2014-12-03

Borris-Ileigh Juvenile GAA club are holding a presentation night this Friday night the 5th of December in the Community Centre at 7:30pm . We would like to invite all our hurlers and their parents from U-6 to U-16. We had a great year and there is a number of medals to be presented on the night. Refreshments will be served.
 

A fine display of some of Cathal’s work
 

Mens Marathon Challenge Winner – Alan Kelly

The 42 kilometres of the Borrisoleigh Marathon Challenge are now completed with Alan Kelly and Suzanne Whyte crowned as the inaugural champions. The destiny of the titles were only decided on the finishing straight of the final kilometre as the extra seconds gained were the all important ones that earned valuable bonus points hence the claiming of the laurels.
The improvement shown by all participants over the course of seven weeks is remarkable and most impressive. The level of competitiveness became more evident with every passing week with individual battles breaking out amongst the field while it was also evident that individuals were putting in a serious effort to progress their performances each week.
Alan Kelly certainly proved to be the star of the show after claiming 3 of the possible stage victories and then to pull out all the stops on the final night and in doing so he claimed the title by a mere 7 seconds, showing just how important his last lap increase in acceleration proved to be. Richie Tynan deserves tremendous credit also for his huge improvement in time from the Challenge’s commencement to its completion. He was certainly worthy of his podium finish claiming the second spot overall.

The battle for the final podium place was brilliant and only a single point separated Denis Ryan and Noel Kennedy. Denis was brilliantly consistent right throughout the consecutive weeks and again he’s a very worthy winner of that third place overall. Noel’s performances have been equally brilliant especially over the latter half of the Challenge. That one point difference when broken down even further is a mere 10 second turnaround on the last night and the positions would have been reversed. Martin Fahy saved his best performance for the last night and that impressive outing saw him claim a top 5 placing overall.

Marathon Challenge Round 7 Winner
Geraldine O’Brien

Only 4 points separated the top 3 women and again the names etched on the prizes were to be decided on the final night as all 3 carved out personal best times to climb the ladder when it mattered most. Suzanne Whyte is the overall champion thanks again to her excellent level of consistent running and impressive level of improvement over the 7 week duration especially over the latter 4 rounds when she clocked in with some superb finishing times. Again it couldn’t have been closer as Suzanne beat her personal best time on the final night by a single second to claim the bonus points on offer and in doing so she climbed to top rung of the ladder to claim the inaugural title.
Frances Stapleton claimed second spot overall and again it was her final performance that proved the telling factor. A personal best time of 12 seconds resulted in 10 bonus points hence catapulting her to that well deserved podium place. The foggy and cold conditions didn’t affect the performance of Geraldine O’Brien during the last round and she proved to be the star of the night claiming the stage win while also claiming the bonus points on offer resulting in her clinching the third spot overall in the women’s grade. Geraldine’s performance on the night deserve the highest of praise and the accolades that have followed are absolutely merited after a brilliant series of consistent performances. Patricia Ryan was very close to that podium placing after finishing 2 points behind Geraldine overall to take fourth spot while the top five was completed by Marie McGrath another 5 points in arrears.
Overall the Marathon Challenge proved to be a huge success with 69 different people competing over the 7 weeks. 17 people completed the full 42km while 8 more have the chance of completing the distance with the aid of the extra night we are putting on as they only missed a single night. These 17 and possibly the 25 will have their efforts acknowledged at the presentation night. The top 3 men and women on the overall league table will also be receiving their prizes on the night as will the individual stage winners.

Women’s Marathon Challenge Winner – Suzanne Whyte with Frances Stapleton (Runner Up) and Tom Stapleton

We would like to thank our sponsors of the event namely Owen Ryan Motors (Loughmore), Albany Home Decor (Nenagh), Cross Fabrication (Templederry), Wright Insurance Ltd (Wexford) and Pat Keane Painter & Decorator (Mountkinane).

Frances Maher, Trish Ryan, Marie O’Connell, LauraYoung, Mairead Lane