European Clubs : T- 24 Hours

First of all the management and athletes would again like to sincerely thank everyone who supported the team's fundraising requests and table quiz. Without these generous contributions it would have been impossible to field as high quality a team as is travelling to the competition tomorrow.

Crusaders AC is looking forward to a competitive match against the finest European Athletics Clubs. Whether the team can pull off a victory such as Liverpool FC attained last night in the soccer tournament remains to be seen but with the high quality athletes that are competing with the team a top 3 finish is realistic.

Two british athletes will be competing in Crusaders vests as International guests (each club is allowed 2). Scot Thompson will be shot putting and throwing the discus and James Ellington will be running in the 100m and 200m. Both athletes are members of Belgrave Harriers in London (Thanks due to Bill Laws for helping to recruit these guys).

The squad of Crusaders athletes changes somewhat from last year when the club competed in the same competition in Maribor Slovenia. This time young Ian McDonald will be competing in the 110 hurdles instead of Peter Coghlan. A newcomer to the squad, frenchman Francois Kulik will be competing in the high jump. Another newcomer but familiar face Garett Coughlan will be taking the 3000m in place of Peter Madsen and Ian Chaney will take on the 5000m. Antoinne Burke will travel to the European Clubs for the first time in an illustrious career to try consolidate a place on the Europa Cup team in the 400 hurdles. Other faithful Crusaders competing include Lorcan Carpenter in the hammer and Steve Flemming in the Long Jump. Ruairi o'Briain competes in the Pole Vault once again (in search of an early season PB perhaps). Eoin Cummins moves up a distance from last year to run the 1500m.

Last years captain Eugene O'Neill returns in the Steeplechase. When asked what he thought the teams outlook was he said

"Last years competition was fairly low key as far as the ECCC goes and the result we got was fairly dissapointing. This year we are in the mix with the A division and even though the invitation to B division clubs came last minute we have managed to put together a strong team. I think we have a good chance of doing well and I sure am excited about running with the A division athletes. We have 2 excellent international athletes onside aswell, and the trip will be great for building up the senior mens team in the run up to the summer."

Another newcomer to the competition is Thomas Chamney. 'Chammers' has already set 2 PB's this season and travels to Lagos from barcelona where he is completing some warm weather training. Thomas can look forward to a proper championship race. You can never tell who will be competing in these kind of races. He could well be toeing the line against the likes of Yuriy Borzakhovskiy and even some Africans like Laban Rotitch.

Other members of the squad include Simon Kenny and Barry McCarron who may pass the baton in the 400 relay and Kieran Dyer in the Triple Jump. We are all looking forward to seeing what the athletes can do at this high level of competition.

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Table Quiz European Cup Fund Raiser

The Crusaders Mens Team have organised a table quiz to take place on the Wednesday the 18th of May at 8.30pm in Smiths Bar Ranelagh Village. Teams will consist of 4 players and will cost 25 Euro to enter. There will be cash prizes for the winners and spot prizes throughout the night.


What: Table Quiz
Where: Smiths Bar, Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6
When: Wednesday 18th May, 2005 8.30p.m. sharp
Who: Tables of 4 E25 per table
Prizes: Spot Prizes for all, Cash prizes for winners

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Crusaders @ European Clubs Cup

The Crusaders Senior Mens team will be travelling to the European Champions Club Cup (ECCC) at the end of this month to compete against Europes best for the second year running. Untill last week it looked like the competition was to be cancelled as the organisers could not find a club willing to host the event. Last week Lagos, Portugal offered to host the Mens competition and Crusaders were the first team to take up the offer!

The competition takes place over 2 days and is much the same format as the Mazda League. Over the next 3 weeks the Mens team will be frantically preparing themselves for the trip, arranging the team, making travel and accomodation plans etc. The cost of the trip will be high and so the guys are doing their utmost to raise funds. Keep up to date with the goings on by checking back to the website often.

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Call for Volunteers

Two of the largest sources of funds for the club are the fees we get for providing stewards in the Dublin Docklands Fun Run and for running a water station in the Womens Mini Marathon. These events are approaching fast and volunteers are required to help at both.

The Docklands Race is on Tuesday May the 24th. Volunteers will be needed to assist the Gardai direct traffic and to direct the runners along the race course. Hugo Leeney is co-ordinating this activity. Contact him at hugo.leeney @ gmail.com or 0877828053.

