Chairman’s Address to Meath AAI Convention

Chairman’s Address to Meath AAI Convention
Firstly on behalf of all of us I would like to thank our county president Paddy Joyce who has come to all our functions and events throughout the year. On my own behalf I want to extend a special word of thanks to my fellow officers for all their hard work during the year because without their combined efforts it would be impossible to successfully run the programme of events that we have on our yearly calendar. I want to thank all the clubs who gave their own facilities or organised facilities to host our championships. I would like to thank Philip for all his work during the year especially on the IT end. During the summer I brought Philip fishing on the Boyne and it opened up a whole new past-time for him in spite of the fact that the only thing he caught was a wet foot as the waders I gave him had a slight hole in them.  A special thanks is due to Treasurer Rita Brady who keeps a very good rein on our finances. This year Rita would like to take a break from her position for the year and I on your behalf and my own would like to wish her well and good health knowing that we will see her again over the summer. Thanks is also due to Sharon & her staff in the Sport’s Development Programme, who do so much of the clerical work for us, which facilitates the efficient running of all our events and also to Moira Peppard and her team that bring athletics to the schools. Moira’s & Paul’s enthusiasm and hard work looks as if it will pay dividends with the probability of a new club in the Carnaross area. I would like to thank our PRO and all the local media for their coverage of our events throughout the year and the Meath Local Sports Partnership who are doing so much to promote active lifestyles within the community.


It has been a good year both collectively and individually for Meath Athletics. Our juvenile athletes continue to make their mark at National level as is evident by the numbers receiving certificates at our Annual Awards Night. We tend to be stronger in the field events but this year we have seen the emergence of new talent in the younger age groups especially at the National Cross Country Championships.

At this stage I have to thank Gerard Heery for all his work as the senior team manager. The cross-country season was an unqualified success this year with both juvenile & senior teams doing well. It is great to see that next year both the men’s and ladies teams will compete in section A of the Inter Counties. The disappointing aspect of the senior athletics was the National T&F League team which in 2010 did not seem to have the commitment to the competition that we had in previous years – now maybe this was due to our young team that had quite a few athletes tied up with exams. For 2011 we would hope to renew that commitment and make sure that we are in Tullamore for final’s day in August.
  
Once again we have increased our membership and we finished the year with about 2400 members.  This is due to the more active development, coaching for all levels of athletes within the county and that we have more events for all levels of athletes so that the athletics year does not end for some with just the Meath T&F Championships. At this stage I must acknowledge the help & support that we receive from our RDO Bart Rogers. The development squad while not running totally smoothly was a useful learning curve and this year we should be able to teak the system to make it run more efficiently and be of benefit to more up and coming athletes. Thanks is due to Maggie Higgins, Brigid Clarke and John Holian in Development and Tom Clinton in Coaching for all their hard work in this regard.

The beach run was again a great success and I would like to especially thank the members of my own club for their in help making the BBQ successful and to Paddy Mangan for marking out the course.

Where do we go from here? Last year I said we can build our membership to 2500 but there is no doubt that with application and hard work we can surpass that. It will entail building on our coaching programmes, pooling our expertise, group training, development squads etc. Again there are areas in the county where we need to establish an athletic club especially the North of the county which is bereft of athletics but it seems likely that we will get a club started in Carnaross.  However we have a new club in Slane and the great thing about the club in Slane was that the locals came to us looking about setting up the club, which means that there is good local interest. We will help them in every way possible both financially and with coaching expertise to get them started in their first year so that they can get off to a good start.

Last year I mentioned we could have an interesting Congress in April 2010. That we did but unfortunately Michael Heery was unsuccessful in his bid to become President.

Finally, I wish all our athletes, officials, county officers and club members a very successful and enjoyable year.



Brendan Meade