CLUB NEWS

UPCOMING COMPETITIONS

The National even ages events for U12-18 and the Junior & Senior adults are taking place tomorrow Sun. 27^th Nov.

GAC competitors for Sunday: Joe Prendergast U14 boys representing Greystones & Leinster, Ella Shanley, Louise O’Riordan, Eimear Ryan, Enya Conroy, Salley Shanley U14 girls representing Wicklow. Ben Jones, Fernando Ruiz, John O’Connor, Enrique Rancon U16 Boys representing Wicklow, Richael Browne & Rachel Casey U18/Junior girls representing Greystones & Wicklow, with Richael also representing Leinster. Troy Scully U18 boys representing Greystones. Katy Conroy Junior girls representing Slí Cualann & Wicklow. We congratulate them all and wish them well on Sunday!

The National uneven ages event for U11-19 and the Novice adults will take place on Sunday 11^th Dec. in Dundalk. GAC competitors for Sun 11th: Louise O’Riordan, Eimear Ryan, Salley Shanley U13 girls representing Wicklow, Abbie Tyrrell, Ella Shanley, Megan O’Brien, Enya Conroy U15 girls representing Wicklow, with Abbie also representing Leinster, Sarah O’ Connor U17 girls representing Greystones & Leinster, Richael Browne U19 girls representing Greystones, Wicklow & Leinster. Troy Scully U17 boys representing Greystones. Best of luck to everyone!

XC LEAGUE ROUND 6: The 6^th and final round of the League will be held in Bray Emmetts on Fri 2^nd Dec. Registration 6.30pm, first race 7 pm. This one is even Ages U/ 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14/15, but athletes can move up one age group. Entry form is on our website and will close on Thurs. 1st Dec. Certs to all finishers. Medals are awarded at the end of the League to athletes who accumulate sufficient points by attending regularly. Athletes who compete in 5 events get gold, in 4 events get silver & in 3 events get bronze medals. Present standing after 5 rounds is listed on the sidebar of our website. Have a look and see if you can improve your medal standing or get yourself into the medals by attending the final round.

Please note that there will be no 6-7pm training on Friday 2^nd Dec, as coaches will be at the XC League. The 7-8.30pm training will go ahead for those who are not running in the league!

SPORTSHALL

We intend holding a Sportshall competition for our younger athletes around mid January. This will be a team event for U7/9/11/13/15 and so will be open to all athletes aged 5 - 14 in 2017. This is always a really fun competition and is a great first event if you haven’t ventured into competition yet. We will be practising for this over the coming weeks, with groups rotating each week, so do try to come along to training each week and get to know the events involved. Medals for the 1^st three teams in each age group for both girls & boys. It really is great fun!

COACHING DAY

We had a very successful club coaching session in late Oct. and are planning to hold the next session on Sat. 10^th Dec. from 11.30 -2pm. Once again we will cover Hurdles, Sprints, Long Jump, High Jump, Shot Putt, Javelin & Discus as required. Application form is now on the website and will close on Thursday 8^th Dec. These sessions are helpful in preparing the athletes for the Indoor season and are open to all club athletes from U11–U16 (Born 2001-2006). Registration form now on our website. Please list three events in order of preference. We will do our best to give you your top two choices, if at all possible.

TEAM MEDALS

We have been trying to hand out the team medals won at the Co. Championships over the past few weeks, but still have a good number in hand, as some athletes have not been attending training sessions. If you are due a medal, please collect from Theresa asap.

CONGRATULATIONS

Huge congratulations go to Richael Browne, who has been offered a full scholarship at Georgia State University for next September. This is a fantastic opportunity for Richael to develop as an athlete while getting a first class education and we hope she enjoys her time in the USA. Richael is following in the footsteps of another Greystones athlete Niamh Kearney, who has recently returned with a Masters in Nutrition, after a very successful 5 yrs in Georgia State. Just goes to show that if you make the commitment, work hard and progress steadily, your athletics can open doors to a great future for you.

ATTENDANCE AT TRAINING

Attendance at training has been very poor in some groups during November and we remind everyone that athletes who disappear for up to 3 weeks without contacting us are deemed to have left the club. Check-in sheets are reviewed at the end of each month, names of those who aren’t attending are removed from the check-in sheets and places are given to those on our waiting list. Please contact us before the end of the month if you fall into this category.

NB: Athletes in groups 1 & 2 have agreed to attend a minimum of two sessions per week and need to do this to enable them to keep up with the training level and stay with their group. This has been agreed by all athletes/parents before joining this group, but is not being adhered to. Training sessions take place on Tues/Wed/Fri from 7-8.30pm. While we hope you can do all three, if only doing two nights, it is better to do Tues/Fri or Wed/Fri if at all possible, rather than two nights together with 5 off.

We also have an organised Sunday morning run at 9.15am, which is a very important part of the training week, particularly from U12 up. If you cannot make this, you really need to do the run yourself later in the day. Venue varies from week to week and is posted on our website & FB page each week. This long, easy run can be very enjoyable and lays the base for everything we do.

So far this season the attendance on Sunday mornings is poor and we would really love to see a huge improvement from here out. All athletes & parents are welcome to join us on these Sunday runs, however young children need to be accompanied.

CLUB SHOP

The club shop will be open on Tues. Dec.13th from 4.45-5pm and again from 7-8pm, in case anyone needs extra Xmas pressies........Santa has already put in his order! We have club singlets, shorts, t-shirts, rainjackets, hoodies etc. available and souvenir club pens also. The new batch of smaller singlets were delayed, but should have arrived by then. Athletes should have either a club singlet or T- shirt for competitions. All other items are optional. We also have some second-hand spikes for sale at very reasonable prices. Some of these have hardly been worn!

FINALLY

Can we appeal to parents once again to ensure that all athletes bring a raincoat, hat & gloves to training, as it is very cold on the track some nights. Gloves are a real necessity, as when cold the children are inclined to run with their hands in their pockets, which is likely to result in head or facial injury if they fall as they have no way of saving themselves.