AAI Awards

ecoli

Little late with this i know but AAI awards were announced this week

Track Athlete of the Year – Derval O’Rourke (Leevale AC)

Cross Country / Road Athlete of the Year – Mark Kenneally (Clonliffe Harriers AC)

Race Walker of the Year – Robert Heffernan (Togher AC)

Field Athlete of the Year – Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC)

Coach of the Year – Eamonn Christie (Beechmount AC)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Dan Kennedy

Club of the Year – St Abban’s AC

Official of the Year – Tommy Hayward (Donore Harriers AC)

Master Athlete of the Year – Pat Timmons (Raheny Shamrocks AC)

Junior / Emerging Athlete of the Year – Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn AC)

Inspirational Performance of the Year – Ailis McSweeney (Leevale AC)

Athlete of the Year – Derval O’Rourke (Leevale AC)


Any comments? Personally i think its great that Ailis recieved a mention as she had a phenomenal season and it deserved a mention other than that i think the awards are pretty predictable for the most part

donothoponpop

Here's a comment- grumble grumble- they left their 2010 Best Mountain Running Award off their press release.

RoyMcC

ecoli wrote: »

Lifetime Achievement Award – Dan Kennedy

Legend - keeping the flame of throwing alive in Ireand.

Pisco Sour

1) Why was Rob Heffernan not nominated for the main award when he performed better than 3 of the 4 nominees at the Europeans?

2) Where is the Hall of Fame award? Delaney, Coghlan and Treacy were the winners the last 3 years. Plenty still to choose from.

ecoli

04072511 wrote: »

1) Why was Rob Heffernan not nominated for the main award when he performed better than 3 of the 4 nominees at the Europeans?

2) Where is the Hall of Fame award? Delaney, Coghlan and Treacy were the winners the last 3 years. Plenty still to choose from.

I dont think this is an actual award i think they were just inducted. I think this allows them to only induct people when they want to rather than having a hall of famer every year (not sure about this just speculating)

Getonwithit

Delighted for St Abbans, such a small area population wise, great energy, dedicated club people like Paddy Kelly and competitive at lots of levels.

donothoponpop

Getonwithit wrote: »

Delighted for St Abbans, such a small area population wise, great energy, dedicated club people like Paddy Kelly and competitive at lots of levels.

Can you flesh out some of the things that won them the award this year? (Seriously: we need to hear a bit more about the good stuff clubs do) Thanks.

thirtyfoot

04072511 wrote: »

1) Why was Rob Heffernan not nominated for the main award when he performed better than 3 of the 4 nominees at the Europeans?

2) Where is the Hall of Fame award? Delaney, Coghlan and Treacy were the winners the last 3 years. Plenty still to choose from.

Heffernan as Walker of the Year is automatically nominated for main award. Was called out on the night as a nominee as far as I know.

Hall of Fame - you need to keep it prestigious, we'd run out of hall of famers by 2016 if there was one give every year.

Slogger Jogger

donothoponpop wrote: »

Can you flesh out some of the things that won them the award this year? (Seriously: we need to hear a bit more about the good stuff clubs do) Thanks.

Hear, hear. Would be nice to see some pen pictures and stories about each of the winners from 1st to last and not just the headliners / headlines. These things deserve to be promoted.

BornToRun88

Good to see Pat Timmons, Raheny Shamrock, get the Masters award.

ecoli

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Hear, hear. Would be nice to see some pen pictures and stories about each of the winners from 1st to last and not just the headliners / headlines. These things deserve to be promoted.

Ill do what I can hopefully other people will fill in the blanks or add to my initial posts:

Track Athlete of the Year – Derval O’Rourke (Leevale AC)
Lowered her own national record on the way to a European Silver medal. Her new record now stands at 12.65

Cross Country / Road Athlete of the Year – Mark Kenneally (Clonliffe Harriers AC)
8th place finisher in last years European XC championship in Dublin was also Irelands top placer in the same event. Recently set a new PB in the Great South Run to clock a 10 mile time of 48.17 to claim seventh overall in a top class field

Race Walker of the Year – Robert Heffernan (Togher AC)
2 Fourth place finishes in this summers European Championship in both the 20k and the 50k walk. In his debut to the championship debut at the distance he set a new 50k National record

Field Athlete of the Year – Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC)
Bounced back well from the disappointment of a No Jump at European Outdoors to set a National Record only a week later with a jump of 6.60. Also represented Ireland at the World Indoors in Doha earlier this year

Coach of the Year – Eamonn Christie (Beechmount AC)
Ciara Mageean's coach. Led the girl to silver in the World Juniors and a top ten finish at the commonwealth Games this year peaking her at the right times to allow her two fastest runs this year to be in championship finals (both sub 4.10)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Dan Kennedy

Club of the Year – St Abban’s AC

Official of the Year – Tommy Hayward (Donore Harriers AC)

Master Athlete of the Year – Pat Timmons (Raheny Shamrocks AC)

