DCU Athletes Lift the Roof at Millrose Games

DCU Athletes make history as first Irish collegiate team to compete in prestigious Millrose Games in New York, one of the world's biggest indoor athletics meeting, competing against the best colleges in the east coast of America.

Four DCU athletes, Joe Warne a PhD. Student in Sports Science, Brian Greegan a final year Sports Science student, Mark English and John Coughlan competed in the 'Distance Medley Relay' on the Armory Track, New York on Saturday night. The Irish team recieved a roof lifting welcome from the 6,000 fans cheering 'ireland' and 'ole ole ole', screaming for them to win which they very nearly did, finishing in an impressive 2nd place by less than 1.66 seconds.

The 'Distance Medley Relay' was lead out by Joe Warne in the 1200m leg who ran a tactically astute race shadowing the leader for most of the race, making a courageous move down the back straight and round the final bend trying to take the lead, passing the batton almost in first place to Brian Gregan on the 400m leg. Brian ran a powerful 2nd lap blazing into the lead on the back straight, accelerating away from the other ahtletes and handing over to Mark English on the 800m leg with a good lead. Looking very relaxed Mark ran a great race stretching out the lead to give John Coughlan a chance in the final 1600m leg. With the faster man on paper from Villanova chasing in 2nd place John held the lead only to be passed with 200m to go, fighting all the way to the line to bring the team home in an amazing 2nd place.

Well Done to the athletes, Joe, Brian, Mark and John, and DCU Athletics Academy Director Enda Fitzpatrick, for an inspiring performance, doing both DCU and Ireland proud!

For footage of the team in action click here (approximately 3:52 on clip).

All Island First Year Fitness Challenge

Launch of 'All Island First Year Fitness Challenge'.

Dublin City University is joining forces with RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show to launch the First Year Fitness Challenge for schools throughout the island of Ireland.  DCU, through its Sports Academy and School of Health and Human Performance, has demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of physical activity as an integral part of an individual’s education. 

The initiative, spearheaded by Professor Niall Moyna, aims to transform the fitness levels of our schoolchildren and encourage them to adopt healthy behaviour patterns at an early age.   As part of Operation Transformation 2012, Professor Moyna is currently running a challenge to a fifth year Class in Athlone Community College to pass a ‘Bleep Test’, a 20m shuttle-run test used to determine cardiovascular fitness.  The challenge is now being extended to schools on an all-Ireland basis to ascertain the level of fitness of first year secondary school students and to demonstrate how improving cardiovascular fitness can prevent heart disease, early onset of obesity and associated health problems.

For full story and details of how to participate please click here.

Get Active Day

This October welcomed the first School of Health and Human Performance staff and student sports day. This student-led initiative produced a great turnout from both staff and students from all programmes with all activities hotly contested. Photos will follow soon.

David Carey, SSH2, wins the DCU enterprise competition

DCU enterprise competition This year winner is David Carey, a second year student on the BSc Sport Science and Health programme. He devised a business plan for sports nutrition and healthy lifestyle product, which would be one hundred percent Irish manufactured to the highest standard possible and contain no cheap sugars or filler ingredients. Additionally, packaging and labelling would be recyclable.

DCU Student Teacher Appointed to the PEAI as the first ever Executive Student Representative

Martin Burmeister (email), studying in his second year on the Physical Education with Biology programme, recently became the first ever Executive Student Representative to be elected onto the PEAI (Physical Education Association of Ireland). Martin's application was in competition with student teachers from all PETE (Physical Education Teacher Education) Institutions. Martin will work with two PEAI student representative from: the University of Limerick, University College Cork, IT Tralee and Dublin City University; to raise the student teacher voice in raising the profile and development of Physical Education in Ireland (Matrin is pictured accepting his certificate from Mike Carey, President of the PEAI).

CSPPA Report

Dr. Catherine Woods, Professor Niall Moyna, Minister Mary Hanafin (Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport), Dr. Deborah Tannehill (UL), Dr. Julia Walsh (UCC) at the launch of the Children's Sport Participation and Physical Activity report in the AVIVA stadium in October.

