Munster Cross Country 2014

It was a long trip to Tipperary for Eimear O'Sullivan as the club's only representative in the
Munster Even Age group Cross Country championships. Eimear has been making steady progress this season in cross country events in Kerry and this was her first shot at provincial level of this competition.
In a huge field of over 120 runners in U12 category, Eimear gave a solid performance and finished 6th out of all KERRY runners making County Kerry Team placed 5th overall in Munster.

Results HERE.

The Carers Association 10K & Poznan Marathon

The Carers Association 10K
Good turn out for this charity event in Tralee.
St.Brendan's AC was represented in both Men & Female category with Derek Griffin finishing in excellent second place overall.

2. Derek Griffin 36:14
27.Tom Scanlon 46:07
36.Pat Sheehy 48:19
46.Ann McGlynn 49:51


Full results HERE.





Dariusz Odwazny was in action at Poznan Marathon in Poland with 6300 other runners and finished in new PB of 3:49:57 (net time). Well done on this achievement!

Full results HERE.

XC Championships 2014 - Day 2, Kenmare

Kenmare was the venue for Day 2 of the Kerry Cross Country Championships and uneven age Juveniles, Intermediate and Masters athletes had the chance to try out in one of the toughest running events in the athletic season.
Building on momentum from last weeks performance in Killarney, St.Brendan's AC had even more athletes this time around with half of the entrants making this a Cross Country debut.

First up in the girls U9 was Lilly Nowak who came in 6th overall and winning a medal (in younger age categories the first 6 earn a medal). This was a very impressive run over 750m through difficult terrain. 

Next up was Liam Og O'Connor in Boys U9, running 750m. Liam Og was making his debut in cross country at this event and placed well overall. 

Girls U11 were next up with Daisy Nowak and Sadbh Lowth representing the club over 1500 m distance which included a steep hill. Both girls finished strong and were placed in top half.

The boys U11 had two newcomers with Donal O'Sullivan and Fiachra O'Connor participating at the 1500 m distance. Both boys finished well with Donal narrowly missing out on a medal with his seventh place overall. 

Girls U13 had Eimear O'Sullivan representing the club (running in an age category above her own) over 2500 m. Eimear ran a fine race and finished eighth overall, which was an outstanding performance.

Another first timer for cross country running was Meabh Pierce who was competing in the Girls U17 age category. This was run over 4000m and entailed running four laps of a challenging course. Meabh ran an excellent race and finished fifth in age category.

There were also two athletes participating in the Masters category - Kirstie Nowak running her first cross country event over 4000 m in the Masters O40 and earning a silver medal.
Artur Nowak ran Masters O40 over 7000m and finished fourth in his category. 

Well done to all athletes who travelled to Kenmare and especially those who were participating in their first cross country competition. 

Full results HERE.

More photos HERE.

Valentia HM & The Human Race - 4/5 October 2014

On the busy weekend in October we had 2 St.Brendan's AC athletes taking parts in road races.
On Saturday 4 October there was an annual Valentia Island Half Marathon and our only club member in action was Tom Scanlon, finishing in 34 position in time of 1:47:28.

Numbers was a bit low but with many events in Kerry on that weekend it was a major challenge to try to attract more participant for race organisers.

Full results HERE. 

On Sunday we had Derek Griffin running The Human Race in Limerick at 30K distance. Unfortunately this race was not chip timed so there is only a list of starting numbers with finishing time.

Derek finished in 12th position in time of 2:05:17 (organisers time).

Results of 30K HERE. 

XC Championships 2014 - Day 1, Killarney

First day of Kerry Cross County Championships saw Juveniles in Even Age groups and Novice starting the season in Killarney. After a long spell of dry weather conditions,the  field in Demesne was in great condition and it was a good turn out of athletes.
St.Brendan's AC had a small group of athletes competing and for some this was their very first cross country experience.
We started with Lilly Nowak in Girls U10 (1000m) and she did an excellent job, placing in the middle of the over 30 strong pack, running one year out of her age. 
Next in line was our U12 girls (2000m), again with a high number of runners. Daisy Nowak & Sadbh Lowth were also competing in a higher age group category and both finishing in the middle of the field. Stand out performance of the day belonged to Eimear O'Sullivan in her first ever XC race in U12 as she ran a strong race and placed 8th.
In the Men's Novice race (6000m) we had Artur Nowak & Dariusz Odwazny battling hard but finishing outside medal position.

Well done to all athletes for great performance on the day and hoping for more of the same (or better) next week in Kenmare on Day 2 XC Championships with Juveniles Uneven Ages and Masters categories.

Full results HERE.

More photos HERE.

Killarney 10Mile Road Race

"New Athletics Micro Track in the grounds of St.Brendan's Collage in Killarney" - this is the main idea behind this new running event in Killarney. Local athletic club Spa Mucross AC and neighbouring Gneeveguilla AC & Kenmare AC have joined forces with St.Brendan's Collage to build 200m athletic track to serve the larger south Kerry area as the alternative to the only full size track in the county.

The race itself was flawless as you can expect from the athletic clubs involved and the crew from behind events such as Lakes of Killarney Marathon & Hardman Triathlon.

The start was located on Port Road, a bit congested at the beginning but with almost 300 runners this was predictable. By the first corner field was spread out with runners settling to their paces.It's not often that one gets a chance to run/walk down the middle of Killarney's main streets during rush hour on a Saturday - with the only car horns being beeped to show support to participants. 

Apart from some elevation on the approach to Aghadoe & a small bit later in the park, the route was reasonably flat with spectacular views of lake and later nice scenery and pleasant running in the park.

Nice touch was to finish with a loop of college yard where hopefully soon the new track will be in place.

Top 3 Men:

1. Michael HERLIHY 53:08 

2. Phillip HARTY      53:39 

3. Tim OCONNOR    54:48 

Top 3 Women:

1. Lucy BRENNAN    1:07:12 

2. Denise CASEY     1:12:19 

3. Alison KIRWAN   1:12:54

After taking part in Killarney Women's Mini Marathon the previous weekend, 3 of our club's female members were back again at the starting line, with Mags Hussey making her debut at the 10 mile distance. Well done ladies on taking this challenge and collecting another lovely medal for ever growing collections.

St.Brendan's AC results:

  40. Artur Nowak   1:12:38 

  91. Ann McGlynn  1:21:30

116. Pat Sheehy     1:25:51

186. Kirstie Nowak 1:37:49

187. Mags Hussey  1:37:49

Full results HERE.

Gallery of photos HERE.