Junior / Emerging Athlete of the Year – Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn AC)
Broke Sonia's National Junior record in a time of 4.09.51 on her way to claiming silver at the World Junior Championships. She then later stepped up to her first major Senior competition reaching the final of the 1500m in the Commonwealth Games

Inspirational Performance of the Year – Ailis McSweeney (Leevale AC)
Set a new National Record in the 100m on her way to qualifying for her first Senior major championship. Also was a member of the 4x100m team which broke the national record this year

Athlete of the Year – Derval O’Rourke (Leevale AC)



There are a few that i have left out in the hope that someone who has more of a connection or more relevant info could post

donothoponpop

Track Athlete of the Year – Derval O’Rourke (Leevale AC)
Lowered her own national record on the way to a European Silver medal. Her new record now stands at 12.65

Cross Country / Road Athlete of the Year – Mark Kenneally (Clonliffe Harriers AC)
8th place finisher in last years European XC championship in Dublin was also Irelands top placer in the same event. Recently set a new PB in the Great South Run to clock a 10 mile time of 48.17 to claim seventh overall in a top class field

Race Walker of the Year – Robert Heffernan (Togher AC)
2 Fourth place finishes in this summers European Championship in both the 20k and the 50k walk. In his debut to the championship debut at the distance he set a new 50k National record

Field Athlete of the Year – Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC)
Bounced back well from the disappointment of a No Jump at European Outdoors to set a National Record only a week later with a jump of 6.60. Also represented Ireland at the World Indoors in Doha earlier this year

Coach of the Year – Eamonn Christie (Beechmount AC)
Ciara Mageean's coach. Led the girl to silver in the World Juniors and a top ten finish at the commonwealth Games this year peaking her at the right times to allow her two fastest runs this year to be in championship finals (both sub 4.10)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Dan Kennedy

Club of the Year – St Abban’s AC

Official of the Year – Tommy Hayward (Donore Harriers AC)

Master Athlete of the Year – Pat Timmons (Raheny Shamrocks AC)

Junior / Emerging Athlete of the Year – Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn AC)
Broke Sonia's National Junior record in a time of 4.09.51 on her way to claiming silver at the World Junior Championships. She then later stepped up to her first major Senior competition reaching the final of the 1500m in the Commonwealth Games

Inspirational Performance of the Year – Ailis McSweeney (Leevale AC)
Set a new National Record in the 100m on her way to qualifying for her first Senior major championship. Also was a member of the 4x100m team which broke the national record this year

Athlete of the Year – Derval O’Rourke (Leevale AC)


Best Mountain Running Performance Award- Eoghan Totten, Kevin Dooney, and Carl Dunne
The Irish Boys won first team at the International Youths challenge in Italy in June. Report by Gerry Brady.

Milesandmiles

04072511 wrote: »

1) Why was Rob Heffernan not nominated for the main award when he performed better than 3 of the 4 nominees at the Europeans?

2) Where is the Hall of Fame award? Delaney, Coghlan and Treacy were the winners the last 3 years. Plenty still to choose from.

The overall award is athlete of the year .....not the track and field athlete of the year. Each category winner was eligible for that award so Rob would have been one of the contenders but Derval's medal trumped two fourth places.

thirtyfoot

Dan Kennedy has been a great coach for so many years. Coached the great Terry McHugh. Seems to have been a very innovative coach who really worked hard at advancing himself, spent time with some great German coaches and coached more than just throwers. Currently coaching a blind woman for the shot at the Paraolympics.

Tommy Hayward has been an official for 73 years. He is 90 years old. He is full of energy still and looks great at 90. Has been involved with Donore through all this time even if he admitted he meant to join Clonliffe!!

St Abbans are a rural club with great technical athletes like Pender, Byrne and Kelly. They also have a great Fit4Life programme. They have a cinder track which they built themselves.

The official and lifetime achievement awards are great. They really celebrate the lifeblood if the sport.

donothoponpop

ecoli wrote: »

Inspirational Performance of the Year – Ailis McSweeney (Leevale AC)
Set a new National Record in the 100m on her way to qualifying for her first Senior major championship. Also was a member of the 4x100m team which broke the national record this year

Very good interview in the IT with Ailis McSweeney

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/1120/1224283769477.html

ATHLETICS: Has Ireland's Fastest Woman lost the run of herself?

I WAS having coffee on Wednesday with Ireland's Fastest Woman - not that anyone around us could have guessed who she was. We'd agreed to meet in Starbucks, in that fancy CHQ building in the heart of the IFSC, if only because it's close to where she works, at A&L Goodbody, just down on North Wall Quay.

It was crowded as hell, and all the comfy chairs were taken. So we sat more or less right next to the cashier, who appeared to be doing a roaring trade in Gingerbread Lattes and Peppermint Mochas. (Ireland's Fastest Woman ordered a Green Tea, and I went for a Regular Cappuccino).

"It's busy now," she told me, "but come back in half an hour and it'll be dead. And there's no one here on weekends. I don't how much longer this place will survive. Sure, look around. Half the units are empty."

