< Previous© March 2018 The Meath Coaster50Castle Hill Riding Club The members of Castlehill RC have recently been competing at the Equi-pet NER Winter SJ League. The first leg was held at Kernans EC in Crossmaglen, where Anita McNamara Doyle and her horse Ruby placed 2nd in the Primary class. Marie Delaney Moore and Susie were hot on Anita’s heels, and picked up a brilliant 3rd place. Olivia Nolan and her horse Abi, and Caitriona Kavanagh and Bouncer, had fantastic clear rounds in the Advanced Primary class, but were unlucky to be out of the placings. Well done to Niamh Murphy and her horse Hope, who jumped fantastically in the Intermediate class, and Gary Monahan and Olaf who flew around the Advanced Intermediate track. At the Killossery leg of the league on the 18th of February, Anita McNamara Doyle was all smiles having placed 3rd in the Primary class. Caitriona Kavanagh and Bouncer picked up a very well earned 6th placed in the Advanced Primary class over a very tough technical course. Ma-rie Delaney Moore and Gary Monahan also competed on the day, but despite brilliant rounds, were unlucky not to be placed. Well done to new member for 2018 Justyna Przymuszala and her horse Molly, who competed at their first AIRC Caitriona Kavanagh and BouncerClub Training with Kevin McGuinness© March 2018 The Meath Coaster51show representing Castlehill. They had a fantastic round, and will no doubt be ones to watch for the future. Best of luck to our members for the upcoming league final in Castle Leslie EC, as the current standings are very tightly contested. In dressage, Lindsey ilona Brady and her horse Trigger Joe were out competing in Dressage Ireland at Killossery Lodge Stud. The duo are having a fantastic start to the year, and won the Preliminary class on 76.67%. Well done!The club has also recently been running SJ and Dressage training with HSI level 2 coach Kevin McGuinness. Members have been put through their paces in prepara-tion for the recent competitions, so many thanks to Kevin for making the sessions both fun and informative. If you have your own horse and are inter-ested in joining the club, please contact us by e-mail at castlehill@airc.ie to request a membership form.For more information, please “like” our page on FB or contact Olivia on (086) 383 1802 §Justyna and MollyCommunity Bookshop in BettystownBooks@OneA charitable organisation called The One Foundation is exploring the pos-sibility of opening a community book-shop in Bettystown. See the internet link regarding the shop already set up in Louisburgh, Mayo: www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/the-shop-that-could-change-ire-land-1.3331239. This gives an idea of how good this could be for Bettystown. See also www.booksa-tone.ie for the bookshop website. The important thing to remember here (for those not mad keen on books) is that this can be a great social community amenity, where people are welcome to hold events, drop in for a chat/coffee etc. The initial priorities are as follows: • To find a shop manager – (a paid posi-tion, could be job-shared); • To find premises - within walking distance of the Bettystown/Laytown schools; • Additional Funding – all ideas wel-come.If you have any ideas as to how to progress this project, or require further information, please email lcx1@eircom.net as soon as possible. A submission has to be made to The One Foundation before 9 March. This project can be successful if the com-munity comes together to support it. §© March 2018 The Meath Coaster52As the new season is about to start we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our coaches and volunteers who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that everything runs as it should, we would also like to extend the thanks to the spouses and families of everyone in-volved because very often family time is sacrificed to enable the volunteers to fulfil their roles, so with that in mind thank you all so much we really appreciate every hour you all dedicate to keep our wonder-ful club tick along. We would also like to thank all our spon-sors old and new for keeping our players all kitted out, some of our latest sponsors this season are Atman Gardem Care who have very generously sponsored our under 9’s with a new kit, And the exceptionally generous Jay Be-han of Abington Design House and Per-fecthomes.ie who has sponsored our u13 Premier team with both a new home and an away kit. Thank you all so much we are extremely grateful to you all for your generosity, without people like you guys Laytown United SFCwww.laytownunitedsfc.com / www.facebook.com/LaytownUnitedSFCJOHN ROGAN MILK SALES who we are very grateful to for sponsoring our u12’s with a new playing kit© March 2018 The Meath Coaster53our club would not be able to functionWe are delighted to have been given the opportunity to been able to take part in Tesco Bettystown’s “Get On Your Feet For Temple Street” fundraising initiative on Saturday 17th February, we had players, coaches, parents and committee members in store throughout the