Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Woohoo! Big black tie event in the Crowne Plaza last night as the first ever Athletics Ireland National Athletic Awards took place. (And no, before you ask the mountain runners didn’t attend with mud on their faces!) Really great night, lots of well known faces from Irish Athletics, past and present, were there. (Photo of me and Karen with Eamonn Coughlan!) But the event was clearly not just about medal winners with the the first two categories being Official of the Year, which went to the inimitable Harry Gorman, (known to just about anyone who ever toed the line in a road race in this country) and Coach of the Year which went to Adam Jones of Rathfarnham WSAF.
In the other categories:
Junior Athlete of the Year: Long Jumper Kelly Proper
Master Athlete of the Year: Niamh O’ Sullivan
Performance of the Year: David Gillick
Track Athlete of the Year: Paul Hession
and Athlete of the Year: Hammer Thrower Eileen O’ Keefe

Lifetime Achievement Award went to Sean and Maeve Kyle and there was a special Hall of Fame award for Olympic Champion Ronnie Delaney. Of course Club of the year went to my own club Clonliffe Harriers (Bronagh with trophy here)! The event was genuinely great fun, full of positive atmosphere about the future and I think having categories like Official of the Year made it an awards ceremony that wasn’t just about the big names in track athletics.
The most difficult thing about this post was choosing a photo: not sure that me in a dress is very “Geared Up” eh? But anyway that’s me with Frank Greally, Editor of the Irish Runner Magazine and part of the organizing committee for last night! Being up that late is my excuse for a bad Duathlon but more about that tomorrow…..

-Aisling-

More photos from my flickr set here.