Here are this week’s club notes from the Rosses AC:
A long trip for a number of athletes who decided to take in the North West Games event in Athlone.
The day started with the ladies long jump, with Leah McGarvey in the senior women’s and Una Richardson in the U18. Both ladies have not competed for a while, but pulled out all the stops to both secure an impressive 2bd place finish. Una consistently jumped just shy of 5 metres and Leah close to the 4.5 metre mark, setting a great standard for the younger athletes to represent the club.
Rosie Breslin performed well in her first ever hurdles race placing 2nd in her heat and also secured the first juvenile medal of the day in the U12 high jump, showing guts and determination to clear 1.25 metres for 2nd place.
Some fine performances on the oval track in the U12 600m, Tamara Parker just falling short on the day as she still recovers from recent illness, but Caitlin Sweeney having a superb run, taking her heat by the scruff of the neck and only getting pipped at the line and ensuring a fine 5th place finish overall. Shortly after and determined to secure herself a medal, Caitlin jumped over 4 metres for the first time, not only once, but twice reaching 4.07 for the 2nd U12 medal of the day in 3rd place.
Rosie Breslin not far behind in 5th place and Jenny Gallagher and Eveney Green also making it into the top 3rd of a busy field.
Next up was the U10 boys sprints, with Xavier Gallagher showing great potential even though running out of age, and Deacin Parker going well too. No placing for the U12 girls in the sprints in an extremely busy field of almost 60 athletes, but some fine performances non the less from Tamara, Jenny and Eveney, with Eveney getting a fine PB going under 10 seconds for the first time. More to come from this committed group of U12 athletes, which showed when they managed to get on the podium for 3rd place in the relay.
We had another fantastic performance from one of our senior athletes Rachel Boner who took on the Senior women’s 400m and secured first place in a great time of 1.08. Again, a great inspiration to our younger up and coming sprinters, and fantastic to watch.
The last event for the U10 boys was the race walk, a fun one to watch.
Deacon Parker led from gun to tape, but with a few penalties for these first timers, he fell to 3rd place, but still delighted with his effort. Great performance too from Xavier Gallagher and Warren Greene, both out of age group.
A great day all round and lots of fun had.
The 10th (Official) Annual Darren Mills Memorial Run saw first home shared by Ciaran Doherty (LAC) and Charlie O’Donnell (RAC) followed closely by Declan Gallagher (RAC).
2024 Darren Mills Run/Walk first men: Charlie O’Donnell 21.25 and Ciaran Doherty 21.25
Helen McCready (RAC) took the honours in female section and was joined on the podium by RAC’s adopted daughter, Claire Reid.
The Darren Mills 6k women’s winner was Helen McCready.
In the u16 section Aileen Logue lead home the girls with Evan Ward leading the boys home. Well done to Ben McGonagle and all the locals involved who pull themselves up off the couch every year after the Christmas dinner to make this happen, maith sibh.
The Darren Mills 6k u16 winners were Aileen Logue and Evan Ward.
A number of updates for other races include a 5k in Falcarragh where it was great to see Shane O Donnell back racing and taking the win and a man who has had a great year Norman McClean second.
Patrick Trimble and David McKelvey were racing in Mount Charles where David was second and Patrick winning his category.
Bernie Boyle was back in Scotland and decided to get a race in whilst there having a flyer over 10k with a time of 40:06 putting her second in her age category at the Tillicoultry race.
The team west winter League took to the Donegal mountain peaks, a tough race over 22.5k saw Shaun Stewart take the win and Declan Gallagher 2nd with Charlie Postie and Paul McKelvey put in the hard graft as well for strong results.