The Womens Mini Marathon is on Monday June 6th. Volunteers will be needed to set up the water station before the race starts and man it for the duration of the race. The work starts at 12:30 but arrivals before 2:15 are acceptable!! Jim O'Neill is the coordinator for this event. Contact him on 2988907 or email jimhelenon @ clubi.ie

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Crusaders in Knockdu International Hill Race

A (delayed) congratulations is due to Kevin Keane, who finished 7th and led the Irish team to 2nd behind Scotland at the Knockdhu International Mountain Race at Larne. Also good performances from Peter 27th, Turlough Conway 34th and Barry Minnock 50th. We beat the Northern Ireland by just one point, so everyone played their part.
Go to the Photo Gallery to see the photos.

The next day, Kevin was 1st at the Leinster C'ships Rd 1 at Round Mountain, with Turlough 6th, Barry 7th, Mike ??? 12th (3rd M40), Bruce ??? 20th (2nd M50).

Crusaders were also out in force at the first round of the Arup League last Wed, where Kevin was 2nd, Barry was 5th and Turlough 8th; good runs also from Una ??? 5th woman, Roisin ??? 2nd W40.

Apologies for the delay in posting this news.

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East Leinster Junior Long Jump Champion

Junior member David McAuley, competing for Marion College in the East Leinster Junior Boys Schools Championships yesterday, won Gold in the Long Jump. McAuley really only came to the sport this year and even with advice and coaching from John O'Connor has been somewhat unsure as to where his natural talents lie. He obviously didn't do badly choosing the Long Jump this year and lets hope the hard work he has put in during the year will pay off in subsequent schools and club competitions.

Awaiting information regarding distance...

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Irishtown Hosts Trinity Relays

The Trinity Relays have traditionally been held in college park (on campus in Trinity College Dublin). That setting has always been attractive for poseurs, athletes seeking some sharpening races or a first race away from tartan and clubs looking for Titles. In the last few years the meeting has seen some competitive races between the likes of Crusaders, Raheny and Trinity themselves.

This year the venue has had to be changed due to maintanence work that has dug up the park. No better replacement venue could have been chosen. In the first month of Track & Field activity that Irishtown Stadium has seen in decades, the new facility has proven to be friendly and atmospheric. While the vintage class of college park will be hard to match, the modern buzz of Irishtown combined with the tartan track and good spectator oppurtunities should make for a good meet.


The Timetable is as follows

630pm Registration
645pm 4 x 100m B
650pm 4 x 100m G
655pm 4 x 800m M
710pm 3 x 800m W
720pm 4 x 400m B
730pm 4 x 400m G
740pm 4 x 200m M
750pm 4 x 200m W
800pm 4 x 1500m M
820pm 4 x 100m M
830pm 4 x 100m W
840pm 4 x 400m M
850pm 4 x 500m W
900pm Open Mile
910pm Presentation

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IMC & CRU Meet Kicks off Club Programme

The first Irish Milers Club meet of the year took place in Irishtown Stadium on Saturday Evening. Mild temperatures and a light breeze made for almost ideal running conditions and some exciting races resulted.

The programme started with a 100m and 200m for men. With a positive wind blowing down the home staight a decent time of ??? was recorded by the winner of the 100m ???. Crusader Antoinne Burke won the 200m in ???.

Burke also toed the line for the 600m later on having volunteered to help pace the race. He went out hard with the other pacemaker David Campbell followed by eventual winner Ciaran O'Connell. With their pacemaking duties over with 200m to go both Campbell and Burke looked like they wanted to finish and Campbell looked like he was going to challenge for the win. However O'Connell was uncatchable and Burke found another gear in the home straight to finish just ahead of Campbell.

Simon Kenny returned to the track after a number of years absence and a decent winters work to pace the 3000m and 1500m. Eoin Cummins also went in the 1500m and the 2 Crusaders went to the front from the start. Cummins was left in limbo when Kenny dropped out but managed to maintain a reasonable pace. Mark Hanrahan of Leevale cruised past him with 350m to go and went on to finish in 3:55 with Cummins just behind in 3:58. A brave run from Cummins improved his time from the varsities the week before by well over 10 seconds.

For all the results of the IMC hosted races and details of the next Irish Milers Club meet in Irishtown go to www.irishmilersclub.com

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