Two Fridays in a row, crammed with highly competitive team relay competition, kicked off this year's four day programme of the Dublin Juvenile Indoor Championships. Rathfarnham WSAF AC was well represented with 17 relay teams across different age groups. Big success came for the Girls U12 (A) 4x100m team. Getting the baton around the Abbotstown venue in an impressive time of 59.75 earned Sophie Maxwell, Philipa Mc Glynn, Claudia Manning and Jodi Ritchie the gold medal in fine style. Other relay finalists included Girls U16 (A) 4x200m 5th place in 1:56:08, Girls U18 4x200m 4th place in 1:57:10 and Boys U13 4x100m 6th place in 59:62.

Days 3 and 4 was all about individual competition:
Track :
Boys 
U9 :  500m : 3rd : Johnny Maxwell 1:48:99
U9 :  60m   : 1st : Johnny Maxwell 
U13 : 60mh : 3rd: Dara Mulvihill  
U14 : 60m  : 1st :  Daniel Chukwu  8:14
U18 :1500m : 5th: Alex Hill 4:36:75
Girls 
U15 : 60m : 4th : Sofia Hyland 8:53
U16 : 60m : 2nd: Fortune Chukwu  8:08
U16 : 200m : 4th : Fortune Chukwu 27:07
U16 : 60mh : 3rd : Alannah Fasenfeld 
U16 : 60mh : 5th : Clodagh Cullen 
U17 : 60m   : 2nd : Isabelle Doyle 8:01
U17 : 200m : 2nd : Isabelle Doyle 26:01
U19 : 800m : 4th  : Aoife Murphy 2:44:29
Field Events :
Boys
U13: Long Jump : Dara Mulvihill : 3rd : 4.14m
         Shot Put    :  Dara Mulvihill : 3rd : 7.18m
Girls 
U12 :Long Jump : 1st : Sophie Maxwell 4.13m
U15 : Long Jump : 2nd : Sofia Hyland  4.66m
U17 : Long Jump : 1st : Isabelle Doyle 5.27m
U18 : Long Jump : 1st  :Amy Mc Cabe 4.29m
U16 : High Jump  : 2nd : Alannah Fasenfeld 1.45m
U12 : Shot Put      : 3rd  : Sophie Maxwell 5.36m
U13 : Shot Put      : 3rd  : Zoie Ritchie 6.22m
U16 : Shot Put      : 1st  : Alannah Fasenfeld 8.48m 
U16 : Shot Put      : 2nd : Sophie Ritchie 7.84m.

Well done to all who qualified for Nationals in Athlone. To all our young athletes who wore the green vest of Rathfarnham WSAF AC with such pride and passion, well done for competing at the Dublin Championships and for those who made their debut for the club you were super. Enjoy your training, see you all at the Summer Leagues.
 

It was a great win for Seán Hehir at Limerick's premiere event, the Adare 10k on Sunday 25th February. The victory was by over a minute on his nearest rival in a time of 31:22. Well done to West Limerick AC who hosted this well organised event. Congratulations to Seán who is looking sharp for 2018.

FULL RESULTS HERE

There was a feast of fantastic performances by Rathfarnham WSAF AC athletes on the Abbotstown indoor track this weekend. Senior Gold medals in the 60m, 200m and 800m. Stephen Gaffney won both the 60m and 200m and both in new Championship record times of 6.87 and 21.55.  The icing on the cake for Stephen was that his 200m time is a new PB!

In what was one of the most spectacular races of the day Lee Byrne won the 800m by 0.02s. Lying in first position on the last lap he was passed on the final bend and fell back to third. It looked like bronze but he dug deeper than ever before to spectacularly dip on the line to win gold by the narrowest of margins. The time was 1:56.07. What a fantastic spectator race!

In the women’s senior shot putt Isabel Mullarney finished 5^th with a 9.61 throw.

The 3000m saw Paul Flemming winning M40 gold in an excellent time of 9:33.7.

In the 1500m M35 Ronan Kearns won silver in a time of 4:21.39 despite having only raced two days before (800m in 2:03:30 to come 5th) and being 39 years and 364 days old! Hard man John McHugh doubled up winning silvers in the M60 1500m in 5:32.10 and M60 800m in 4:45.55 with Robert Bigger wining gold in the M60 800m in 2:23.46. Vanessa Sallier won the W45 bronze in the 400m in a time of 1:14.55.

Our esteemed President, Eoin McLoughlin returned to competition after many years absence to come 4^th in the M50 800m in 2:40.72. This is only the beginning…….

Pearse Coyle ran a solid 4:54.2 in the M50 1500m to come just outside the medals in 4^th and Ken Crowley ran 8.23 in the M45 60m.

Well done to everybody who took part and thank you to Timetronics for the photo of the 200m finish.

At the National Senior Indoor Championships on Sun 18th February Stephen Gaffney won a fantastic bronze in the 200m in a time of 21.69, bravely holding off Olympian Thomas Barr who finished behind him in 4^th. Stephen also competed in the 60m and just missed out on a medal to come 4th in 6.85. Lee Byrne had an excellent placing in the 800m final coming 5^th in a time of 1:58:41. Well done to both of you.