RIP: 'One of Aine's favourite nights of the year,' cup dedicated to Tipperary woman

We had a week off the track the weekend before last so we headed to the Horse and Jockey for the annual Tipperary Athletics awards nights which saw many of our athletes and teams recognised for their achievements in the past year.

In the team awards our U-9 girls received an award in honour of their Munster and All Ireland Gold in the 4x100 relay, as did the U-11 boys also in the 4x100 relay where they claimed All-Ireland Gold.

At U-12 level the boys cross country relay team of Eoghan Slevin, Cian Cowan, Luke Kavanagh and John Maher were recognised for their Munster Gold.

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Our turbo javelin pairs team of Leon Lawlor and Daniel Clarke got a team achievement award for winning the Munster Gold medal while Leon also won the individual award.

The individual achievement awards were next and in between all the celebrations we were all quickly brought back to earth as the Aine Hennessy Memorial Cups were introduced.

These cups were sponsored by Templemore Athletic Club in honour and in memory of our dear friend Aine who passed away on October 7, 2024.

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This was one of Aine’s favourite nights of the year and it is fitting that she will be remembered on this night each year.

The club had a number of athletes receiving individual awards - Bobby Gleeson for his school’s international silver medal, Donal Ryan received the 15-19 Track and Field award for his high jump achievements while our throws coach and athlete, John O’Dwyer, was recognised for breaking the indoor weight for distance national record.

Joe Burke received the prestigious Sean Naughton award in recognition of his many outstanding achievements.

Sean was one of the finest coaches to ever come out of Tipperary and his philosophy was always about speed, everything done at speed.

If Sean was still with us he would have thought it fitting that Joe received this award in his memory. Joe had a marvellous 2024 winning a Bronze medal in the 200m at the European U-18 championships along with 200m Gold at the National U-20 indoor and outdoor championships and the Tailteann games.

He also broke the Munster U-17 200m record (indoor and outdoor). In securing his European Bronze Joe broke Marcus Lawlor’s U-18 National record with his time of 21:31.

Many wouldn’t achieve in a lifetime what Joe achieved in 2024.

Athletics Ireland have just announced that Joe will also receive a National award, The Robin Sykes Achievement Award.

Joe Burke is certainly up there with the greatest sports people Templemore has ever produced and we congratulate him on all his outstanding achievements and wish him the very best of luck in 2025.