Secretary’s Report 2005
I think that all our members would agree that to have two
members of our club selected for the N I Commonwealth Games team is an
achievement to be very proud of. We wish
Eva and Brendan every success in
Our first promotion of 2005 was the New Year Cross Country relays held on Saturday 13 January. This was a good friendly fun event.
Congratulations to Jessica
Craig, Lauren Scott and Nicola Simpson who represented NI at the Age Group
Championships Inter-counties at
On Easter Saturday we were priviledged to be asked by the
Council to meet the Queen’s Commonwealth
Games Relay Baton and run with it through the streets of
Our annual Club Handicap
to contest the Smith Shield was held on 9 April around the 5k course in
The following club officials have received awards during 2005: Claire Scarth, UKA NI performance coach, Eddie Wilson UKA NI off-track official, Gillian Weir, UKA NI club Volunteer and North Down Sports Advisory Council Award of Merit, Barry Scarth Lucozade Senior Coach and Danielle Oliver, Lucozade Award for coaching children with special needs. The club was awarded UKA NI Track and Field team and runner-up club for Innovation.
I would like to pay tribute to one of our coaches, Claire Scarth, and explain a little of the journey which has taken her from the interested parent asked by Hilary O’Neill to hold the tape at the High Jump in the late 1970s, back to her native Australia as Grade 4, Senior Coach to Brendan McConville, competing at the Commonwealth Games, Melbourne 2006.
Claire has coached many successful champions past and present at various levels from schools, NI Age Group and Multi Event champions, GB representatives, to the highest accolade that a member of our club has gained: Brendan McConville (Decathlon), David Robb (HJ), Tom Reynolds (Multi Events), Michael McConkey (Jav), Amy Foster (100m & 200m), Kathryn Colwell (100m & 200m), Jeremy Harper (Throws), David Keys (Throws), Darragh Murphy (HJ), Katie Hewitt (Multi Events), Hannah Lewis (Multi Events).
Claire can give coaching advice on all disciplines of athletics, sometimes surprising those around her with her wealth of knowledge. She is a highly respected coach and when she travels with Brendan, other coaches often seek her out to ask for advice.
She was awarded UTV Performance Coach in 2000 and UKA Performance Coach of the Year 2005 and an Award of Merit from North Down Sports Advisory Council in 2004.
As well as coaching at North Down Athletic Club four or five times each week summer and winter Claire is also involved in the Rover Combined Events Squad. This squad sponsored by Rover cars gives opportunity for athletes to develop multi events i.e. decathlon and hepthalon by bringing coaches from Great Britain and sports therapists to give advice to the young people to advance their knowledge and skills.
The successful Primary School Sessions were Claire’s baby, allowing training opportunities for young athletes and using the Year 7 pupils to feed into the main club. Also encouraging our 16-year-old athletes to gain their coaching qualifications to allow them a source of income.
Claire also works closely
with our Sports Development Officer participating in initiatives such as Skills
4 Sport and organising the
This year there were over 60 kids enrolled for the Primary School sessions that took place on Monday evenings from 16 May until 21 June.
We provided 16 Kit carriers for the North Down International Games on 24 June.
We held two very positive coaches meetings in March and November. It is good for the coaches to get together and pool ideas to assist the club with future plans and development.
During 2005 David Keys and Amy Foster gained their level 1
coaching award. Jeremy Harper and Gemma
McAnirn are working through their level 2 award and Paul Kirkpatrick, Richard
and Kris Lockhart are completing their level 3 award. We also welcomed Mel
Koffi as sprint and hurdle coach, from the
North Down Sports Advisory Youth Games event was held on 16 June. The Primary Schools session children were all given invites and we were more than surprised when 150 children arrived to participate in relay events. The event was very successful and a good fun night, introducing the kids to competing in athletics. Over 12 other sports provided opportunities for young people throughout the games.
Bank of Ireland Young Athletes Meeting was held on Tuesday 2 August. This year we made the difficult decision to use Mary Peters track due to the state of repair of our own track. The meeting was well supported and it was a fine summers evening.
The mens’ Track and Field team has retained both the Team Trophy and Golden Four League for the fifth successive year. They entered the Premier division in the League of Ireland and were a very creditable 2nd with 113 points to Crusaders with 18. They surprised the opposing teams who were heard to exclaim, “were did North Down come from?” . The womens’ team also won their Team Trophy.
The Young Athletes League NI saw the boys’ team outright winners for
the fourth year in succession. The
girls’ team were bitterly disappointed at being second, especially after it was
necessary for recalculation of the points, and the difference was 1 point. We travelled to
The Club Championships were held on 30 August with over 50 members competing. This was a fun night for all participants.
BBQ and Track and Field Prize Night was held on Friday 10 September with over 50 attending. Everyone enjoyed the evening, which ended with a quiz. Awards were made to the following: Kerrie Craig, Jessica Craig, Hannah Lewis, Amy Foster, Kathryn Colwell, Nicola Simpson, Louis Atkinson, Matthew Heaney, Nathan Barnett, Thomas Simmons, Tony Wall, Michael McConkey, Richard Lockhart, Thomas Simpson, Jason Blanc, and John Carlisle.
