Armagh Athletic Club

Congratulations to Peter from Armagh A.C. who came a brilliant 3rd 🥉 in the Under 15 Pentathlon at the NI and Ulster Combined Events Championships at the Mary Peters Track last weekend! 🥳🎉

Fantastic work from Peter who competed in 5 track and field events to complete the Pentathlon:
• 800m
• 80m Hurdles
• Shot Putt
• Long Jump
• High Jump

Well done on all your hard work Peter, to practise and hone so many skills and achieve a great result at this high level! 👏🏻💪🏼🎉🏃🏼🎽💚💙

Athletics NI

It is great to see how other cities encourage physical activity & utilise space - did you know that Budapest's National Athletics Centre has a completely free to use, 650 metre rooftop running track, 40m above the ground? 😃 Maybe Armagh could get one around the Athletic Grounds? 😉😜 Well all ideas are welcome!

Where would you like to see an athletics track in Armagh City?

Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council Athletics NI Athletics Ireland

Heading out this weekend to the 'Queen of the Danube' in Hungary are Armagh A.C. athletes Evanna Fitzsimons and Jacqueline Wright, ready to take on the Budapest Half Marathon on Sunday!

Running in central Europe's fourth largest city they'll experience elegant, centuries-old architecture in the scenic hills of Buda and the plains of Pest. The two halves of this great city are joined together by 15 bridges crossing the Danube, Europe's second longest river, which is also the most international river in the world, flowing through no less than 10 countries!

It will no doubt be a fabulous experience and we all wish them the best of luck & good weather! 😃⛅️💪🏼🏃🏻‍♀️🏃‍♀️🇭🇺💚💙 Good luck ladies!

As you are waking up, you can bet that someone somewhere has just finished a marathon!
Today it is at one of the World Major marathons in Sydney, Australia, and the successful athletes are Armagh A.C.'s own Declan Toal (Bert) and his daughter Niamh - congratulations!! 😃🎉🥳
Well done to you both for completing a gruelling, yet beautifully set 26.2 miles, amongst over 40,000 other long distance runners from over 140 countries!
Come on Armagh! 👏💪🏼👏💚💙

☆ Well done to Armagh A.C. Junior Upe Spelskaite who was the fastest Under 18 at the trials for the British and Irish Mountain Races last week & will now represent NI and Ulster at the British and Irish Mountain Racing Championships!🥳 ⛰️

☆ On the adventure racing circuit, well done to Gareth Kelly⁩ who was hard at it again today in the Full Monte in Donegal & was 12th overall & 2nd in his age group🥈!

☆ Keith Johnston⁩ added to his stellar résumé with a fantastic 2nd place🥈 at the 27k Vrata Valley Trail Race, part of the Triglav Trail Run Festival in Slovenia.

☆ And Lorcan Vallely⁩ cut his way through blankets of fog and knee-high bog in the Western Mournes to finish a brilliant 4th overall in the penultimate NIMRA league race of the season, the "Spread Your Wings" Fell race.

Well done to all these Armagh A.C. runners proudly representing their club at home and abroad👏👏
💙💚 🏃🏽‍♂️🏃‍♀️⛰️.

The Clonmore 10 Mile and 3k races took place in the August rain today but the weather did nothing to dampen spirits as all had come together to run & raise money in the Big Ribbon Fundraiser for:

♡ Pretty 'n Pink Breast Cancer Support,
♡ Leukaemia & Lymphoma NI, and
♡ Cancer Fund for Children.

Well done to all our Juniors who took part in the 3k, with Jessie taking 1st place! 🥇

Well done to all who ran in the 10 Mile:
Fearghal Delaney 5th, 59:50
Martin McKenna 6th, 1:01
Ciaran McKenna 26th, 1:07
Stephen Runalls 49th, 1:13
Michelle McMullan 50th, 1:14
Michelle O'Neill 66th, 1:17
John Kelly 79th, 1:20
Justin McGorman 82nd, 1:20
Julie O'Neill 157th, 1:44

Great running from everyone! 💚💙
Thank you to the organisers and volunteers who stood out in the rain, and to Clonmore Robert Emmets GFC for all their assistance.❤️
📸10 Mile Photos: Rebecca Dobbin Donaghy Photography

The Armagh A.C. annual T.J. McElmeel Cross-country race is named after a great Armagh XC runner whose heyday was in the early days of our modern club, the 1930s.
Let Gerald Rafferty tell you about him (from 1983):

🗣 "The great long-distance man Tommy John McElmeel, could 'lie-back' for most of a 10-mile race and then, like a Rolls Royce engine, accelerate with clockwork efficiency to finish far ahead of the second man home. Later, at races down south, he was called the Lone Star of the north.

