Week ending Saturday 30th May
Urgent: all Club members must confirm their contact details
We know it sounds like the opening line of every spam e-mail ever sent, but we need every member to confirm their contact details, so the club’s records are up to date. As noted last week, Sports Ireland gave Athletics Ireland permission for all athletics clubs to return to limited activity, but only if Clubs can meet specific guidelines, among them being physical distancing, hygiene and contact tracing. The last one, contact tracing, is absolutely key and one of the many changes we need to introduce is the mandatory pre-booking and recording of all those who attend sessions at the club. An online system will be used to assist with this process, but to ensure the club has all the required information about our members we need everyone to verify their contact details.
Therefore, we request all club members, or their parents or guardians, to please send a phone number, e-mail address and home address (with Eircode, if known) to info@mullingarharriers.com, using “contact” as the subject. For families, one e-mail will suffice, rather than multiple ones with the same details. Without confirming these contact details, you will not be allowed to attend further training sessions at the club grounds. This request applies to everyone in the club, including those that paid or renewed membership online this year and therefore their details were captured at the time; phone numbers and e-mail addresses can change, so we need to be sure we have everything up to date. Anyone not on e-mail can phone any member of the Committee or ask another member to do it for them.
It’s still very early days and while some clubs have reopened, many have not because of the very strict limitations in the guidelines, like the 5k distance from the club, athletes can be no younger than 13 years of age, and groups can be no larger than four, which includes the coach. For many clubs with a large juvenile membership that can mean really no activity for them yet. A fifth of our membership is too young, only about a third lives within 5k, so that limits our numbers immediately in this first phase, but we can have more than one group at the club at a time, so that helps, though with only a few coaches living within 5k, that limits the number of groups.
However, we’re continuing to work towards reopening the club for training. Covid-19 signage has been put in place and surface markings put down, much of which will be familiar to everyone at this stage, but we need to be absolutely sure that we can control movements around the car park and on the grass track and gravel track. A lot has been done but we’re not quite there yet, so we can’t announce a reopening of the club just yet. The safety and well being of our athletes, parents and coaches is paramount, so this work cannot be rushed. Like many other clubs, we are being very conservative, but it’s the right thing to do. We want to make sure that we have good systems and structures in place because it’s all about containing Covid-19. We don’t want to spread it and need to be very sensible, taking this first phase slowly, assessing how it goes, and hoping we can grow from there.
We plan to hold a few pilot sessions with a small number of athletes in the coming week to test our procedures. This will be a trial process for our new pre-booking and attendance systems. The athletes involved will be notified directly, but unfortunately this does not mean the club has opened to all members. Subject to everything going to plan the club will reopen to general training, within government limitations, at a later date.
Social Distance League
Competition returned to the club in sorts last Saturday under the guise of the “Social Distance League”. Designed to comply with the current restrictions imposed under the Government’s Covid-19 Guidelines, club members took to their local roads and trails in an unusual race.
All participants were tasked with running a distance of either 5k or 10k as fast as they can on their own. Each race is run solo and recorded on a GPS watch any time before 6pm on race day. The results are then submitted to the race referee for validation. Athletes are free to choose their own race route, so long as they stay within the 5k limit from their homes. As the competition is open to all senior and masters club members a process of Age Grading is being used to make the races fairer, particularly for those longer serving club members taking part. Age grading uses tables of “age factors” and “age standards” to put all runners, regardless of age and gender, on a level playing field.
Round 1 saw thirty seven Harriers take part on a very windy day and most participants took full advantage of the freedom to choose their own route and placed the wind on their backs. Some very interesting times were recorded, with Maurice Looby running the fastest 5k of the day in 16:28. Although Áine O’Reilly was the quickest woman in the 5k, after processing the times through the age grading system, Brigid McCabe was propelled to the top of the table with her very impressive time trial. Graded times in the 10k saw the first three men finish within just 8 seconds of each other. James Cribbin has a very narrow advantage over Stephen Naughton and Alan Crowley and similarly in the women’s race, only a few seconds separate Terri Greene and Mary Stuart.
The league will take place over three consecutive Saturdays with round 2 taking place this coming Saturday and round 3 on Saturday 6th June. Competitors’ two best performances from the three rounds will go towards their final score. This means it is not too late for club members who missed round 1 to still take part in the league.
Club members taking part in the league are being encouraged to make a small donation towards prizes. All prizes will be vouchers for local businesses who have been hit by the restrictions during the Covid-19 closures. For more information on the league contact the club on info@mullingarharriers.com.
What were we doing this time last year?
Last year, Mullingar fielded ten sprint relay teams at the Leinster Juvenile Relays where pride of place went to our u/13 boys 4x100m squad. We had such an abundance of talent that we could mix and match from six very talented sprinters. The quartet of Alex Lynch, Conor Liston, James Flynn and Kyle Faherty were just too good and won their heat with ease and qualified for the final as the clear favourites. A change of personnel to Luke O’Leary, Conor Liston, Jamie Wallace and Kyle Faherty in the final was just as devastating a team and they came home well in front, only a fraction outside the Championship record.
Awa Fane ran the lead leg for the Irish u/20 women 4x100m relay team at the 2019 IFAM (International Flanders Athletic Meeting) in Oordegem, Belgium, where the goal was achieving the qualification standard for the European u/20 T&F in Sweden in July 2019. With great team effort and smooth baton passes, the team finished third in their heat inside the “A” qualification standard for the Europeans, so job done at the first time of asking.
Several club members were selected to represent Westmeath at weekend one of the 2019 National Community Games Finals held in the University of Limerick. The u/12 boys mixed distance cross country relay team was hotly fancied, as it included some All-Ireland title holders and they did not disappoint. A comprehensive victory in the heats with a storming display thanks to Jamie Wallace, Luke Green, Matthew Molloy and Alex Lynch laid down a marker for the final later in the day. Using the full squad, Cian Corcoran swopped positions with Luke Green for the final and all four ran superbly, increasing their lead on every leg to win the National title with ease. The u/14 boys mixed distance relay squad was Ross Killalea, Criostoir Ormsby, David Burke, Philip McCartan, James Flynn and Conor Liston. A comprehensive victory in the heat set them up for the afternoon final, which was hotly contested but the Westmeath team was never accepting defeat and with true grit and a very determined display, the National title went to Westmeath. The u/16 boys “marathon” was a 7k road run with individual and team medals up for grabs. Westmeath’s team was Lorcan Mullen, Matthew Glennon and Andrew Glennon. The three boys worked very well as a team and Lorcan Mullen ran a fantastic race finishing third, followed closely by Matthew, then Andrew finishing very strong just behind his brother. Westmeath was narrowly beaten into second place and had to settle for silver, but superb performances from all three boys.
The club grounds and clubhouse continue to remain closed for now. Our website www.mullingarharriers.com and Facebook page will have updates. We need to continue to do what is asked of all us all to keep our communities safe, so stay home and stay safe.
