Le Cheile athlete David McCarthy achieved a new PB for 800m in Lignano Italy on Tuesday night, 20th July, 2011. David finished 5th in a time of 1.46.62 knocking .2 seconds off his previous best.

John O'Regan in the Anglo Celtic Plate

Le Chéile will be represented on the international stage once again this weekend when John O'Regan competes on the Ireland Team for the Anglo Celtic Plate in Perth, Scotland. This 100k event, takes place on Sunday 27th March, is a key event for some of the top ultra runners from Ireland and the UK and will also incorporate the Irish 100km Championships. The race starts at 7am and I’m sure we will be getting updates as it progresses.

John will be ably supported by Tony Brennan (for fueling and other interesting duties!) and we wish them both the best of luck in the event.

National League- Kildare Athletics

Congratulations to Erica Dixon who competed on the Kildare Team in the final of the National League. Kildare Athletics finished in 2nd Place earning them a Silver Senior Medal. Erica competed alongside Rose Anne Galligan and Claire Brady both international athletes, along with fellow clubs athletes, Sinead (Celbridge) Naimh ( St Cocas) Rachel (St Cocas) Pauline (Kildare) Corla (Naas) Evelyn (Newbridge) Sophie (Newbridge) Fiona (Newbridge) Chloe (St Cocas).

Well done to all the girls, they were beaten by Galway by a mere 2 points, this is a very young team with great future.

European Championships

Le Cheile athlete David McCarthy has been officially named on the Irish team for the European Championships later this month. David will be competing in the 800m but has also been named on the 4x100m relay squad. David has represented his club and his country on the international stage many times before and no doubt he will take this oppertunity in his stride. This event displays the strength of Kildare athletes as we will also see Newbridge's Roseanne Galligan in the 800m and Claire Brady from Celbridge in the 4x100m women's relay. Congratulations to David, Roseanne and Claire on qualification and best of luck to them all in the championships.

The European Championships take place in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona from the 27th July to the 1st August. For more information click here

World Championships

Ultra-runner John o’Regan will be competing in the 17th World 24hrs Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde in France this week.

John qualified for this event when he recorded a distance of 220.021km in his first and only 24hr race to date in Tooting, London last year. He recorded the best ever debut distance at this event.

The race will start at 09:00 Thursday 13th (Irish time) and will finish at 09:00 Friday 14th, for those interested the race will be broadcast live on the IAAF website. Click here for updates and live broadcast of the race.

Tony Brennan has been included on the support crew, no doubt this will be of great support to John in his first world championships.

Best of luck to you John!

Its all happening on the International Stage

Its all happening on the International stage for Le Chéile at the moment!!! We wish David McCarthy the best of luck in the World Indoor Championships in Doha next weekend. David will take part in the 800m and has been selected for the 4X400 relay team. David has delivered some fantastic results over the last few weeks and we expect the improving form to continue. Best of luck David!

It was also confirmed by Ultra Running Ireland that John O'Regan has been selected for the Ireland team in the World and European 24 hour Championships, to be held in Brive, France on the 13/14th of May. John was selected based on his debut performance in London last year with an impressive 220km in a 24 hour track race.

We wish them both well and will be keeping a close eye on them.

Senior Indoor - Competition 6/7th February 2010

Congratulations once again go to David McCarthy, David was runner up in the 800m National Indoor Championship held in the Odyssey Arena on Sunday. David has been selected to represent Ireland in the World Indoor Championships , a well deserved achievement. Other Kildare athletes were also in top form ; Claire Brady Celbridge AC who won Athlete of the meet along with securing her qualifily time for the World Indoor Championship along with a place on the Irish Team, Sandra Lawlor Celbridge AC 3rd hurdles and Claire Mooney of Naas AC who was 2nd in the 400m.

International News

Congratulations to David McCarthy (son of Richard) who achieved the qualifying time for the 800m World Indoor Championships.

David was running in Vienna on Tuesday and his time was 1.48:29, a new P.B. David ran in Luxembourg a few days earlier and had a great win also. The news of David's achievement was greeted with delight during training on Tuesday.

David McCarthy has represented Ireland on numerous occassions and David has a bronze World Indoor Championship medal for the 4 x 400m relay. David is a very dedicated and talented athlete and we wish him continued success.

Well done David and the very best of luck to you and your family.

John O'Regan - Selected for Irish Team

John O'Reagan has been selected to represent Ireland in the World 24hr Challenge and European Championships. This race will take place in Brive, France 13/14th May 2010.

John made his debut 24hr race in October last in London. Ireland will send a team of six and the first 3 home will score on the Irish Team.

John is currently in Kery with his family and I'm sure he is delighted with his selection. John is a very committed athlete and I'm sure he found time over Christmas to get a couple of runs in!

Well done John and best of luck from everyone at the club.

