Clongriffin A.C. is a juvenile athletics club based in North Dublin serving the areas of Baldoyle, Belmayne, Clongriffin & Donaghmede. The club was formed in the summer of 2019 and has gone from strength to strength, winning their first relay title at the Dublin indoors in February 2020. They are fostering a fun and engaging athletics environment for children in the area and have gone to great lengths to keep their athletes involved during the challenging 12 months gone by.
The club is keen to give their young athletes the chance to be competitive once training can return in pods in line with government covid guidelines and would like other clubs with a similar mindset to join them. An outline of their plans for a Dublin North Athletics (DNA) series is below as well as contact details for your club to get involved. You can also use this format for your club, & clubs in your area – once the restrictions ease and allow it.
DNA Series
Competition, appropriate to the age of an athlete, is the DNA of athletics. As the country moves to the beginning of the end of the Covid pandemic, Clongriffin AC’s DNA Series looks to safely introduce competition to Juvenile athletes.
Principles Of The Series
- Quick & easy to host, ‘Jumpers For Goalposts’ concept;
- No cost or low cost for clubs;
- Localised competition – no need to travel far;
- Competition & scoring totally team based;
- All fundamental events in each ‘match’ – Run, Jump, Throw;
- Adaptable to Covid restrictions, Pod sizes, Intra Club initially, move to Inter Club.
Match Concept
- Hosted in a club’s normal training venue
- Teams of 6 – age & gender specific or mixed to meet the profile of your club
- Sample Events: 60m sprint
Long Jump or Standing Jump or High Jump
Turbo Javelin or Ball Throw
Parlauf Relay - Scoring – 4 pts available in each event, Team who wins an event get 3 pts, other Team 1pt, a tie means 2 pts each.
- The Team with the most points after 4 events, wins.
Covid Implications
Phase I: Once Covid Restrictions allow clubs re-commence training in pods of 15, intra-club matches can take place. This will help clubs get used to the concept and get athletes back to enjoying athletics in a friendly competitive environment.
Phase II: Once Covid Restrictions allow clubs re-commence competition, inter-club matches can take place, clubs arranging matches at each other’s venues at agreed times.
Match Events and Scoring
- Sprint: Races of 6, 3 from each team. ‘Cross-country style’ scoring. Team with lowest points, wins the event.
- Throw: All athletes throw 3 times with cones, markers used to measure their distance, no measure tapes. ‘Cross-country style’ scoring used to determine winning team.
- Jump: Same concept as Throw except measuring tape may be required to measure distance.
- Parlauf Relay: All team members compete in a continous relay. Adapted to suit your venue, 6 member matches for example will have 5 changeover stations, 50m apart, with the relay continuing until each athlete has completed a certain number of runs. Example, for u13 if you want each athlete to cover 400m, each athlete will do 8 runs.
- Events can be changed and added based on what the athletes enjoy the most or based on their feedback.
Interested In A Match
If your club is interested in a match once Covid restrictions allow, contact us on clongriffinathletics@gmail.com. We’ll be playing our home matches in Fr Collins Park in Clongriffin, Dublin 13.
