ATHLETICS: Letterkenny Athletic Club’s 4 man relay team put on an excellent performance in Saturday’s Northern Ireland and Ulster Road Relay Championship, which was held in Victoria Park, Belfast.
The club achieved a highly creditable 3rd place finish. The winning team was Derry Track Club, who were just 81 seconds ahead of LAC. 2nd team, North Belfast Harriers, were 34 seconds ahead. The Derry club’s total time of 39.16 was a new course record.
Pauric Breslin ran the 1st of the four 2 mile legs and got the club off to a flying start in a time of 10.01.
Next up was Eoghain McGinley, brother of LAC athlete Jane Toner. Eoghain was making his debut in the black and amber and his performance showed that he will be a valuable asset to the club. His time was 10.25.
Danny Mooney ran the 3rd leg in 9.53. The final runner was in form Anthony Doherty, who had a strong run to come home in 10.25. This gave the LAC team a total time of 40.37.
Eoin Hughes and Martin Dooley had fine runs for the LAC ‘B’ team, recording times of 11.21 and 11.12 respectively.
Peter McLean had an excellent run in Saturday’s Letterkenny parkrun. His time of 25.43 for the 5K represented an improvement of more than 3 minutes on his time of just 7 days earlier.
The month of October always heralds the start of the cross country season. LAC had teams competing for prizes in the Donegal Masters’ cross country championship in Ballybofey in the W35-49, M35-49 and M50+ categories. In unseasonly pleasant overhead conditions, the LAC teams had a triple success.
The women’s team were 2nd, taking inspiration from a superb individual performance by race winner, Fionnuala Diver, whose form during the last 2 years in cross country and on the road has been phenomenal.
The 2nd LAC counter was 5th placed Jane Toner with fine runs from the other 2 counters, Irene McFadden and Frances Judge, who were 9th and 10th respectively. Marian Kerr, who had a very successful summer in road races, also put on a good performance. The team garnered 25 points, finishing just 3 points adrift of the victorious Finn Valley team.
In the individual categories, Jane was 3rd W35 and Frances took 3rd prize in the W50 category.
Despite the good overhead conditions, there were some tough underfoot conditions to deal with. However, the 2 mens’ teams put on excellent displays. The 35-49 age category team took 3rd prize. Raymond Birch had an excellent run and finished 6th overall. He was very well backed up by Ivan Toner, who was just 1 place behind, 14th placed Daniel Hannigan and Sean McFadden, 16th. These counters had very good support from the other LAC runners- Gerard McGranaghan, Brian Crossan, Niall Barry, Michael Galvin, Adrian Callaghan, Mark McFadden and Paul Lee.
LAC’s M50+ team took 3rd prize, behind Omagh Harriers and Tir Chonaill AC. Paul Cosgrove was the 1st LAC counter and was given good back up from fellow counters, Seamus Gallagher and John Hughes, who has just returned from injury. There were also fine runs from Richard Raymond and Brian McBride.
The Shaun Graham Memorial 3K will be held on Thursday October 6th. Entries will be taken at Letterkenny Community Centre from 5.30pm and the race will start at 7.00pm.
Letterkenny AC wishes to extend condolences to club athlete Barry Meehan, whose mother, Ann, died recently.
The club also wishes to offer condolences to club athlete Margaret Shiels, following the death of her father, Dan Gildea.
Condolences are also offered to Amanda Holian and her children Emma and Jack, following the death of Amanda’s mother, Doreen Roarty.
Ann Meehan, Dan Gildea and Doreen Roarty. R.I.P.
The club would like to congratulate club athlete Ciaran Doherty and his wife, Finn Valley AC athlete Teresa, on the recent birth of their baby daughter.