This year with sponsorship from North Down Borough Council
we brought back the
The Crawfordsburn 5k
Trail race was held on 2 October with 130 competitors enjoying the course
through the
Our Web site
continues to grow from strength to strength with over 100 hits per day. The success of this is mainly due to Barry Scarth who keeps the site updated
with results and photographs appearing sometimes the same day of the event.
Hence I have not included my normal list of results in this report as members
can access them from the web site. New
members are constantly contacting us via the web site. I hope that members will
step forward to continue this very critical work whilst Barry is in
I would like to give a special mention to Michael Moffitt, who writes our reports in the Spectator each week, helping keep the club’s name to the forefront within the Community.
We are grateful to our sponsors who help to keep the club in
a strong financial position and we acknowledge the support given. This year we received sponsorship from North Down Borough Council for the
Bangor Classic and the Bank of
Two of our parents deserve a special mention Linda Patterson and Rosemary Colwell who helped out on club nights throughout the summer, keeping the athletes register, distributing membership forms, championships forms and helping with administration, allowing me to concentrate on coaching. Both of them did a fantastic job encouraging members to compete at the Young Athletes League meetings by phoning around and filling in missing gaps in the teams.
The North Down
Special Olympics Club has been in existence for 16 months now and is
growing steadily with approx 20+ children training each week. The athletes really do get so much from these
training sessions and the progress regarding their fitness and co ordination in
some cases is remarkable. Two of the boys
have also been training with the main club and one member, Chris Russell
competed at the Young Athletes final in
On 6th November we arranged a surprise 65th Birthday Party for Billy Brannigan at the request of his wife Linda. Billy joined North Down in 1975, with many club runs leaving from Billy’s front room. It was a great social occasion attended by his family and old club friends. Billy was presented with a club tracksuit and will be ratified as a Club Life member at this meeting. Billy presented the club with 2 new cups, the Billy Brannigan Cups, for the outstanding male and female at Cross Country and Road Running.
The club paid tribute to Ken and Lynn Hawtin for the 40 years promotion of “Ken’s Boxing Day Run” by naming a trophy after them. The trophy was presented at the Christmas Handicap race on 17 December.
The growth of the Monday night group in the past year has been quite astounding and continues to grow. The sight of 30+ runners making there way from the Sportsplex is a sight to behold.
The Committee are currently working their way through a Club Health Check, which will provide all the criteria for us to obtain the Gold Star Mark Award from the Sports Council.
Our club continues to have more elected NIAF officials than any other club. Barry has been re-elected as YAL Chairman, with Rodney Brown as Treasurer. Tony Wall has been re-elected as Hon Assistant Secretary, NIAF. Geoffrey has been re-elected as Chairman of NDSAC and Assistant Treasurer of NIAF and David Seaton continues as Cross-Country Chairman & NDSAC Executive Council member.
Our club tracksuits have been a great success and several athletes from other clubs have remarked on them.
Our senior team of Simon Seaton, Francis Marsh, James Budde and Charlie Sanson had an impressive win at our own promotion, the New Year Cross Country Relays, held on 14 January.
The ladies team of Nicola Simpson, Katie Hewitt, Lauren
Scott, Jessica Craig, and Kerry Iveston were victorious in becoming Junior
Cross Country winners on Saturday last in
Geoffrey will leave on
Without coaches, there would not be the depth and strength in our athletes and we have very dedicated coaches who stand out in all weathers to assist the athletes in reaching their full potential.
Finally, I would like to thank our outgoing committee who carry out their duties with enthusiasm and commitment. I would like to thank our Chairman, Pat for his support throughout the past year and to thank Geoffrey for his continued work with the NDBC on behalf of the club.
Brendan McConville -
Decathlon
q Commonwealth Games Selection
q 5th successive year for GB selection at the Europa Cup
q Commonwealth Games Selection
q AA1 Champion
q Scottish AAAs indoor champion
q Represented GB (U23)
q Represented GB at Bedford (U23)
q AA1 senior champion
q U23 AAA championships winner
q Celtic Games Selection
q Bronze medal at AAAs (LJ)
q 3rd place Irish Schools Multi event championships
q 2nd Irish Schools LJ, 3rd 200m
q Schools Interprovincial winner 200m & LJ
q Age group champion 100m, 200m & LJ
David Keys – Throws
q AAI Championships winner Hammer & Discus
q Age Group Champion Discus & Hammer
q Irish Schools Discus champion, 2nd Hammer
q Silver medal winner Young Athletes League UK Final Discus & Hammer
q Schools Interprovincial Champion, Hammer
q Ranked 2nd Senior NI 100m 11.84
q Ranked 2nd Senior NI 200m 24.30
q Ranked 6th Irish Senior 100m 11.98
q Ranked 7th Irish Senior 200m 24.25
q NI Age group Champion 100m & 200m
q Irish Schools Champion 100m & 200m (new record 200m 24.69)
q Represented
q Silver medallist at Youth Olympics meeting
q Represented
q Competed at the Celtic Games
q Silver medallist 100m at the AAAs Indoor Championships
q AAAs Championships Bronze 200m and Silver 100m
Kiki Malomo-Paris
q Irish Schools 3rd 100m
q Celtic Games Selection
q AAI Champion 100m & 200m
q Winner
of
Gillian Weir