day to assist in bag packing, cycling and cash collections and we are very proud to say that they reached the target they had for the day §© March 2018 The Meath Coaster54Cilles Athletic ClubNorth Leinster Schools Cross CountryThe boys and girls from Cilles AC put their running talents to good use and get out to represent their schools at all manner of sporting events. On Jan 26th they headed out on a chilly day and pro-duced some outstanding results. A special mention to Holly Brennan who came sec-ond in the intermediate girls and Lauren Murphy who placed 4th in the senior girls. Well done all. Minor Boys 25th Alex HarringtonJunior Girls26th Siofra Murphy28th Evelyn MullenIntermediate Girls2nd Holly Brennan22nd Meg Sowray Intermediate Boys14th Aaron Smith18th James SmithSenior Girls 4th Lauren MurphySenior Boys 21st Kenneth Doyle30th Ciaran SmithCushinstown indoor eventThere was a trio of first timers taking part at the Cushinstown indoor events on Jan 28th with Tadhg Lannon and Ol-ivia O’Hagan taking part in the U-8 60 metres and Charlie O’Flaherty tak-ing part in the U-9 long jump. All 3 of them did Cilles AC and their families proud today. Well done and we look for-ward to seeing them at future events. Holly, Leinster Star Award Juveniles at Navan adventure centreCushinstown indoor Charlie OFlahertyFionn LanonOlivia OHagan© March 2018 The Meath Coaster55Next up was Clodagh O’Hagan who ran in the U-10 girls 60metre race and Fionn Lannon who came third in his heat for U-12 60metres to make the final where he was just piped in the last few metres to finish 4th. Well done Everyone.Raheny 5 RacesThere was more action on the 28th at the Raheny 5 races. Sean Hyland finished 12th in the 800m race against a very large field. Liam Hyland for the second year running finished 4th with a new PB of 4:36 for the MileLauren Murphy continuing to improve her form and ran impressively to win the girls race in a fantastic 5:00 Mile.Siofra Murphy ran an incredible race and finished in 6th place in a time of 5:38.In the Senior race Bridget O’Brien ran her first 5 Mile in a time of 47:22.Congrats to everyone on a super day of running.Leinster Indoors Day 1 To start off a weekend of in-cedible running for our club, the juveniles headed off to compete at the Leinster in-doors on the 10th of February. We had 7 athletes run in the 1500m races. First up in the U17 Girls race was Holly Bren-nan who finished second place to claim Silver in 5:05, fantastic running Holly.Leinster indoors Lauren MurphyLeinster indoors Holly BrennanRaheny 5 Bridget O'BrienRaheny 5 Lauren MurphyRaheny 5 Liam Hyland© March 2018 The Meath Coaster56The U17 Boys consist-ed of 3 Cilles AC athletes : 7 Liam Hyland 4:33 9 James Smith 4:35 11 Aaron Smith 4:41U18 Girls race saw Lauren Murphy return to good form with a strong 3rd place finish in 4:58 to claim Bronze.The U18 Boys closed out the 1500m running with 10 Ciaran Smith 4:48 11 Kenneth Doyle 4:49Another great day at the Leinster Indoors. Thanks to everyone involved and all of the Officials on the day.Donadea 50kOur club has athletes covering all distanc-es and Ian Casey was on the ultra running trail on the 10th of February, tackling the Donadea 50k. Ian had a superb run with a time of 4:41, congrats Ian.The Barcelona half marathonThis was a much anticipated race, we were watching weather forecasts like hawks, the packing lists were being drawn up and compared, how to jam in runners along with the other essentials. We were look-ing forward to suncream and light running gear after the winter of cold running that we’ve just had. To our horror the forecast changed about a week before hand, it was going to be chilly, panic, empty the cases, start over. We figured it out between us and all managed to bring running gear et all and still be under 10kg.We arrived on the 9th, taking the metro from the airport and emerging onto the main throughfare las Ramblas in early evening, well it was just fabulous, the streets were buzzing with tourists, tapas and fine wines being consumed all round us and a McDonalds. A quick check in to the apartments and we were out to sam-ple Barcelonas delights. It’s a beautiful city, with beautiful restaurants and bars, we were all very sensible and had an early night (sort of).We had all of Saturday to explore, shop, eat some more and collect our race num-bers. Definitely an early night, it felt a bit like Christmas waiting for the next morn-ing to arrive.We woke up to the bluest of blue skies on the 11th, the forecast was right and it was Donadea 50k Ian Casey© March 2018 The Meath Coaster57chilly but we were prepared, we can han-dle running in the cold. The chill didn’t last and we were running in glorious sunshine the whole way round, the temp didn’t start to rise into the double digits until the end, which was per-fect for us to stand around and eat our post race oranges. The following race report is from our intrepid roving reporter Regan, who captured the vibe of the day perfectly...Race ReportThere were no planned tactics. It was a FUN RUN. A