The Flanagan Family
The Burke Family
2016 Most Improved Athlete of the Year 2016 Athlete of the Year
The local Community Centre was packed on Friday night last for our annual juvenile presentation night. All medals won at the recent Cross Country season were presented and with over 15 sets of County Championship medals, 4 individual Munster Championship medals, 2 sets of Munster Club Championship medals, 9 Munster team medals and 2 national team medals to be presented it showed just how successful the club was from October to December. In addition presentations were also made to five club members who reached new heights in the Track & Field season during the summer months with 2 individual National gold, 1 individual National silver and 6 Munster individual medals to their names. The highlight of the night is surely the presentation of “Athlete of the Year” and “Most Improved Athlete of the Year” and these awards fell to Stephen Flanagan and Sean Burke respectively. Considering over 93 athetes achieved points for these two awards it shows just how competitive it can be and to come out on top is a massive achievement for both of the above athletes.
Stephen has excelled throughout the year. He has competed at County, Munster and National level and collected gold, silver and bronze medals at all levels. Stephen was the winner of the Gold medal at the National Indoor Championships for the 0/35 high jump having finished second in Munster and winning the County equivalent. He also finished second in the County and Munster 0/35 800mts and followed this up with a fifth place in the National Championships. Stephen also collected a bronze medal in the County 0/35 400mts. He was 5th in the County Novice Road Championships and 8th in both the County Masters and Intermediate Road Championships. At the County Track & Field Championships he won a total of 4 individual medals – 1st O/35 High Jump, 1st O/35 Shot, 2nd 0/35 5,000mts and 3rd in the 0/35 Long Jump. He also competed in the Cross Country Championships were he finished 9th in the Novice, 8th in the Intermediate and capped it off with 2nd in the Novice”B”. Stephen was also a member of the club team that finished 2nd in the “B” section of the County Road Relays, 1st in the 4 x 400mts at the County T&F championships and 2nd in the County Novice “B” Cross Country.
Sean commenced the year by being a member of the Tipperary U/15 team that won the silver medals at the National “B” Cross Country Championships and quickly followed this up with a bronze medal in both the U/16 800mts and High Jump at the County Indoor Championships while also being part of the club team that won the 4 x 200mts relay at the same championships. In the Munster eqivalent he reached the final in both events to finish 6th and 7th respectively. At the County Track & Field Championships he won a bronze medal in the U/16 Javelin and in the Munster T&F Championships he finished 5th in the U/16 High Jump and 7th in the Javelin. Competing in the Munster “B” T&F Championships he went on to win a silver medal in the Long Jump but even better was to come at National level where he won the U/16 High Jump. Sean also finished 10th in the U/16 County Cross Country Championships while also a member of the U/16 club team that won bronze in the Munster Inter-Cub Cross Country Championships. The above clearly shows how versatile an athlete Sean is.
Congratulations to both athletes on their marvellous achievements in 2016 and indeed to all our athletes who received County, Munster and National medals. For those who this year were unlucky not to be presented with a medal there is still the opportunity of achieving success at the upcoming County Indoor Track & Field Championships and the County Outdoor Track and Field Championships later in the year.
