Clash of the Clubs IV
Meet the Teams: Ratoath

8 September 2025

Club Profile

• Founded in 1971 with a mission to nurture and support young talent and currently boasting a membership of 600, Ratoath Athletic Club is one of Ireland’s most dynamic and successful athletics clubs, engaging its loyal community of athletes, families and friends through a strong online presence.

• Based in the town of Ratoath, County Meath, just north of Dublin, the club’s Milltree Park training venue is actually a grass track.

• The perennial strength of Ratoath’s youth programme was demonstrated in August’s national U20 & U23 championships by eight gold medals and the combined points score of its U20 athletes competing in this year’s selected DNA disciplines, which qualified the club to represent Ireland in Leiria at the European DNA U20 Clubs.

• The club has received numerous awards for its efforts and accomplishments, including “Development Club of the Year 2023” given by Irish Athletics for work with young athletes and the Ratoath Municipal District’s “Civic Achievement Award” for successfully representing the town at last year’s Clash of the Clubs in Pombal.

• Website: ratoathac.ie

• Social:
  instagram.com/ratoathathleticclub
  facebook.com/RatoathAC/
  x.com/RatoathAC
  tiktok.com/@ratoath.athletics

DNA History

• 2025 is the fourth year in a row that Ratoath has qualified for the Clash of the Clubs: in 2022 it finished 3rd in the B Final, in 2023 it won the B Final and last year it placed 6th in the A Final.

• Normally Ratoath makes the Clash a very special end-of-season event. It starts with club-wide fund-raising activities to help finance the trip and includes bringing a large number of reserve athletes, parents and club personnel to experience the international atmosphere, fun and, hopefully, good weather.

Athletes to Watch

• Katie Doherty, 18 (instagram.com/katiedoherty287), won the 100m at this year’s Irish U20 championships, with her personal best time of 12.00, and was a part of the club’s winning 4x100m relay, which set a championship record. She has already competed twice at the Clash of the Clubs, taking second in the 2023 B Final and second in the A Final a year later.

• Seventeen-year-old heptathlete Enya Silkena (instagram.com/enyasilkena), competed in the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere. Her strongest event is the 100m hurdles, where her personal best time is 14.33 but she is more than competent in the high jump (PB 1.63m) and threw the shot in last year’s Clash (PB 11.78m).

• Sprint star Jesse Osas, 19 (instagram.com/jesseosass), having competed in all three editions, can claim as much Clash of the Clubs experience as anyone, winning the 200m in the B Final in 2023 and placing second in last year’s A Final. He has personal bests of 10.51 and 21.83 and competed in the 4x100m relay at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere.