St. Conleth's College

Call-Up of the Cross Country Army!

Shay Keenan has been doing this for some years now: assembling hordes of willing and mostly able runners to compete in regional track meets. And, come to think of it, Mr. Smith has now been at it for a few years, too! A couple of weeks ago, our First Years competed in the West Leinster Cross Country Championships, with over 2,000 athletes running in Phoenix Park. All involved completed the race and several finished in the top 20%. Well done to the runners and to Shay Keenan and Mr. Smith for organising.

Off and Running!

With spring in the air and their step, St. Conleth’s athletes hit the ground running at the East Leinster’s in Santry! TY Luke Timlin won Silver in the 200m, despite running with injury, and classmate James Bourke also impressively made the 200 Final.

And Second Years Daniel and Luke Kirwan, Colman O’Flynn and Hugh Leahy won the 4x100m relay outright! Luke now goes on to the Leinster Finals, where he has previously had great success. More racing today so stay tuned!

Flash… Ah-ah!

Yes, cue the classic 1980 Queen soundtrack song whenever Mr. Weldon is around because he is definitely our otherworldly superhero! Is there anything which our Guidance Counsellor ‘Flash’ Gordon can’t do? In the midst of CAO meltdowns and UCAS panics, he brought the girls out for some GAA training and Hugo Lennon for some tossing of the ole’ shot-put!

Keep On Runnin’!

Some of us did get a bit more exercise over the Covid Era, walking the designer hybrid pup, who every day was getting a little bit noisier and little less cute, to the tip of the Dún Laoghaire Pier, but I doubt many our ‘step counts’ could match TY Luke Timmins’s over the same period: certainly not in quality, even if in quantity! For Luke has been steadily adding to his already impressive hoard of Track and Field medals and trophies, and now the shine off his swag would even please the crew of the Black Pearl! Luke won the Silver in the dash at the 2021 National Juvenile U16 Championships and then an unprecedented Quadruple Gold at the Dublin Indoor Juvenile U17 Championships: in the 400m, 200m, Long Jump and 4 x 200 relay. (Yes, he did allow three team-mates to run the other legs of the relay… but probably could have done it himself!) Well done, Luke, and we look forward to your appearance at the National Championship at the end of March.

Run Free!

In Mr. Lonergan’s native Tipp, the lambs will soon be gambling around the pastures green, and nothing can better warm a country boy’s heart than that sight, but today’s cross country race at Blackrock College must come a very close second. After months of watching the students’ heads sag behind their masks and covid restrictions, the kids were finally allowed to run free in the sun and the wind and the cold! Mind you, the more stationary Mr. Lonergan and Mr. Keenan were happy to have worn their long-johns, but the sheer delight with which our motley group of First through Third Years took to the freedom of the fields was a joy to see. And the different relay teams competed well, especially the Third Years, as they kept pace with schools who have daily running regimens, and finished very respectfully. Perhaps, there was no podium place, but the boys and girls involved were winners, nevertheless: victorious over our endemic inertia!

Star of Track and Field

The so-titled pop song is a bit ambiguous about its subject but we are not, especially when in praise of TY Luke Timlin who is running and jumping to greater heights (and speeds and lengths!) each time he dons the racing flats. Luke has already run to Leinster and All-Ireland glory, never mind dominating the Conleth’s Sports Days like a certain youngster named Usain did at the William Knibb Memorial High School in Jamaica. Well, while the rest of us were sitting on the couch and eating crisps while watching the Olympics, Luke was out training and competing, and succeeding to the extent that perhaps we may some day be again eating crisps on the couch- but watching Luke run and jump for Ireland! In early August, at the National Age Group Championships in Tullamore, Luke did brilliantly, winning Silver Medals in both the U16 100 metres and the Long Jump. Luke’s next big competition will be the Tailteann Games, in which he will represent St. Conleth’s. Well done, Luke, and a message to the rest of the Transition Years: start training for your Sports Day, now. Second place is still up for grabs!

Athletics

Athletics offers a range of disciplines that you can train in to improve your fitness and develop skills in your chosen area. It is an excellent school sport, because everyone can find a particular event which suits them. The last few years we have entered and placed in multiple events at both the East Leinsters and the Leinsters. Now, we have integrated athletics into our regular extra-curricular sports programme, providing weekly training and the opportunity for collaboration with local athletic clubs.