Blackwater Triathlon Club Christmas Party and Awards Night.
On Saturday the 7th of December, members of theBlackwater Triathlon Club took a break from training and descended en masse onHanna’s Restaurant for our annual Christmas party and awards night. The clubnow has over a hundred members and on the night more than 80 of us showed upfor some great hospitality, delicious food, a few well earned drinks and loadsof craic. While it was great for the club members to get together for a socialoccasion, the night was also an opportunity to recognise the achievements ofthe club over the preceding year. Club chairperson, Shane Collins, acknowledgedthe exploits of our swimmers, who had regained the team prize at the Lee Swimthis year. He also took a moment to identify the members who had achievedvarious firsts over the year, ranging from first triathlon and first open waterswim to first Ironman. We also had the presentation of the various annual awardsto club members who had excelled this year. Deciding on the winners of eachcategory has become increasingly difficult over the years as the club grows andmembers take part in many more events. The 2019 award for Newcomer of the year wentto Donal Murphy, while the male and female Triathlete of The Year awards wentto Justin Ryan and Eileen Ryan. All very worthy winners who had performed at ahigh level through the year, but also got involved with club training andancillary activities. In fact it was Eileen who actually arranged the Christmasnight out for us. The final award of the night, Club Person of the Year, wasdecided upon by a poll of club members. This year’s Club Person of The Yearaward went to Julian Boeg. Julian has been a club stalwart over the last fewyears, taking an active part in both competing and training with the club. Heis also a remarkable swimming coach and has helped many of the club’s membersbecome much better swimmers. He is always at the front of the volunteer queuewhen anything needs to be done and was definitely a worthy and very popularwinner. The night culminated with a ten minute video featuring some of theevents of another very successful year for the Blackwater Triathlon Club. Asmentioned earlier, the food and hospitality in Hanna’s was excellent and wehave to thank all the staff and management there for looking after us so wellon the night. Thanks also to Eileen for organising the event. Well done to allof our winners and to all the members of the club who have helped to make thisour most successful year yet. Hopefully we’ll go on to even bigger and betterthings next year.