Full results are not yet available from the European Club Cross Country but we do know that our Junior Ladies got 3rd in the Team Event with Siofra Clerigh Buttner the top scorer in 6th! Well done girls! Great achievement! More results as soon as they are to hand!

At the Intervarsities there were more good results for DSD athletes! Grainne Moggan came 2nd in the pentathlon with a new PB of 3,244 pts. The included a PB in the shot of 9.01m and an excellent HJ of 1.66m. Sinead Denny was 3rd in a very high class 800m. She ran 2:16.06 after trying to hand onto the leaders! Louise Nicholson continued on the come-back trail & was happy with her run in the 200m. Claire Bergin came 2nd to Amy Foster in the 60m. She was very pleased with her run of 7.57 sec. She then headed to the airport to catch a plane to Birmingham to run there the next day but her flight was cancelled,due to snow in the UK! Luckily, the rest of the senior sprinters had made it over safely on earlier flights! Patch Phelan ran 49.96 secs in the 400m and Deanna O'Byrne ran 50.19 secs. Both times were much faster than the AAI Games and bode well for Nationals next weekend! They ran 22.60 and 22.72 in the 200m today. Aoife MacNeill ran 25.16 in the 200m and 7.76 sec in the 60m. Claire Tarplee ran 4:24.07 in the 1500m.

In the Intervarsities, Nikki Cowzer ran 68.21 in the heat of the 400m; Louise Nicholsons times were 8.35 sec in the 60m and 26.78 sec in the 200m, Niamh Denny ran 5:13.82 for 5th place in the 1500m. 

Mark Kavanagh was 3rd in the mens 200m, running 24.07 in the final (but 23.10 in the semis)

Nick Clarke also got 3rd in the weight throw, with 7.92m In addition, he threw a PB of 9.77m in the shot.

That's all the results I have! Apologies to anyone I have left out! Email me results and I'll update this post! 

First of all - congratulations to Joe Sweeney who delivered the goods again last Sunday when he came 4th in the prestigous San Sebastian Cross Country challenge. Joe was beaten by three Kenyans, but left a few more in his wake! Does this make Joe the favourite for the Senior Men's Race in the European Club Championships this weekend?! No pressure Joe!

DSD AC won all four national championship categories in 2011 and so have qualified to represent Ireland at both junior and senior levels in this years European Club Championships! Our venture was launched last Tuesday evening, when Coach/Manager Eddie McDonagh introduced all the competitors to our enthusiastic juvenile athletes during training at BCS! Our Team members were all presented with their new club gear! We all wish the team the very best of luck at the weekend! Follow their progress on our Facebook page!

Congratulations to Claire Bergin and Sinead Denny on their fantastic new PB's in the 400m, in Vienna last night!

Claire chopped half a second off her indoor PB to win her race in an excellent 54.57 sec. She also ran a new PB in the 200m, finishing 2nd in 24.50 sec. 

Sinead came 3rd in her race and knocked 0.8 off her PB to run 56.94 sec. This is significantly faster than her current outdoor PB, which will clearly be due for revision when the outdoor season starts again.

An upddate on the Leinster Championships - when the times were posted last night, Joe Davies found he had smashed his M50 60mh Irish age group record! He ran 11.18 sec. His previous best was 11.79 secs. Well done Joe!

It was the turn of the DSD Masters athletes today, who competed at the Leinster Championships on Sunday 29th January! Results to hand include the following:-

M40 - Kevin Byrne got in some practice for the British Masters Pentathlon next weekend when winning the high jump (1.65m) and the 60mh (10.9 sec) and coming 2nd in both the shot (7.79m) and long jump (5.27m).

M50 - Shane Sheridan followed up his medals in Nationals with a gold in the 60m (8.17 sec) and a silver in the 200m (27.27 sec). Both times were new PB's! Well done Shane!

W50 - Lucy Moore moved from coaching to competing and won the high jump (1.30m) and shot (8.81m) and came 3rd in the long jump (3.55m).

If anyone has additional DSD results please text or email me and I'll add them in!

Congratulations to all our young athletes who competed for the first time in the All Ireland Combined Events Championships, held in Nenagh today! As one of the biggest clubs in the country, we have never had many entries in this competition. The increased numbers this year reflect our policy to teach our athletes the basics of all the athletics events when they are young.

It was a long day for everyone but all the athletes completed the full event! The highest placed DSD athlete was Henry Spellman, who was 6th in the boys u/15 event. Henry had to deal with the 2'9" hurdles after just one coaching session! He also had an excellent run in the 800m.

Two competitors in the girls events did especially well, when compared to DSD Club championships in early January. Katie Magee came 9th in a very competitive girls u/14 event. She did PB's of 1.29m in the high jump & 6.85m in the shot and then knocked a significant amount off her 800m time, running 2:56.28. Fiona Phelan came 11th, adding 70 points to her overall score. She also cleared 1.29m in the HJ (a new PB) and improved her LJ (3.88m), shot (6.33m) and 800m (3:13.37). Well done Fiona! Ciadhla Murphy also improved her shot putt (6.50m) and 800m (3:04.47) en route to 16th place overall.

We had three girls in the u/15's. Again, the overall standard was very high. Rachel Dunne was 15th and improved her long jump (4.25m) and 800m (2:42.19). Grainne Friel was 18th and had an even performacne overall. Isabel Costello also had steady performances throughout and then significantly improved her 800m (2:55.56) to come 20th.

Thanks to all of the parents and coaches who have helped out and who went to Nenagh today! There's a great photo of Katie on the AAI website!

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