Jerome Caprice showed a clean pair of heels on Sunday, winning the Amsterdam  Open 25k, when he smashed his personal best by 12 minutes.   He finished in 2.02.46 with Dutch walker Frank van der Gulik 17 minutes behind in 2.19.36.  Jerome is now very close to being selected to compete for his native Mauritius in London Olympics.

Congratulations Jerome from all at DSD!

Aoife Culhane (Byrne) ran a super race on Saturday at the Antrim IAAF International Cross Country finishing 10th in a top class field.  

Siofra Cleirigh Buttner won the under 17 Girls race leading DSD to team victory with Claire McCarthy also running a very good race in 2nd, Sarah Fitzpatrick 6th, Sarah Miles 7th and Sorcha Humphries 8th.

Killian Mooney finished 6th in the U.17 Boys and with Brian Conway 23rd, Adam Dunne 24th, Julian Martin 27th they finished 3rd team.

The U.15 girls were 4th with Ella Fennelly 10th, Rachel Dunne 24th, Regan McGlynn 25th and Kate Murray 32nd.

The U.15 boys took gold with Liam Fitzpatrick 3rd, Luke McCann 13th, Ruadhan Ograda 20th, Mark Molloy 23rd.

Eimear Fitzpatrick led the U.13 girls to gold, finishing 1st, Jodie McCann 5th; Ruby Barlow 7th; Laoighse Gleeson 10th; Aisling King 14th.

Conor Halpin placed 2nd in the U.13 race and with Denis McCambridge 6th and Mark Carolan 21st they also finished 1st team

In the Primary Schools race Grace Kos was 3rd with Tressan McCambridge 12th.

Big Congratulations go out to all! 

A small team DSD atheltes competed in the AAI National Junior (u/20) championships in Nenagh today.

Our only medalist was Lee Kelly, who got the bronze medal in the men's 800m, where he ran 2:06.90.

Jade Leahy came 4th in the Junior Women's 200m in a nifty 26.61 sec and Killian Whyte came 5th in the men's triple jump in a new pb of 12.20m.

Congratulations to Grainne Moggan who came 2nd in the National Senior Indoor Pentathlon Championships in her first outing at senior combined events! She put together an impressive score of 3,198 points, including a 1.65m high jump (that's more like it Grainne!) and a gutsy 2:34.46 front run in the 800m! (It's those Sunday morning hills!!)

In the AAI Games, Claire Bergin ran a nifty 55.34 sec for her opening 400m of the season to win handily from Sinead Denny, who ran a PB of 57.73 sec. Claire ran an ambitious 24 sec first 200m - a little more even pacing will surely produce a new pb of under 55 seconds in the near future. Claire also came 2nd to Amy Foster in the 60m, running 7.67 sec. Aoife MacNeill ran 7.82 sec for a promising season's opener.

Patch Phelan narrowly pipped front runner Deanna O'Byrne to win the men's 400m, running 51.06 sec to Deanna's 51.28.

It was also good to see new DSD members in action - Louise Nicholson ran 8.32 in the 60m and Chris Conlan ran 7.74 sec in his 60m.

Peter Mathews ran a fine race on Sunday at the Leinster Cross Country Championships to finish in second place in a time of 31.26.   Peter led the team home to second place supported by John Eves 6th; Robert Corbally 13th and James Egan 22nd.  In the women's race Sarah Mulligan was just pipped for the gold, finishing close up in second place in a time of 19.05, with Fiona Clinton 7th in 19.24.

Well done to all!

Well done to all of our Masters athletes who won medals at the National Masters Championships on Sunday 15th January. A special mention for new DSD member Shane Sheridan, who got a gold and a silver in the M50 sprints!

Results are as follows:-

M40 - Kevin Byrne - 2nd High Jump, 1.60m; 3rd Long Jump, 5.16m & 4th 60m, 8.2 sec.

M45 - John McCarrick - 3rd 400m, 60.79 sec.

M50 - Shane Sheridan - 1st 200m, 27.57 sec & 2nd 60m, 8.39 sec.

         John Healy - 2nd 1500m, 4:42.98.

Big congratulations to DSD's Ava Hutchinson who got the A standard for the London Olympics when she finished 4th in the marathon in Houston, running 2 hours 35 mins 33 seconds.

