O’Sullivan worthy recipient of Duleek club’s top award
THE running year that was 2016 was commemorated in fine style at the recent Duleek & District AC Annual Awards Night which is the main event on the club’s social calendar and was well attended.
It was a night of reflection and celebration of numerous achievements during the year. There were several notable highlights, including the club’s inaugural and massively successful Couch to 5k programme, and the Indaver Duleek 10k which continues to go from strength to strength and has become a fixture on the Meath road running calendar.
The Captain’s League was also introduced during the year and added a fun dimension to a number of summer road races, while the club’s juveniles continued to fly the flag for the club in track & field and achieved some notable successes in Meath League and Meath championship events.
The club sent its largest ever contingent of 28 to the start line for the Dublin Marathon, with 11 of those taking on the distance for the first time. Within those feats there were numerous great performances, personal bests, county medals and notable achievements.
Orla Crosby and Alan McKeown were unveiled as the club captains for 2017, both of whom proving to be hugely popular choices.
Within the Fit for Life group Jean Wynne, Marion Hayden, Gary Moore and Billy McCormack received awards for their achievements during the year. Anne Hamilton and Paddy Lennon scooped the Most Improved awards in the Meet and Train group, with both athletes having shown great form during the year.
Kevin Durkin and Amanda Noone were rewarded for numerous impressive outings during the year as they received the Meet and Train male and female Athlete of the Year awards.
It was with eager anticipation that the club Athlete of the Year and Club Person of the Year Awards were announced. Karen O’Sullivan was an extremely worthy winner of the Club Person accolade, fitting recognition for all of the hard work Karen does behind the scenes on behalf of the club. An equally popular winner was Club Athlete of the Year Derek Reilly. Derek excelled across all distances during the year, setting numerous personal bests and racing consistently.
A short few days later the glad rags were replaced by gloves as a number of the club’s athletes were in action across the region.
Anne Hamilton rounded off an excellent year with a great performance in a cold and hilly Waterford Half-Marathon. Anne has carried through her form from her first marathon this year and continues to go from strength to strength after she clocked a new PB of 2hr 4min.
Eric Devine has been no stranger to PBs this year and is finishing 2016 exactly as he started it, with an excellent PB of 1hr 37min in the East of Ireland Half-Marathon in Howth.
Peter Hearty locked up the year in fine style, saving his best performance of the year until last and breaking the 17-minute barrier for 5k along the way. Peter clocked a mightily impressive 16:56 in a highly competitive Jingle Bells 5k in the Phoenix Park, while David Doyle clocked 18:07 in the same race.