long run from Tesco up to Gormanston and back. Easy.After not a particularly early start (thankfully) and fueled by a white snickers (not as tasty as I’d hoped !) we headed from the hotel and merged with a sea of runners on their way to the start line .The sea got confused when it came to the Barcelona 2018 finish line© March 2018 The Meath Coaster58bag drop and lengthy lines caused some tioletless anxiety . Our coral was sardines. We were penned and peeing opportunities passed.Finally we were moving and with a holler and a whoop we were off. Vamos Vamos!The kilometres zoomed by and were bare-ly registered - a nice slow start slightly congested in places . We tagged behind some girls from Navan AC (RSP) whom seemed to be setting an agreeable pace consistent with our vague notion of trying to hit the 2 hr mark.We lost our pacers at the 5k water station , grabbed a bottle and continued our cruise . Left to our own devices and the bang-ing Barcelona samba streets the pace in-creased unnoticed as we cheered on local lovebirds and even managed to be inter-viewed by luminous wig wearing madrid-istas with a hidden camera in their glasses. (Really )After been shocking surprised by the ten k mark it was loudly and Unanimously de-clared that this was the best race ever ever.Our wonderful supporter (I have been asked to amend to one of our wonderful supporters) Anna (the most wonderful) appeared at 11k with a motivational man-tra and our lovely legs managed to start moving even faster. Promised a gel stop at 15k we pegged it to the water station clocking our fastest 5k of the race so far . Allez Allez!!After some icky refreshments and some stripping we were off again . Somebody ( You know who you are) thought that do-ing ten k pace at end of a half marathon was a super idea . Apparently this was fueled by the burning desire to dust the 2 hr pacers. Arriba Aribba - earth to earth pacers!We spent the last 5k cruising past car-naged comrades , including a sprint up a mountain at 18k ( it so was) . A sprightly winter wind appeared briefly but failed to dent our devilish dashing. The chit chat got the heave ho as a wee bit of effort was required for the final push. What a push it was ! (not helped at all by the teeny tiny downhill ). Our final two unnamed (amend to wonderful and not at all hungover) sup-porters had managed to get the finish line - so a sprint finish was required ! We were back at Tesco !!! Bring it Barca !!What a race , what a run . What a whop-ping pb!!Well done Regan, summed it up perfectly.Erin’s run 5k 2018Ciara and Deirdre took part in this years Erins run, also on the 11th of Feb. A fast 5k which raises funds for the wonderful Jack and Jill Foundation.(F4) Ciara Lenihan 21:15 (F5) Deirdre Mc Nulty 21.48Ras na hEireann James Smith© March 2018 The Meath Coaster59Well done ladies !!!Dune Cross Border Half MarathonAlso on the 11th of Feb and keeping with the international theme of the weekend Kenny Boyle took on the Dune cross bor-der half marathon, which runs from Ne-wry down to Dundalk. By all accounts a very chilly run which Kenny completed in a fabulous time.Kenneth Boyle 1:43:01Well done !!Cross country Clarinbridge, GalwayCongrats to our brave youngsters who ran on Sunday in the Cross Country in Clarinbribge Galway. Super perfor-mances all over where conditions were very difficult. It was a pure mudfest and with freezing temperatures and snow it made for a very challenging course. Congrats to Lauren Murphy who finished in Second Place in the Girls U17 3000m.In the boys U17 : 4th Aaron Smith 6th James Smith 7th Kenneth Doyle 8th Ciaran Smith 9th Liam HylandThe lads came away with a Gold Medal for their excellent team performance. Well done allThe Meath Junior Athletes at Navan Adventure Centre. The first of its kind, this Junior Squad Day was a huge success. Many thanks to Sen-ior Athletes Thomas Moran, Ciara Roon-ey and Andrew Coscoran for sharing their experiences of transitioning from Junior Athletes to Seniors. Thanks to all of the athletes for attending.Ras na hEireann 2018A very well done to all the Cilles athlete’s who took part in the Ras na hEireann on the 18th of Feb, at the Battle of the Boyne site. It was a mucky affair but that didn’t stop the Cilles AC crew putting their best feet forward. Congrats to all who took part.Under 9 boys (500 metres): Charlie O’Flaherty and Jonny Reilly. Under 11 Boys (1000 meters): Cillian Wade Under 11 girls (1000 metres): Ciara Sherry Under 13 girls (1500 metres): Shannon Cleary Under 13 boys (1500 metres): Fionn Lan-non and Shane Reilly Under 15 boys (2500 metres): Alex HarringtonUnder 17 boys (4000 metres): James Smith who finished in first place.Junior boys Under 20 (6000 metres): Ken-neth Doyle 3rd and Ciaran Smith 5thMeath award for HollyHolly Brennan again receiving the de-served recognition for an outstanding 2017 Receiving an award for winning a nation-al medal and Best U14-15 Juvenile girl in cross country, seen here with Cilles AC Chairman Graham Hyland her Cilles A.C. teammates. §Meath award Holly BrennanNext >