He was Ulster Junior CC champ in 1935 and Senior champ in '37, '39 and '42. He led the club to their senior cross-country title in '39 and, in the same year, gave a magnificent performance in the Irish Senior CC in Thurles."

"For a short period I was a junior member of the club myself, joining in Feb 1943 and ran in the Ulster Junior at Aghagallon, Lurgan. I remember that day well. A young barefooted fellow from Cavan (they never wore shoes) ran off like a hare and the rest of us didn't count. But I finished the arduous course, Jimmy Mackle and myself, and we felt proud when the great Tommy John McElmeel said we'd done well. He went on to win the senior race that day.

"My fondest memories of the Armagh City Harriers are standing out on a windswept Tullyard Hill watching all the gallant men of the North run their hearts out for ten miles, for the love of the game and the honour of their clubs." 💚💙

🏃‍♀️🏃🏽‍♂️Enter: https://myrunresults.com/events/armagh_ac__tj_mcelmeel_xc_races/6360/details

McElmeel Mobility Services Limited White's Oats Athletics NI Athletics Ireland Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council

A lovely profile of our friend & club member Lisa McKeever was published in The Irish News on Saturday 22nd August, and is an encouragement to join the Friends of Lisa fundraising walk on 5th September, 10am at St Colmcille's Grange GFC, BT61 8DS.🩷

Digital edition of the newspaper article:
www.irishnews.com/gaa/gaelic-football/born-to-run-battling-lisa-mckeever-fights-back-from-brink-after-car-crash-horror-QOGGTE6MTJGBBK2U2BKPJ73CEM/

To honour our esteemed member, coach and administrator Eithne Vallely, so many Armagh Athletic Club members came together today for her funeral in Armagh City.

It was a moving sight when past and present members formed the cortege from her home in Victoria Street to walk along Mall East and to cross what every February becomes the finish line of the International Road Races, which for decades Eithne so diligently organised alongside her husband Brian.

Arriving at St Patrick's cathedral, the funeral procession was met by a solemn guard of honour. On one side stood our Junior and Senior athletes in their club colours, and on the other side stood the music students from Armagh Pipers Club.

During the funeral Mass, wherever you looked among the congregation you could see the name of Armagh Athletic Club on the backs of jerseys and jackets, and so it was impossible to forget the legacy Eithne leaves: that of bringing together boys and girls and men and women to enjoy the sport & the friendships formed on track & field, over hills & mountains, & on roads & cross country.

We are tremendously thankful for Eithne for the time and the passion she put in, over nearly 60 years, to help build communities and to encourage generations of the children & adults of County Armagh.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.🤍

We at Armagh Athletic Club are heartbroken today, mourning the death of Mrs Eithne Vallely, a longstanding member of our club, who for decades, alongside her husband Brian, was the engine behind the Armagh International Road Races and who organised and helped out in every way at club events.
Our sincerest condolences go to Brian, their children, Niall, Cillian, Caoimhín, Lorcan and Máire, and the entire Vallely family. 🙏🏼🕊

Funeral arrangements are:

Eithne will repose at her home
14 Victoria Street, Armagh BT61 9DT.
Sunday and Monday from 1.00pm to 8.00pm.

House Private for family and
close friends on Tuesday please.
Funeral on Tuesday to
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh for 1.00pm Mass,
followed by burial in St Patrick’s Cemetery.

No flowers please. Donations to the The Air Ambulance, donation box in family home or online at www.airambulanceni.org
All further enquires to J.J. McArdle & Sons 37 Thomas Street Armagh 02837522480.