Ava now joins DSD's Linda Byrne and Deirdre Ryan who also have the A standard for London in the marathon and the high jump, respectively!

A great start to the New Year!

The 2012 Indoor season kicked off last weekend with the Munster Championships. DSD was represented by Kevin Byrne in the M40 age group. Kevin won the high jump with 1.55m and came 2nd in the Senior pole vault in a new age group record of 2.80m. Great start Kevin!

Good luck to all our Masters athletes competing in the National Championships tomorrow in Nenagh!

We always knew our DSD young athletes were a multi-talented lot! A special well done to triple jumper Sophie Monks-O'Byrne for getting a Highly Commended award at the 2012 BT Young Scientist Exhibition for her group project "Sound Asleep: Can different types of music affect how well you sleep?".

Also getting a special award for her display, was Una Mary McCarthy Deering for her project "A potential economic alternative healing property in third world countries."

Well done girls!

Well done to all 30 young athletes who competed in the inaugural DSD Indoor Pentathlon Championships, held in Santry this morning! There were some excellent performances (full details to follow soon!). All finishers got "Goody Bags", courtesy of Elvery's (thank you Claire McGlynn). Many thanks to all of the coaches, senior sprints squad athletes and parents who helped to officiate and collate the results!

Under 15 GIRLS

1st - Rachel Dunne (2171 points); 2nd - Isobel Costelloe (1544 points)

Under 14 GIRLS

1st - Laoighse Gleeson (1951 points); 2nd - Tara Jenkins (1818 points); 3rd - Katie Magee (1739 points)

Under 13 GIRLS

1st - Ali Boylan (1474 points); 2nd - Lucy Coleman-Black (1428 points); 3rd - Ali Donnelly (1360 points).

Under 15 BOYS

1st - Henry Spellman (1512 points)

Under 14 BOYS

1st - Shane Mullins (2109 points)

Under 13 BOYS

Joe Sweeney ran a superb race in Slovenia on Sunday when finishing 5th in the European Cross Country Championships, and leading the Irish team home to 6th place.  Joe was actually in 2nd place at one stage behind the winner Atelaw Bekele of Belgium.  

 In the U.23 race Emmet Jennings ran a fine race to finish in 54th position, and in the Senior Ladies race it was great to see Aoife Culhane back in International competition finishing in 46th place.  Our junior girls Siofra Cleirigh Buttner and Claire McCarthy gained great experience coming home 49th and 51st and along with Emmet have a few more years in their categories. 

Well done to all!

The final training day in Ballinteer Community School before Christmas is Thursday 15th Dec and will resume on Tuesday 03rd Jan 2012.

The final training days in Irishtown before Christmas are Wednesday 14th Dec and Saturday 17th Dec and will resume on Wednesday 04th Jan 2012 and Saturday 14th Jan 2012(No training on Sat 7th Jan due to Pentahlon) 

Best of luck to all our athletes competing at the National Juvenile Cross Country Championship in the Curragh Camp tomorrow.

 And a particular good lucks goes out to out 5 athletes representing Irleand in the European Cross Country in Slovenia tomorrow.

Joe Sweeney, Aoife Byrne, Emmet Jennings, Siofra Cleirigh Buttner and Claire McCarthy 

Joe Sweeney will be on Dublin City Fm from 1915 this evening. Tune in if you can.

Joe Sweeney was in superb form on Sunday at the Woodie's AAI Nat. Cross Country Championships, leading the Dublin team home to victory and was well supported by the ever-improving Emmet Jennings who finished 17th (2nd U.23).

In the Senior Women's Race Aoife Culhane registered a splendid 3rd place having suffered a heavy tumble and showed that she is back to top class form.  Also running well in the Senior Women's Race:- Niamh Devlin 12th; Claire Tarplee 14th; Sarah Mulligan 16th and Fiona Clinton 21.

Siofra Cleirigh Buttner  showed her class again, while sprinting away from the field, to take the Junior Women's Race followed by the strong finishing Claire McCarthy in 2nd place and helping Dublin to finish in 1st place.

In the Junior Men's Race James Egan 17th and Bill Crosbie 25th were also members of the winning Dublin Team.

Big congratulations go out to all!