Our 10th anniversary Club Xmas Party and Awards Dinner was held in Byrne and Woods yesterday evening as a nice coda for the season and start of the Christmas festivity period.
CLUB XMAS CRACKER
The morning had begun with our traditional Winter League in the special ‘Xmas Cracker Relay Edition’ where handicapped teams of two battled it out for boxes of chocolate. The intended route in Ballardpark had to be scrapped due to (rein?)deer culling in the woods and instead runners completed the tough 5 km Green Gapways course where the team of Catherine Devitt and Rene Borg came from behind to win ahead of Donna Quinn/Yvonne Brennan and Aoife Joyce and Derek Cullen. The final two teams were DNFed as Paul Duffy and Graham Bush missed the turn and took in some bonus mileage.
One more round of the Winter League awaits this year on the morning of the 28th.
CLUB AWARDS 2024 RESULTS
Three candidates where picked in each category and our members voted on the winner.
Below can be seen the full list of winners. A few notes on the awards:
- 5 ‘founding members’ were in attendance at the Christmas Party: Aoife Joyce, Angus Tyner, Colm Kenna, Donna Quinn, Keith Mulvey and Rene Borg
- In the first 7 years of awards, Angus Tyner and Donna Quinn won 6 of the ‘Road Performer of the Year Awards’ (3 each) – the last two years has seen Blaise and now Catherine win it to
- Graham Bush became the second person to win the Off-Road Performer twice (after Barry Murray) having won it in 2022
- John Conway who won the Off-Road Award last year took the Ultra award in 2024
- Paul Duffy became the third man to win the Club Championship twice (after Angus Tyner and Rene Borg) but the FIRST to defend his title
- Separate Off-Road, Road and Team Performance Awards for women where given out for the first time
- Ultra Performer of the Year was given out as a separate award for the first time (having been under the Off-road category previously)
- Donna Quinn and Angus Tyner continue to top the Awards list with 15 and 8 awards respectively!
MOST PROLIFIC RACER AND ‘MOST IMPROVED’ – EOIN PHELAN
CLUB CHAMPION 2024 (MEN) – PAUL DUFFY
CLUB CHAMPION 2024 (WOMEN) – AOIFE JOYCE
CLUB PERSON OF THE YEAR – RACHEL WISDOM
ROAD PERFORMER OF THE YEAR (MEN) – GAVIN KENNEDY
ROAD PERFORMER OF THE YEAR (WOMEN) – CATHERINE DEVITT
OFF-ROAD PERFORMER OF THE YEAR (MEN) – GRAHAM BUSH
OFF-ROAD PERFORMER OF THE YEAR (WOMEN) – AOIFE O’BRIEN
Aoife was not in attendance – trophy to be circulated.
ULTRA PERFORMER OF THE YEAR – JOHN CONWAY
John was also not in attendance.
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR – LOUIS BYRNE
WOMEN’S TEAM AWARD 2024 (WICKLOW MASTERS O35 TEAM)
Rachel Wisdom, Donna Quinn and Aoife Joyce receiving the prize (Loraine Creane absent).
MEN’S TEAM AWARD 2024 (WICKLOW OFF-ROAD O50 TEAM)
Angus Tyner and Graham Bush received the four prizes in absence of Richard Allan and Anthony Breen (the two remaining team members)
CLUB QUIZ 2024
Finally, the traditional super-frustrating Club Quiz was also passed around and won (suspiciously) by Aoife Joyce (wife of the quiz master!) with 12 out of 16 correct answers with Colm and Gavin runners-up.
Glendalough AC 