St Senan’s Open T&F
The St Senan’s Open T&F takes place on Easter Monday 17^th April starting at 1.00pm with a full programme of events for juveniles, junior and senior athletes. Races start with an 80m for U/8, U/9, U/10, U/11, U/12 and U/13 boys and girls. The U/11 ages also have a 300m, while the U/12 to U/17 athletes also have a long jump and shot putt. Junior girls have a 100m, 400m, 1500m and long jump, while the junior boys have a 100m, 400m, 3000m and long jump. Relays (4 x 200m) are for U/10, U/12, U/14 and U/16 with a mixed junior relay. Note that athletes can move up one age group in field events and relays only, while Junior relay athletes are ages U/17 – U/20 only. Entry fee for relay teams is €6. There is a senior 1500m for ladies with prizes for first three athletes and first two vets, while the senior men have a 3000m race again with prizes for first three and first two vets. Entry for senior races is €5.00, while admission for both adults and juveniles is still only €2 at the gate. A big thank you to our sponsors Fogarty Car Sales, Miltown, Kilmacow and Don Butler Plant & Haulage, Skeard Kilamacow for their continued support. Full details or programmes are available from Bill Lacey at 051 885684

5K Success
St Senan’s athletes featured in the inaugural Waterford AC 5K last Sunday with Adele Walsh again on the winner’s rostrum with another top class run. Sean Caulfield was also among the winners taking 3^rd place in the senior men’s race while other club competitors included PJ Dwyer and Cait Caulfield.

First Lady
The ladies race turned into a three way battle with Adele, Maria Murphy-Griffin (Ind) and Diane Behan of West Waterford all in contention with just 600m to go. A strong break by Adele however opened a winning gap and she came home an impressive winner in a time of 18.32. Maria Murphy – Griffin finished 2^nd overall but took the first O/35 prize with Diane Behan finishing senior runner-up and 3^rd senior prize going to Collette Holland of Waterford AC. Cait Caulfield one of St Senan’s most talented female athletes also had an excellent run and is getting back to her best form.

Express Male
Once again Sandis Bralitis of West Waterford was the leading male runner as he stormed clear of the chasing pack. Ted Flannery and Sean Caulfield disputed the runner up spot with the United Striders athlete taking the prize on this occasion. Sean placed 3^rd ahead of Mark Langford of West Waterford to emphasise the fine shape he is in at present. His Glenmore neighbour Lar Leacy won the O/45 section with PJ Dwyer having a fine run in this category. Well done to all involved in this the first of three 5K races with the next taking place on 26^th March and the final one on 2^nd April. For more info contact Des Colbert on 086 1024541.

Class Act
Talent when combined with dedication will always produce quality results as shown by rising KCH star, 15 year old Aoife Hickey. She has shown consistent progress over the last three years but it was her achievements during the last twelve months that led to her selection by The AAI as Kilkenny Juvenile Athlete of 2005. At the Indoor Trials in January she reached the qualifying standard for the U/15 AAA’s in the shot putt with a throw of 11.03m. In February she travelled to Birmingham for the AAA’s finals and won gold with a throw of 11.38m. During March she won both the Leinster and All Ireland U/15 Indoor shot putt titles as well as a silver in the Leinster high jump and a gold in the relay. Her T&F season got off to a flying start when she won shot, discus, long jump and Javelin in the County Kilkenny Championships. This was followed by gold medal performances in shot, discus, hammer and combined events in the Leinster championships. Her shot distance of 12.36m in these championships was a championship best performance. Competing in the schools All-Ireland she won silver in the discus and set a new junior hammer record with a throw of 44.10m. She followed this with double gold in the AAI U/15 National championships, throwing 12.10m in the shot and 43.42m in the hammer, another championship record. It was this athletic CV that won her the well merited AAI Athlete of The Year Award  for 2005 at the annual presentation ceremony in the Arklow Bay Hotel last week. Aoife Hickey a name to watch for the future.

Good start by O'Keeffe
Eileen O'Keeffe resumed her love affair with the Hammer at an international throwing event in Tel Aviv, Israel, at the week-end. Eileen, who hopes to be the first Irish female to reach the 70m mark, threw 65.16m, two meters more than she achieved at this competition in 2005. This is a great start to the 2006 season for the talented Callan girl who has made the hammer event very much her own in the last couple of years.

The Whine Line is now Open
The club’s juvenile are training hard at present for the coming T & F season with an added Sunday morning session overseen by Bill Lacey adding to the torture. The early morning start brings it’s share of moans and groans, however excuses like, ‘I forgot my good runners’,  ‘My bunions are killing me’ or ‘I’m upset ‘cause I buried the cat’ all fall on deaf ears and it’s run or face the wrath of Bill. Meanwhile our talented crop of walkers are shaping up nicely and burning up the track at present. Look out for some hot performances from the likes of Catherine and Laura Fennelly, Fiona Dennehy and Lydia Meyler over  the summer.