Tallaght AC hold annual awards

Stephen Leonard

TALLAGHT athletics club held their annual awards last week. Overall there were eight awards given out on the night.

Joseph Ojewumi, a 3rd year elite athletics scholarship DCU student, picked up male athlete of the year. Joseph has had a stellar 2016 and was selected for the Irish senior relay squad for the European Championships.

He is the current Dublin, Leinster and national U20 100 metre champion and also lowered the club 100m record to 10.75 seconds.

Laura McDonnell picked up female athlete of the year.

Billy Loughman picked up improved male athlete of the year, while Clare Price O’Brien won improved female athlete.

Liam Cullen won male master athlete. Liam is an experienced marathon runner and has run sub three hours on numerous occasions.

However, Liam’s big goal this year was to run a new marathon personal best in the Dublin marathon. On the day Liam ran the race of his life and ran an incredibly impressive 2 hours 55 minutes.

Liam also picked up Dublin championships medals over the marathon distance.

Jacqui Boyle won female master athlete of the year, while, Jacqui has had a fantastic 2016 and Linda Clarke was a very popular winner of the Tallaght AC club person of the year.

Linda is an excellent servant to the club and is always available to help out at events the club organise and also looking after the day-to-day running of the club house.

The final award on the night went to the women’s captain Sarah Jane Kinsella. Sarah Jane finished first in the championship racer competition an internal competition open to all members that recognises consistent performances over a range of distances from track to cross country to road.