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Club Newsletter July 2019.

Throughout July we had three stages of our Fit4Life League, the Laois Juvenile Summer League, the National League Final represented by both our Men's and Women's teams and the National T&F Championships.

Ruby takes on Europe
All eyes were focussed on the European Athletics Championships in Boras Sweden, on Saturday morning last 20th July, as Ruby Millet competed against the best in Europe. Competing in the U20 (Junior) Long Jump Ruby had a fantastic first jump of 6.00m to leave her in 5th position in her qualifying group after the first round. She improved this to 6.09m in the second round and looked to be very close to qualifying for the final at this stage. Unfortunately her third round jump wasn’t an improvement and Ruby had to wait nervously to find out if she had made it through to the final. The news soon filtered through that Ruby had just missed out by the smallest of margins 1cm. Although obviously disappointed not to make the final Ruby pointed out how much she had learned from the experience in her interview afterwards, things that will help her improve in years to come. Ruby is an incredibly talented, dedicated and mature athlete who has had a fantastic season so far and we hope to see her wear the Irish singlet on many more occasions. She has done herself, her family and all of the club extremely proud and we look forward to watching Ruby continuing to improve in the coming years.
National Juvenille B championships
On Sunday 21st July a group of St Abbans athletes travelled over to Tullamore to compete in the Juvenille B championships. Among these were Lee Murray, Jessica Murray, Adam Buggy, John Delaney and Katie Baldwin. This was a great learning experience for these athletes as its where many of our senior athletes first began to win medals.  A special mention must be given to John Delaney who finished in 3rd position in the 600m U13.

Laois Summer League
We had 4 great evenings of the T&F Summer League during July. Hosted in Vicarstown, Portlaoise and Emo. There were some great results throughout the evenings and great fun was had by all. It was a fantastic opportunity for our youngest members to try events for the first time.  Thank you to the parents who travelled and  oganised the kids on the night.

National league Final 
Both our Women’s and Men’s teams qualified for the National League Final on the 20th of July for the first time in a number of years. With a number of injuries and athletes away at other competitions those who travelled battled hard to win points across the 21 events. Great pride and determination was shown throughout the day and hopefully this will encourage more athletes to compete in the future. It was particularly great to see some ‘relics’ of the club wear the singlet again. Unfortunately a there was no 3 in a row for the Women but valuable experience was gained by the athletes who took part.  

National Senior Track and Field Championships

The AAI National Senior Championships brought some great performances from St Abbans athletes. Saragh Buggy once again showed her class winning the Triple Jump with a jump of 12:70m. This is Saragh’s 5th national title and a well-deserved reward for her hard work. We had Ruby Millet and Saragh Buggy competing in the Long Jump. A great competition took place with just 13cm separating the top 3 at the end of the competition. Ruby came out on top with a jump of 5.98, while Saragh finished 3rd with a jump of 5.85. Following on from this we had our hurdlers Nessa Millet and Paul Byrne. Nessa has had a great return to form this year while Paul Byrne has been on the podium on several occasion with the 400m hurdles. Nessa flew from the blocks and had worked her way through the field by the final bend where she looked very strong as she strode home in 1st place. 

 



The men’s 400m went right to the line. Paul Byrne came out on top to the delight of everyone gathered. Paul has been very close in previous years and it’s fantastic for him to win a National title! 
We also had Deana Kealy competing in the High Jump where she finished in 4th place with a clearance of 1.60m 
Maisy O Sullivan finished in 7th place in the 800m in 2:11. Nicole Kehoe Doing finished in 8th place in the Shot Putt with a throw of 10.57m ! St Abban’s is very proud of all our athletes who took to the line at national seniors.. 
Team Championships
More great news to bring on the international front as  Nessa Milet, Saragh Buggy and Ruby Milet have all been selected to represent Ireland at the Team Championships from the 9-11 August in Norway! Well-deserved internal selection on the back of their performances at National Seniors last weekend.
Fit4Life

Stage 1: Luggacurren, Wednesday 8th May 
Stage2: Rossmore, Wednesday 22rd May 
Stage3: Newtown, Wednesday 5th June 
Stage4: Wolfhill, Wednesday 19th June 
Stage5: Moneenroe, Wednesday 3rd July
Stage 6: Ballylinan, Wednesday 18th July 
Stage 7: Graiguecullen, Wednesday 31stJuly
Stage 8: Monavea, Wednesday 14thAugust.
 

Well done to everyone taking part in our 4k Fit4Life League runs. Our numbers are well up this year and it's a credit to the Fit4life team that so many of their athletes are taking part. These stages are an integral social event for all our members and it is great to see our juveniles, walkers, runners and competitive athletes all chatting over a cup of tea at the end of the night. The refreshments have been amazing in all locations and thank you to all our hosts and volunteers for putting in a great effort year after year.


All results are available on our website - http://stabbans.itcarlow.ie/index-achievements.html
 

The Last of the Summer Wine


We got a great photo at our Graiguecullen 4k of 5 Stalwarts/Legends of the club;
From left to right Dick Mullins (56*), Pat Whelan (55*) Dinny Whelan (54*), Pat Kelly (52*) and Jimmy Whelan (48*).

*Years of service to St.Abban's AC. All told that's a collective 265 years and counting.
#TeamAbbans 

Upcoming Cross Country Events 
Primary School Cross Country -  11th September
Club Cross Country - 22nd September
Laois Novice and Juvenile Even Ages Cross Country - 29th September
Laois Intermediate and UnEven Cross Country - 13th October
Leinster Cross Country, Even, Junior & Novice- 26th October
Laois Senior & Juvenile Relays - 9th November
Laois Masters and Development Cross Country - 1st December
**All Laois dates to be confirmed!
@StAbbansAC
@StAbbans
St. Abban's Website
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Our mailing address is:
Monavea, Crettyard, Co. Laois.
stabbansac@gmail.com


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