The Childrens Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study (CSPPA): The CSPPA was a unique multi-centre study undertaken by Dublin City University, University of Limerick and University College Cork. It brought together expertise from physical education, sport and coaching studies and physical activity for health. Its purpose was to 1) provide a national database of physical activity, physical education and sport participation levels of children and youth in Ireland, 2) assess indices of health and fitness in a sub-sample of the target population, 3) collect and analyse information on the factors influencing participation and iv) provide insight into the issues surrounding volunteering in youth sports and activity clubs. Over 5000 children and young people, from all over Ireland, between the ages of 10 to 18 years took part. This research study was funded by the Irish Sports Council, and is available for download below.

For more information (PDF)

Psychology, Health and Medicine Conference

The 8th Annual 'Psychology, Health and Medicine Conference' of the Division of Health Psychology will be hosted by the Department of Psychology, NUI Galway on 4th April 2011. The conference is of interest not only to health psychologists, but to a variety of health professionals.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Catherine Woods

Title: Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and The Prevention of Chronic Disease.

Increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behaviour is related to the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and some types of cancer. However, individuals of all ages across western countries are not meeting recommended guidelines for physical activity and engage in substantial amounts of sedentary behaviours. It is important to develop our understanding of why people engage in physical activity or decrease their sedentary behaviours. This paper will look at theoretically-informed behaviour change to address these topics.

Please click link for further information (Url)

Sports Medicine Cryotherapy Update Seminar

DCU's second Sports Medicine Update Seminar took place in the School of Nursing Tuesday March 15. The topic was Cryotherapy in Sport. Dr Giles Warrington (Exercise Physiologist from DCU) and Dr Chris Bleakley (Chartered Physiotherapist and lecturer in the University of Ulster) presented a summary of current scientific knowledge on the use of various forms of cryotherapy (including application of crushed ice to the skin, ingestion of crushed ice in water, the use of ice baths and contrast baths and the very controversial use of cryotherapy chambers) for enhancement of athletic performance and for the treatment of injuries. The seminar was a great success and drew an attendance of nearly 150 people from clinical and sport science backgrounds. It seems there is little evidence to support the use of cryotherapy for enhancing athletic performance, except possibly in the specific case of preparing for endurance exercise in a hot environment. Cryotherapy does has an established role in controlling pain following injury. There is less clarity about the interaction between cryotherapy and normal inflammation following injury.

 

Lecture on cryotherapy in sports performance (Dr. Giles Warrington) (PDF)

Lecture on cryotherapy in sports injury prevention and treatment (Dr. Chris Bleakly.) (PDF)

European Vacancies in Sport Science

The European Vacancies in Sport Science (EVSS) is the platform for promoting and searching for sport science-related employment vacancies. Full access including downloads is provided online from the ECSS.

For more information on the European Vacancies in Sport Science (URL)

National Physical Activity Plan

DCU leads third level institutions in a call to all political parties to promote physical activity and health.

For more information (PDF)

Obesity in Ireland - Current Trends and Actions Required

A talk will take place at the University of Limerick this evening regarding obesity in Ireland. Niall Moyna, academic staff in the Faculty of Science and Health at DCU, will be the speaker and he will be giving talks about Obesity in Ireland - Current Trends and Actions Required.

"The prevalence of obesity has increased with alarming speed over the past twenty years. It has recently been described by the World Health Organisation as a 'global epidemic " (HSE 2005. This seminar aims to provide the current information on the trends of the disease in Ireland, the causes (including genetics) and also the actions required to avoid this preventable disease. The seminar highlights the role of physical activity in health and the importance of the environment on physical activity levels in children and adults. This seminar is open to anyone who would like to attend bit would be of particular benefit to those working in health care, those interested in physical education and sports science, and teachers at primary and secondary level.

Recent Articles

An interesting series of articles highlighting the work being undertaken in the School of Health and Human Performance.

Can winners be made in a lab? (courtesy of the Irish Times)

We'd save ourselves 135m Euro if more people kept fit (courtesy of the Evening Herald)

Lack of exercise a big factor in poor health levels (courtesy of the Irish Examiner)

Graduation of School of Health and Human Performance; Postgraduate Students 2010

The department would like to extend its congratulations to David Ashley, Brendan Marshall and Brian Carson who graduated this Autumn and received their doctoral research degrees.