Best running club in ireland

formerrunner25

Mullingar Harriers? a serious distance club. Martin Fagan, Mark Christie. now Jake Byrne and Shane fitzsimons. won most of male team titles in recent all irelands

MrCreosote

If by best you mean "most successful" then yes.

RoyMcC

If by 'most successful' you mean senior male then maybe. There are a hundred more parameters you could use to try to arrive at 'best.'

IrishTrackFan1

Mullingar very good at underage teams but I can't remember them making any team impact at senior level, men or women, cross country or track?
Best club needs to be a much wider concept than just elite in any event.

token56

Indeed "best" is quite subjective, many different ways someone could decide to measure it. I wouldn't characterize it as the best but I'd like to think my local club, North Laois, does quite well for its size but a lot of different clubs could probably argue that.

rothar man

i would have to say West Waterford athletic club in Dungarvan

from a health promotion point of view, has got the whole of the town into runnning, great events and a seasonal leagues that sees 300-400 runners out every week.

aswell as that John Tracey, David McCarthy, Jamie Costin...Joe Gough ( senior middle distance records and european medals)

ecoli

Many clubs can list a few top class runners sure look at Letterkenny and the middle distance revival up there.

I think to identify top clubs you would need to look to a few aspects:

Top class athletes produced

Success at national senior level as a club overall not just in particular events

Development of youth athletes at underage levels

Success in relation to size of clubs and facilities available

Level of Coaching within club (One very good coach producing results or a wide range)

Often these clubs that have been named struggle to field full teams in terms of national seniors or National leagues which could highlight lack of depth within the club at other facilities.
In terms of success one could argue that perhaps North Laois has great tradition of producing XC runners or as i said before Letterkenny with 800m runners recently You could list alot of clubs who could be up there DSD, Ferrybank, Clonliffe, Raheny just few off the top of my head are just a few. The fact is a handful of runners does not make a club good on that basis alone

notsofast

Probably the Best juvenile cross country club. Not the same thing as best running club.
It's also basically a county team. (how many clubs are there in Westmeath?)
There are many other successful clubs over a broader range of running events. The clubs are that successful in the National T&F league would be my frontrunners for the title "best running club in ireland".
(btw, it would be interesting to split the national league results by Track and Field events ! Anyone with a spare 4 hours or so ?)

tHE vAGGABOND

What about best, in terms of social life and craic around the club

Tangle2

IrishTrackFan1 wrote: »

Mullingar very good at underage teams but I can't remember them making any team impact at senior level, men or women, cross country or track?
Best club needs to be a much wider concept than just elite in any event.

Think they are the last non dublin club to win the national inter club cross country. As far as I know they won it a few times.

downthemiddle

Eddie McDonagh has trained over 400 :eek: national champions. If success is the criteria then surely DSD earn this moniker.

clubcard

downthemiddle wrote: »

Eddie McDonagh has trained over 400 :eek: national champions. If success is the criteria then surely DSD earn this moniker.

A vast majority of them are underage,what percentage of them went on to Senior level.
Current crop Brendan O neill is coached by him.Joe Sweeney Jerry Kiernan.
I don't think there is such a thing as best club because you have to judge it on so many differn't levels.
Ferrybank would be my vote for Junio cross country.North Laois is being based on two very talented brothers.
clonliffe have a good mix but alot are training in differn't countries(lets not get into another anti clonliffe thread)
Raheny are starting to develop well and good female athletes emerging now.
Mullingars two top athletes trained by people outside the club ie Fagan in America and Christie by Mark Carroll.
I think there is alot of clubs that need more experienced coaches.

donothoponpop

downthemiddle wrote: »

Eddie McDonagh has trained over 400 :eek: national champions.

That's phenomenal. Eddie (and Liz) have a record of finding and nurturing talent thats over thirty years long, and still going strong.

Tangle2

clubcard wrote: »

A vast majority of them are underage,what percentage of them went on to Senior level.
Current crop Brendan O neill is coached by him.Joe Sweeney Jerry Kiernan.
I don't think there is such a thing as best club because you have to judge it on so many differn't levels.
Ferrybank would be my vote for Junio cross country.North Laois is being based on two very talented brothers.
clonliffe have a good mix but alot are training in differn't countries(lets not get into another anti clonliffe thread)
Raheny are starting to develop well and good female athletes emerging now.
Mullingars two top athletes trained by people outside the club ie Fagan in America and Christie by Mark Carroll.
I think there is alot of clubs that need more experienced coaches.

Leevales top two athletes are Derval and Ailish - both are trained by people outside of the club.
F Britton and Roisin aren't coached by anybody in their club either. None of the top senior racewalkers are coached by anybody in Ireland either so I think thats a common theme and not individual to Martin Fagan and Mark Christie and Mullingar.

I hope the ferrybank crew make the next step - they have had super juveniles and juniors so lets hope they make the transition to senior. Kelly is on her way. Niamh Whelen is progressing well too. Here's to the other girls coming through!! Shane Quinn is a real prospect and its great to see Niall Tuohy back in business and running quick. He's one to watch in 2011.