his home Half Marathon race in a blistering 73min! Great running folks

Rathfarnham WSAF is delighted to announce our new Club President, Mr John McHugh.  Voted in as President at the AGM on Nov 26th for the next 3 years, John been running with the club for over 30 years winning many Dublin, Leinster and National medals. John is a wonderful juvenile coach and is very dedicated to helping our younger members improve and reach their athletic potential. Hugely popular with parents, coaches and the juveniles he coaches, he also has a bike, but we’ll say no more about that! John takes over the role from Jackie Kingston, our President for the last 3 years, who was unwaveringly dedicated to the role and always had the best interests of the Club and it’s members forefront in everything she did. A huge thank you to Jackie who continues in her role as Juvenile Coach.

Rathfarnham Athletics volunteers were out early this morning as the club hosted the final round 3 of the Dublin Athletics Juveniles XC series on the hallowed Tymon Park. Adam Jones as always designed an imaginative series of laps to cater for ages U9s through to U19s. Stormy conditions prevailed but all in all a wonderful November morning in west Dublin and congratulations to Adam and his merry band for facilitating a great days XC racing. The league events are a wonderful opportunity for aspiring young athletes to find their way on their athletics journey. Rathfarnham coaches had a record of over 40 juveniles running today (including a happy bunch of U10 girl’s and coaches John McHugh and Jackie Kingston pictured) with some notable individual performances including U9 girls winner Holly O'Donnell, U12 2nd Lainey Sheridan and U17 boys winner Aidan O'Connor. There were great efforts across all club representatives and great to see participation as progression comes at different stages for juvenile runners.  Whilst this brings XC season to an end for most athletes we will send 3 qualifiers south next weekend to the National Uneven XC championships in Tramore racecourse in Waterford. Fionan O'Keeffe U15, Aidan O'Connor U17 and Ryan O'Neill U19 will all have the opportunity to test themselves against Irelands best young athletes and we wish them well.

At the Irish and British Masters cross country on Saturday 16th November 2024 on the Billy Neill Country Park, near Belfast our four Club athletes ran very well when representing Ireland. First of was new comer Sheelagh Jones who finished 4th in her W65 race and scored on the winning Ireland team. Next up...

Gold for David Scanlon. Bronze for Ryan O’Neill Silver medal for the U9 Girls Team Bronze for Senior Men’s Team. Rathfarnham WSAF’s David Scanlon brought home the clubs first Senior Men’s gold medal in the Dublin Cross Country Championships yesterday, a fantastic and well deserved achievement. Huge congratulations to David who has come through the club’s juvenile programme and is a great example to all our junior athletes. Hot on his heels thought is Ryan O’Neill, bronze medal in the MJ race and 1st in U19 category! A terrific result, well done Ryan. And another bronze medal for the Senior Men’s team of David Scanlon, Mitchell Byrne, Mark Ryan, and David Power, followed closely by Paul Fleming, Ciaran Alyward, and Jonathon Hughes. Laura Ryan has a great run in the Senior Women’s race, 12th overall. Meanwhile, Aisling O’Connor travelled to Wicklow for the Leinster Senior Cross Country Championship, coming 13th. Let’s not forget all our juveniles…. Silver medal for the U9 Girls Team, great running and great prospects for the future of the club! And finally, congratulations to all our juveniles who qualified for the National Championships in Tramore in December. Best of luck

It was a great day for Rathfarnham WSAF AC at the City West Campus at the Dublin cross country championship on Sunday 03 November 2024. David Scanlon created club history with a brilliant run just of the pace to hunt down his Clonliffe and DSD opponents on the final and 5th lap of a gruelling... The post Gold for David Scanlon at Dublin Senior Cross Country Championships, City West, Sunday 03 November 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

n Congratulations to all the Rathfarnham WSAF athletes who ran the 2024 Dublin City Marathon on Sunday 27th October 2024. First home for the Club was Marc Fitzachary – (M45) – 02:42:42, followed by Declan Quinn – (M40) – 02:55:48, Dermot Shiels – (M50) – 02:58:24, Micheál Murphy – (M40) – 02:58:49, Colm Murray –... The post Report from Dublin Marathon, Sunday 27th October 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

n At the Autumn Open Cross Country races in Abbotstown on Sunday 13th October we had some good performances by Club athletes. New club member Sheelagh Jones was first in F65 race and will represent us in the British and Irish International Cross Country races in Belfast on 16th November. Mark Ryan was 3rd in... The post Report from Autumn Open Cross Country races, Abbotstown, Sunday 13th October 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

n We had a busy weekend for Rathfarnham WSAF athletes with the annual Rathfarnham 5k Race being the main event on a dry but windy Sunday morning 29th September. But firstly we must express our gratitude to all who helped out beforehand, on the day, and with the cleanup afterwards. We couldn’t stage the race... The post Rathfarnham 5k Road Race, Sunday 29th September 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

In a club first, Rathfarnham WSAF participated in the National League today, and it was the ladies who took part in 15 events. They came 9th overall, which means they qualified for the division 1 final. Well done to all the ladies competing on track and field events, and those who also helped throughout the... The post National League Prelim 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

Some fantastic performances came from Rathfarnham athletes at the National Senior Track Championships on Saturday 29th June 2024, with Carla Sweeney and Zoie Richie both progressing to the 1500m and 800m finals on the Sunday. Good performances came from Isabelle Doyle 200m 26.65, Lee Byrne 800m 1.55.6, Cillian Doherty 1500m 4.01, Mitchell Byrne 5000m...

We had 9 Rathfarnham WSAF AC athletes representing the club at the Irish Runner 5 Mile Race in the Phoenix Park on Sunday 23rd June 2024 which incorporated the National 5 Mile Championships. First home was Colm Murray 29:41, followed by Dermot Shiels 29:50, Tom Cuddy 31:38 (Ind silver medal  O/65), Martin Kelly 32:38, Donna Mahon...

n Well done to all our athletes who ran at the Dublin Graded Meeting 5 at the DSD track on Saturday 15th June over 3,000m and 800m. In the womens 3,000m A race Edel McCreery was 3rd in 10.19 and Aisling O’Connor 4th in 11.01. In the men’s 3,000m A race Daire Sullivan was 7th... The post Report from Dublin Graded Meeting No, 5, DSD track and BMC Meeting, Belfast, Saturday 15 June 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.