The Leinster Star Awards for 2009 were presented at a packed Gala Function at the Seven Oaks Hotel in Carlow on Saturday 16th January 2010. The awards are based on results in Leinster Championships in 2009 and the very worthy recipients for Westmeath were Mary Scully (senior), Ciara Fogarty (juvenile girl) and Jake Byrne (juvenile boy). Unfortunately Mary could not attend and the Award had to be accepted on her behalf, but Jake and Ciara were there and received a beautiful personalized crystal carriage clock which will serve as a reminder of their great achievements and should inspire them to even greater things in 2010. Mary, Ciara and Jake had an exceptional year of competition in 2009 and fully justified the honours bestowed on them by Athletics Leinster.

Another man honoured by Athletics Leinster was our Club President George Bell who received a thoroughly well deserved Outstanding Service Award in recognition of the tremendous service he has done and continues to do for athletics. George won his first medal for athletics 60 years ago and since then has been actively involved in the sport and is one of the very many unseen volunteers that every successful Club needs and Mullingar Harriers is very fortunate to have someone of George’s calibre among its ranks. George was clearly pleased as punch to be given recognition and honoured by Athletics Leinster in this way and it was great that his wife Sheila and daughters Anna and Ger were present at the event to see him receive his Award.

After the individual awards were presented, it was time to present the various Cups and once again congratulations to all our Juvenile cross country athletes as Mullingar yet again retained the Jimmy Morrissey Memorial Cup for the best Juvenile cross country Club in Leinster. Mullingar was the runaway winner of the Cup once more by a very wide margin and this marks 9-in-a-row for Mullingar as we’ve won this Cup every year since it was first presented in 2001.

Winning the Morrissey Cup was no great surprise given the terrific performances in Adamstown and Tullamore but Westmeath also retained the Rosemary Foley Memorial Cup for the best County in Leinster in Juvenile cross country. As in the previous year, as only Mullingar Harriers athletes competed on Westmeath teams in 2009, we can regard this as a double award for the Club. Receiving the Morrissey and Foley Cups is a magnificent achievement for the Club's Juvenile cross country athletes and reflects all their hard work put in at training. A nice surprise though was when it was announced that Mullingar also won the Quinn Cup for track and field u/12 to 15. We won by a single point, but a win is a win and we’re delighted that our young track and field athletes won this Cup, having finished second last year.

With the current crop of athletes in the Club, we expect 2010 to a good year and it will be interesting to see if we retain these Cups and maybe win some more. Congratulations to Mary Scully, Ciara Fogarty, Jake Byrne and George Bell on their Awards and to all our juvenile athletes on helping Mullingar to win three Cups at the Leinster Star Awards for 2009. Let’s keep up the hard work in training and see what 2010 brings.