It was my first time inside the CHQ building, and there was a sort of defiant buzz about the place as the cream of Ireland's corporate financiers - or whatever's left of them - soaked up the freedom of their lunch break before ducking back inside their office cubicles and the reality of this hideously dark hole we've dug for ourselves. Although if Starbucks are still with us maybe there is some hope.

There were a couple of reasons for meeting: last Saturday, Ireland's Fastest Woman won the Inspirational Performance of the Year at the National Athletics Awards, and I knew there was a good story behind that; and there was also the rumour she was about to leave her relatively secure and well-paid job in the corporate tax business to go full-time into sprinting. Which is perfectly admirable, except she's just turned 27, has no grant, no sponsor and no guarantee of getting her job back.

Had Ireland's Fastest Woman lost the run of herself?

"It's just not the kind of work you can combine with athletics," she says, clearly convinced now that taxing jobs and taking training are incompatible. "The last few weeks I've missed two or even three training sessions a week because of work. Even missing one session is a problem. And I've been in the office sometimes until midnight, getting work done.

"When people think about the sacrifices you make for athletics they think you can't go out, have a drink. That's really the least of your worries. It's mostly about work.

"People don't realise it's not just about fitting in the training. It's about getting the proper recovery. Doing the weights. All the little add-ons. The circuit training, the core work, the stretching. You need to give all that the proper time. Because they're all the things that really make the difference.

"So the plan is to take two years off, hopefully a leave of absence, which takes me through to the London Olympics."

(Sorry, have I introduced you to Ailis McSweeney? The Cork athlete, who last July finally took the title of Ireland's Fastest Woman, which had belonged, for 32 years, to Michelle Carroll? Indeed, before she lowered the 100 metres record to 11.40 seconds - eclipsing the 11.43 Carroll ran in 1978 - McSweeney was better known as Derval O'Rourke's training partner, and occasional member of the Irish sprint relay team. Suddenly, after five years of trying, her talent was untapped and her motivation for the future is stronger than ever.)

"When I started back in work after the summer I just knew, straightaway, that it wasn't going to be possible to do both. I'd had time off after qualifying as a solicitor, but I'm used to being very focused on one thing. I couldn't believe I was back in the situation of trying to divide my attention, but knowing I wasn't doing both as perfectly as I should. I managed to do it as a trainee solicitor, although it was a little bit easier then.

"But I came back to work thinking 'this is not going to work'. So it came down to a choice, work or athletics. And really, there was no way I was going to give up the athletics. Not when I've given it so much for the last seven years, and finally made the bit of progress."

What helped swing the decision was the promise of some funding from Athletics Ireland and the Irish Sports Council, and some assurance from her coaches, Seán and Terri Cahill, that the best was yet to come. In fact, coming into the summer her 100 metres best was only 11.59 seconds, set back in 2005, the same year she won silver at the World Student Games in Izmir, Turkey.

In fairness, she's been studying hard in the years since, completing a Masters in Law at DCU, while training to be solicitor. But after running 11.40, and backing it up with a strong performance at the European Championships in Barcelona - missing the final by .01 seconds - McSweeney was seized with thoughts of running even faster.

"It had been so depressing, repeatedly entering my PB from three or four years ago. When I came to Dublin first I just didn't make the right decisions about training. I've been with the Cahills for the last three winters now, and training with Derval as well, but it took that long to get things right. When you've gone as bad as I did, it takes a while to turn it around.

"With work as well, sometimes I'd end up training on my own, because it wasn't fair to have the others waiting around until 8.0, until I'd finished work."

At 27 she's not young by sprinting standards, although she is young in spirit. McSweeney came to athletics late, at 16, and never won an underage or schools' title. Her sister first showed promise in various sports around Carrigtwohill, where they grew up, while McSweeney preferred to sit in the car, reading a book. Her first sporting interest was Gaelic Games (and still is, as some Dublin footballers will know) - but Leevale's long-serving coach, John Sheehan, eventually saw her potential, and the rest is Irish women's sprinting history

"It's so exciting now, the future. And I'm just so glad I didn't finish my career on 11.59. I feel a whole new stage is about to begin, that my career is only taking off.

"But I have to say Goodbody's have been very, very understanding. I know it's a big ask, taking off work, in the current environment. But it's all about the running for the next two years. I'll do it on a shoestring, and just hope it all works out."

In some ways it already has: McSweeney texted me yesterday to say A&L Goodbody had agreed to the leave of absence, until after the London Olympics in 2012 - assuming there is still a job market there after the IMF have their say.

Of course none of us have any guarantees about the future anymore, except that Ireland's Fastest Woman looks set to go even faster.

notsofast

Fair play to Ailis. Living on a grant / AAI funding will be a whole lot different to living on a salary. Hopefully it will be worth it. It would be wonderful to see such a sacrifice paying off. I sometimes wonder how our full time athletes make ends meet, even the elites, given the derisory grants available. Lets face it, that ain't gonna get better any time soon