Good Luck John!

John O'Regan will compete in the 'North Face 100', his second 100k ultra marathon, this Saturday (16th May). John has travelled to the Blue Mountains in Australia for this event. The North Face 100 is the pinnacle of trail runs in Australia. A challenging, spectacular course through some of Australia's most iconic landscape of the Blue Mountains. 100km was never meant to be easy and this course will certainly test everyone. But it will bring great rewards, phenomenal views, and the best tracks in the Blue Mountains. For more information click here.

Best of luck to John!

Excellent finish for O'Regan in Celtic 100k

In what can be described as one of the most gruelling events in road racing, the 100k challenge presents competitors with an opportunity to run nearly 2 and a half marathons in one race. The Celtic 100k race was held on Saturday 28th of March in Salthill, Galway and featured a truly international field with athletes competing from Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, Germany and Poland. Incorporated into the event was the Anglo Celtic Plate, a home countries international between Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Le Chéíle AC’s John O’Regan took part in this event and despite competing for the first time at this distance, put in an exceptional performance.



The winner of the race Jez Bragg (England) who completed the course in a time of 6:58:00 and the first Irish man home was 6th place Thomas Maguire (7:30:56). The winner of the women’s race was Ireland’s Helena Crossan finishing in a time of 8:11:04. Leixlip man John O’Regan finished in 16th place overall with a time of 8:36:42 – Imagine running non-stop for longer than is most people’s working day!



The team event was won by England with Ireland achieving 3rd place in the Celtic Cup, and the Ireland women’s team coming in third place overall after England and Scotland.



Although not selected on the Irish team for this event (he did not have prior experience in this type of event) he managed to finish as the 3rd placed Irish man. I expect that John will certainly feature in Ireland's team selection in future ultra distance events.



Not content with resting on his laurels, O'Regan will today be putting on his runners and forgetting about the aches and pains to prepare for his next events. He will take part in this year's London marathon (26th April) as an official pacer. The job of a pacer is to being a group of people through the marathon course at a predefined, consistent pace. A bit like the pied piper, John will lead athletes at a consistent 8 minute mile pace, to complete the marathon in under 3hours 20 minutes.

The London marathon will be a training run for O'Regan's preparation for the North Face 100k run. This will be his second 100k ultra marathon and takes place in Australia's Blue Mountains on the 16th of May. This race, described by the organisers as "challenging, spectacular course through some of Australia's most iconic landscape" will present more of a challenge than the Celtic 100k, but John will have learned a lot and will be well prepared.

Well done John!


(Picture shows John with Celtic 100k race director Richard Donovan)

John O'Regan Competes in Celtic 100k

John O'Regan will compete in the Celtic 100km this Saturday- 29th March (Is he mad?) The race is 50 laps of a 2km course in Salthill, Galway. This race is an IUA labeled race and Ireland's first official world ranking ultra-race. The 2009 Celtic 100k also decides the individual titles of the UK 100km Championships and the 100km Championships of Ireland.

For more information on the race visit: http://www.celtic100k.com/

Good Luck John!

No place in the final for David McCarthy

In what appeared to be a very difficult race for David, his efforts in the semi-final of the 800m European Indoor Championship delivered a time of 1.53.53 which was not enough to progress to the final. Despite the result in the semi-final, David should be suitable proud of his achievement and his contribution to the success of the Ireland team at these championships.

Overall it has been a successful Championship for the Irish team, which saw two Bronze medals, 5 finalists, 4 personal bests, 2 seasonal bests and an Irish Record.
In a quote from Team Manager, Patsy McGonagale he said, "From start until finish it has been a great performance from everyone involved. Every athlete out there gave their best and on certain occasions we may have even come back with more medals if you look at how close Róisín and the relay team were. All in all this has been a great success and we can all look positively towards the Worlds in August now".

All of us in Le Chéile look forward to following David's progress as he prepares for qualification for the World Championships as part of the Ireland team.

Well done again David!

David McCarthy Qualifies for Semi Final

An excellent race from David in his 800m heat, recording a time of 1.49.59, led to a semi-final place as the fastest runner-up. The semi-final of the 800m European Indoor Championship will be held on Saturday (7th) at 16:30. The race will be broadcast live during the BBC coverage of the event and we'll all be their with David in spirit.

David McCarthy qualifies for Europeans

Congratulations to Le Chéile athlete David McCarthy who earned his place on the Ireland team for the European Indoor Championships. David was selected to join the team based on a very impressive win at the Celtic Cup Indoor International event held at the start of February in Cardiff. He produced a personal best in the 800m event to finish in 1:49.12.

David will join the team of 20 of Ireland's best athletes to compete in the championships which will be held between the 6th to 8th of March in Turin.

We wish David the very best in Turin and will all be closely following his progress.

Click here to see results from David's previous performances.