Turkey Trot Awards 2021

Christmas just doesn’t feel the same without the Blackrock A.C. annual Turkey Trot. So it was a welcome sight to see it take place in some form 2 weeks ago. To wrap up the festive season, below are the transcripts of the presentations from the day which include awards for:

Best Male and Female by Age Category
Best Athletes
Team of the Year
Mary O’Connor Award
Club Person of the Year

We welcome you to share any comments you may have below and be sure to share with your friends. A full album of photos can be seen on our Facebook page below.

Mark Cafferkey

Good morning everyone and welcome to our annual turkey trot. Our last turkey trot was two years ago and since then we have become the largest athletics club in Ireland so great to see the club doing so well. We’re going to start the awards ceremony shortly which recognises the achievements of some of those members but a few announcements first:

Our raffle, unfortunately, this year as with last year we are not able to hold our traditional raffle but instead, we have set up a gofundme site where you can donate to Blood Bikes Dublin – it’s a very worthy cause and 100% voluntary. We’ve also received some gifts as donations and we will raffle those off tomorrow so make sure you include your name when you donate. The gifts include the annual BAC Turkey voucher a LEGO set and restaurant vouchers.
We published a book to mark the 75^th Anniversary of the club. It’s an interesting read and a good memento to keep so make sure to pick one up at the desk if you don’t already have one.
We’ve upped our game in the refreshments space – so if you wish to grab yourself a tea or coffee made by our qualified Barista’s please make your way over there – I would just ask that you give a euro if you have it so we can try and cover the rental.

So on to the awards ceremony. As with tradition, we’re going will start with the merit awards for each age category starting with the youngest first. These awards are chosen by the respective coaches of each age group and are based not just on an athletic achievement but also on their dedication and attitude in training and at events.

Audrey is going to start us off with the awards to the younger age groups.

Audrey Burns

In terms of logistics, when we call out your name, can you come up through the middle here and you will be presented with your award. If you can then exit to the right that would be great.

2014 (U8’s Academy)

We’ve had another great year in the academy and have many fantastic athletes. Amanda and the rest of the coaches would like to recognise everyone in the group and have certificates of Merit for each athlete in this group. You have all officially graduated from our Academy to the Under 9s next year where you will start to compete in The Pairs competitions. We look forward to seeing lots of you in Blackrock Vests in 2022.

2013 (U9’s)

The award for best male goes to Dylan O’Connell

Dylan only started with us this year but has settled in really well, always shows up for training and shows huge determination. He has a heart of a lion as he showed in the cross-county races when he fought hard for every place, he has improved so much over the year and has great potential for next year.

The award for best female of this group goes to Alice Hayes.

Alice has made tremendous progress this year, shows huge dedication to training, always brings a smile and a bit of fun to the group, and when her team needed her she ran the race of her life in the Dublin cross countries and dived over the finish line to help the girls’ team finish with the silver medal.

2012 (U10’s)

The award for best female goes to Lara Woods. Lara joined a very well-established group of athletes this year, yet it very quickly felt like she had always been with us. Most of the drills were new to her but she kept training and it paid off. Lara won a gold medal at the Dublin Pairs in LJ, & qualified both in LJ and 500m at the Nationals. Lara won a silver medal for LJ at the nationals and came 5^th in the 500m.

Lara was also the first BAC U10 female to cross the finish line in all three XC league races and won a 10^th place medal at the 1km XC Even Ages Dublin Championship. Lara has been an incredible addition to the group, a very popular athlete who has been a pleasure to coach.

The award for best male athlete of this age group goes to Josh Hunt. Josh is what you get when you combine natural talent with hard work and determination. Josh puts 100% effort into every single training session. He is always willing to do an extra lap or drill and thanks to his positive attitude & influence, our 2012 athletes have all pushed themselves & improved with him. In 2021 Josh won a gold medal at Dublin 500m, then won another two gold medals for turbo javelin and 500m at the pairs in Santry (with Des and Matthew) qualifying for the Nationals. Josh came 1st in XC leagues 1 & 2 and also finished 1st at the 1km XC Even Ages Dublin Championship, winning a gold medal & also securing a silver medal with his U10s boys XC teammates. Josh is a fantastic yet incredibly humble athlete and 2012 are really proud of his achievements.

2011 (U11’s)

The award for the best male athlete for the 2011 age group goes to Fabio Brennan-Conte. Fabio was 1^st home for Blackrock in his age group getting 6^th place in the Dublin XC, 4^th place in League 3 XC and 3^rd place in the 600m pairs competition which was shared with Ethan

The award for best female goes to Sian McCrohan. Sian is an allrounder in both Track and Field and XC. She took gold and bronze in the Dublin pairs in Long Jump and 60m and came 4^th and 6^th in the Nationals. Sian is a key member of the girls’ XC team and consistently improves in every race. It was unfortunate she could not attend the nationals XC where her coaches are sure she would have performed very well.

2010 (U12’s)

The award for the best female athlete from the 2008’s group goes to Aoife Conlon. Aoife is a very dedicated trainer, who has consistently improved over the year and continues to grow as a very competent middle-distance runner. Aoife has a great attitude and competed strongly in all of the Cross Country races this year.

