Ballina Beat – community news and events

Four Gold for Ballina Athletes

Ballina Athletic Club athletes pictured with Peter Timlin, coach at the Connacht Track & Field Championships in Dangan, Galway, at the weekend. Front left to right: Bradley Nealon, John Timlin, Aoife Doherty, Peter Timlin, Peter Timlin Jnr and Eoin Hallinan.

The Connacht U9, 10 & 11 team events and U12 track and field championships were held in Dangan, Galway at the weekend.

Ballina athletes were in flying form taking home four gold, silver and bronze medals from the championships.

The U10 girls 500m team of Bridget Mills and Ellen O’Hora put in a brilliant performance to take home gold.

Michael O’Malley and John Brennan were in fine throwing form and collected gold medals in the U10 boys ball throw team event.

Bradley Nealon and Eoin Hallinan again pulled out all the stops and took gold in both the U11 60m sprint and long jump team events.  Those will be added to the two gold they won last year in the same events.

Patrick Mills won a gold medal in the U12 ball throw with a brilliant throw of over 42m.

The U11 relay team of Bradley Nealon, Eoin Hallinan, Liam McGarry and Matthew Aris had a brilliant race and finished in 2nd place overall.  They took home silver medals for their gallant efforts.

The U12 relay team of Conor Quinn, Patrick Mills, Sean Keane and Bradley Nealon put in a great performance in the U12 relay and took home bronze medals for their efforts.

Other athletes who put in great performances and were unlucky not to be in the medals were Emma Loftus, Aoife Doherty, Conor O’Hora, Peter Timlin, Ben Donohue and Ryan McDonnell.

The second weekend (U13 to (U19) of the championships takes place in Dangan, Galway next Saturday 19th June.

Sports Centre

Ballina Community Sports Centre is now taking bookings for our Summer Camp 2010. Lots of fun for children aged 7 to 12 years. Weeks available are 19-23 July, 26-30 July and

9-13 August.  Camps run from 10am-3.30am each day. For more details call 096-78984.

Upcoming events include Monster Bingo, Kickboxing Exhibition, Jimmy White Snooker Exhibition. For full details on all our activities please visit our website

www.ballinasportscentre.ie

Leisure Cycle
As part of National Bike Week, there will be  a Belleek Woods Leisure Cycle on June 16th and 23rd at Ballina Soccer pitch. It’s a 3k and 6 k family/leisure cycle through

Belleek Woods and its hinterland. COntact Michael Hopkins of Hopkins’ Cylcle Shop for details.

Treasure Hunt
The fun continues next Friday night from P.J. Duffy’s pub, Clare Street, with an excellent hunt set by Ciaran Allen!  Cars can depart between 7 and 8 p.m. and a hugely

entertaining night will follow. Bring the kids along too as this is a child friendly event. Looking forward to seeing you all.

Ice House Hotel

Best Restaurant Design Award for Ice House Hotel, Ballina.

The Ice House, Ballina won Best Restaurant Design 2010 the Irish Restaurant Awards 2010.

The award was presented at the National Restaurant Association of Ireland 2010 awards on Wednesday night last in the Burlington, Dublin.

The award was sponsored by McCabe Design.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland Awards are kindly sponsored by Santa Rita/Sunday Independent LIFE Magazine.

Food Producers’ Meeting
Mayo North East LEADER Partnership Company invites anyone interested in starting up or expanding a small food business to take part in a new programme which has been launched to stimulate and generate ideas on the development of the small food sector.

There will be an information evening on June 17th in the Community Centre, Killala.

Exhibition
Why not drop into Ballina Arts Centre and take a look at Bumpflakes, a major new exhibition by Nuisancebears, aka Sligo-born sculptor Nick Devaney that opened on Thursday night.

Keep up to date with what’s on at Ballina Arts Centre online or on your mobile phone with our weekly guide.

Age No Barrier!

Tom Horkan from Ballina AC added to his impressive array of titles with victory in the over 70 section of the Cork marathon on the 7th of June. His finishing time of 3:59:58 is remarkably consistent in that Tom has completed the Barcelona, Connemara and Belfast marathons already this year alone in similar times.

Tom Horkan from Ballina AC added to his impressive array of titles with victory in the over 70 section of the Cork marathon on the 7th of June. His finishing time of 3:59:58 is remarkably consistent in that Tom has completed the Barcelona, Connemara and Belfast marathons already this year alone in similar times.

It is testament to his dedication to training and the mental focus and fortitude he brings to the race. The Cork race was run in rainfall from start to finish which added to the physical and mental difficulty of the event.

Fresh from her third place finish in the recent Ballina half marathon, Sandra Finnerty brought her good form to Cork with a strong run in a time of 3:41:31.

Once again, this is just rewards for dedication to preparation and a focused approach. Her improvement over a variety of distances in recent years is to be applauded.

Training colleagues of Tom and Sandra in Balliina Athletic Club are delighted with the Cork performances. Both are great club members and are a regular feature of the Thursday night training sessions starting at Belleek track at 7 p.m.

New members are always welcome and in the coming weeks, there will be introductory track sessions outlining the type of training runners might like to do to in addition to endurance training.

Little Anglers
Fisheries Awareness Week saw lots of local school-children discovering the joys of angling thanks to the North Western Regional Fisheries Board staff who organised the event.

Another excellent initiative by the Fisheries Board who introduced a future generation of fishermen to the joys of angling.

New Mayor

Ballina Town Council will have a new Mayor after Wednesday’s annual meeting of the local authority.

Fianna Fail councillor, Frances McAndrew will be handed the chain of office by the outgoing Mayor, Cllr Mary Kelly Indpendent.

The new Deputy Mayor will be Independent councillor, Peter Clarke.

Meditation

There will be a free talk on Breaking Habits of a Lifetime with the Art of Meditation on Wednesday, 23rd June, from 7.30 – 9.00pm San Antonia House, Lord Edward Street.

For more information, contact Liam Downey – Tel: 094 9022490.

Golf Tournament

Ballina Golf Club is a hive of activity this week as the The 2010 Connacht Seniors Amateur Open Championship will be competed for over 36 holes on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 15 and 16th at the beautiful 18 hole parkland course.

In all,  120 of Ireland’s best senior amateur golfers will take part in the 2-days of competition.

Check out the full time sheet here.

Join In The Ballina Beat

If you would like to have your news or event mentioned in Ballina Beat just email the details to info@mayotoday.ie

Ballina’s New Directory

If you would like your business or organisation listed for free in the Ballina Mobile Phone Directory, email your contact information to info@ballina.tel

The Ballina Mobile Phone Directory now has its own search – both on PC and in your mobile phone browser.

Fast access to local phone numbers that are listed with click-to-call functionality from your mobile phone.

So don’t delay have your business or organisation listed in the phonebook of the future.

Young Soccer Stars

Ballina Town AFC soccer blitz in Belleek Park.

Ballina Town AFC hosted its annual underage soccer blitz in Belleek Park  where the young soccer stars of the future showed off their skills.