Six Finn Valley athletes on international duty for Ireland
Six of our long time servants travelled to Swansea on Friday last to race in the Masters home nations international cross country, between Scotland, Wales, England, & Ireland. Six athletes -- John mc Glinchey, Tommy Farrell, Dominic Bonnar, Pat McCrudden, James McMahan who qualified from the trials held in the phoenix park over a month ago & with a late call up for John Creane the Valley athletes were set, with 3 debutants gaining selection to represent their countries for the time in an international and the other three by now seasoned internationals were looking forward to the race. The underfoot conditions were going to be tough as the Welsh weather seems to be no different to the Irish weather, all six athletes equipped themselves well in the by now torturous conditions, James Mc Mahon have a storming race as per usual coming through the field to finish in 24th position, Dominic Bonnar a few places back, Dominic not coping with the muddy conditions as he would normal do, John Mc Glinchey next through the line having a strong run, with a few more weeks hard training John will look forward to a good season. Tommy Farrell getting his first Irish vest on the country, just getting back into the athletic scene after having a 12year carer break, having a long carer prior to the break Tommy will wonder why he had not had more Irish vests to date. Running as well as he was expecting Tommy struggled through the muddy conditions. The final man through the line was John Creane a long servant of Valley and Ireland John battled his way through the pain barrier having a sight injury problem. In the open race Pat Mc Crudden had a good run gaining his 1st Irish vest Pat was delighted with his performance a great day for Pat having been involved in the sport for a number of years now. Another local man in action for Ireland was Brian Thursby Phelan who had a great run in the green finishing 8th 0-35
Overall great performances by all Irish athletes all results are on www.lineraceresults.co.uk.
Cleona Dunne was in action in a 10km race on Sunday in Galway finishing 2nd in a time of 49.06. Cleona will gain great confidence from this race and should now look forward to the National Novice.
Looking forward to next weekend, over 60 valley athletes & parents make the long journey to Tramore Co Waterford for the national inter counties & juvenile cross country championships. Bus leaves Finn Valley Centre on Saturday morning at 10.30am.
Best wishes to all our athletes and coaches.
Many pictures by Kieran Carlin.
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