The best male athlete for this age group goes to Dylan Maher. Dylan is a very dedicated athlete whose consistency in training over the last number of seasons has really paid off. Dylan was the 2^nd BAC male crossing the line in the XC Even Ages Dublin Championship this year.

2009 (U13’s)

The best male award for 2009’s goes to Conor Barker. Conor always gives it his all, he’s performed well in races and challenges this year. He has a great attitude which is helping him to continue to progress in developing his running ability.

The best female award of the 2009 group goes to Eva Kelly. Eva has continued to improve over the past 2 years. She’s a gutsy mid Distance runner who always tries her best. She’s a committed team member who trains hard.

2008 (U14’s)

The best female award of 2008’s goes to Megan Brunt. Megan

The award for best male of 2008 goes to Harry Moran,

I’ll hand you over to Mark now who will take you through the awards for some of the older groups.

Mark Cafferkey

2007 (U15’s)

The award for best male from 2007’s goes to Philip Doyle. Philip is a superb athlete and loves to compete.

The award for best female goes to Mia Holland, Mia has improved

2006 (U16’s)

The award for best female goes to Emily Becker.

The award for best male in 2006 goes to Mark Brophy, Mark is relatively new to the club joining approximately 3 year ago

2005 (U17’s)

The award for best male in 2005 goes to Robert O’Brien. Robert has been a stalwart performer in the club and is no stranger to this podium. Rob is a key member of the Boys U17 relay team got a bronze medal for Long Jump in the Dublin competitions and narrowly missed out in a 400m medal. He represented BAC at the Nationals has been selected to be part of the high-performance squad with Athletics Ireland.

The best female award in 2005 goes to Ciara Thornton. Her determination and commitment in pursuit of improvement in Javelin throwing is to be admired. Even on her holidays, she is. She even seeks out training a national medal to her chosen sport is to be admired,

2004 / 3 (U18’s)

This year’s award for the female athlete in the U18 age category goes to Kate Haugh. Kate

And the best Male award for this age group goes to Liam Dillon. Liam has established himself.

In the U19 age group category, the best male athlete goes to Cian Griffith. Can is a recent joiner to the club who initially came into us as part of his Leaving Cert PE project work to demonstrate improvement over time in a sport. Now he’s hooked and has improved greatly taking part in his first Dublin competitions this year.

That brings us to a close on the merit awards and onto the club trophies. The first of these is the Team award. This is an award which recognises the importance of team events in athletics and the importance that we, as a club place on competing as part of a team.

Dave is going to present the first three club awards for us.

Dave Furey

Mary O’Connor Award

The Mary O’Connor Trophy is one of the mainstays of our annual awards over the last number of years. This trophy is awarded in acknowledgment of performances and commitment. It acknowledges athletes who constantly look to improve. It acknowledges athletes who are committed to training. It acknowledges athletes who lead by example and always arrive with a smile on their faces …

The commitment to training and willingness to assist at every opportunity is a testimony to their all-round great attitude. They are keen to improve and compete across multiple disciplines at various times during the year.

Can you please put your hands together for the two very popular joint winners of this year’s Mary O’Connor trophy Aoife Roche and Meadhbh Doyle.

Team of the year

Club team of the year – the Boys U11 Cross Country team who came first in Dublin Championships with five athletes in the top 21 and went on to the National Cross Country Championships coming 10th overall.

Massive congrats again to our 2011 athletes of the year Fabio and Sian! You both worked incredibly hard this year and have been so dedicated in training. Because it was such a phenomenal year for the 2011s we also won the team award for our boys x-country achievements winning in Dublin.

Female Athlete of the Year

This year’s female athlete of the year has been a core member of the juvenile athletics group since she joined. The overall best female athlete across all younger age groups went to Robyn! Well done lads! And well done to Robyn who has another handful of Nationals medals in that huge trophy!!

Male Athlete of the Year

A promising athletic powerhouse all round. The Male athlete of the year for 2019 is Killian Curran

Overall Athlete of the Year

I would now like to announce the winner of this year’s athlete of the year award. The award this year again goes to one of our junior members of the club and someone that is highly committed to their sport.

Over the last 24 months, this year’s winner has been a model of consistency. Although still quite young in terms of our athlete development, he is following in the footsteps of some prestigious winners of this trophy in recent years. She has represented the club in five All Ireland’s (3 in Cross Country and 2 on the track) and unfortunately the winner isn’t here today as they are running in their sixth All Ireland competition in Dunboyne. Away from the track, this athlete attends St. Andrews Secondary school where they play Hockey for both School and Pembroke. She always has a smile on her face, lives for hard work and never complains. She has a very happy disposition and although has a great focus, she always wants to join in with her friends in the 2007 age group.

We are delighted to announce this year’s overall athlete of the year is Donal Martin

Barry Thornton

Club Person of the year

This year our club person of the year goes to Ciara O’Brien. Blackrock AC relies on an incredible amount of voluntary work and we like to recognise such individuals who put in a lot of their own time which often goes unnoticed.

That concludes our award ceremony, well done to everyone who won an award. Please remember to donate to blood bikes if you can, all the details are on our website and on behalf of myself and the club I would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy, fit and healthy new year.