Finn Valley had another successful weekend of competition at both senior, veteran and juvenile National Championship competition. Valley returned home with three Juvenile All Ireland Champions, one senior All Ireland Champion and one Veteran Champion along with two team titles and numerous silver and bronze winning medals.

The Finn Valley juvenile athletes once again traveled to Nenagh for the second part of the All-Ireland Indoor Championships and following on their success last week with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals they were feeling optimistic. The medal tally for the Indoor Championships was three Gold, three Silver and two Bronze medals plus numerous top five final placings and personal best performances.

Kevin Feely got the day of to a great start when he won the Gold medal in the U/18 Shot Putt with a massive putt of 14.88metres and a new p.b. Kevin who has previously won the All-Ireland Outdoor Shot Putt title had an amazing series of throws, any one of which, would have secured the title. He was 1.82 metres ahead of the silver medallist Maurice O'Donoghue from Carrick-on-Suir with 13.06m and Michael McCarty, Celbridge 12.83m. Kevin will now look forward to contesting the Irish Schools Championships. Kevin also finished 6th in the 60m Hurdles final.

Historic Day for Valley's Walkers.

The U/14 girls 1000m walk event proved to be an historic occasion for Finn Valley with an incredible clean sweep, extremely rare in athletics at National level. Fionnuala Bruton from Dunwiley, Stranorlar won the race in great style with a p.b. of 5.38.2 minutes with clubmate Maeve Culhane taking the silver medal with a very strong finish in 5.51.9 and to put the icing on the cake Charlene Kelly from Castlefin won the bronze medal in a time of 6.02.7 minutes. There was great excitement when the three clubmates stepped on the winner's podium for their medals.

Patsy McGonagle who coaches the young walkers is well proud of their performance on a National stage. Over the two weekends of Indoor competition seven Valley walkers qualified for the championships. Two athlete returned as All Ireland Champions, 3 with silver medals and three with bronze.

On Sunday morning it was Barry McGill's turn to shine with an excellent p.b. of 6.53.1 to take the silver medal in the U/19 1500m walk behind a very impressive Gabriel O'Donnell from Cranford A.C. who broke the long-standing Donegal Senior record of Bernie O'Callaghans in a fantastic time of 6.11.6 minutes. It was great to see both these young Donegal lads dominate the event. The club wish to congratulate Gabriel in setting a new Donegal record.

Pauric McLaughlin was very unlucky in an outstanding U/12 600m final where the existing Championship best performance was beaten by all of the first four athletes in a blanket finish with Pauric finishing in 4th. Although Pauric was just squeezed out of the medals at least he has the satisfaction of knowing he broke the old Irish record for the event with an excellent p.b. of 1.52.9 minutes.

Gavin Carlin and Lorcan McMenamin were in medal contention in the U/12 Long Jump with Gavin jumping 4.12m and Lorcan 4.11m narrowly missing the bronze medal which was won in 4.14m. Gavin later qualified for the 60m final where he also finished 4th in 8.92 seconds just 4/100's of a second from a bronze medal. Lorcan finished 5th in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.27m and narrowly missed 1.30m which won the competition.

Pauric Feely, Kevin's brother, also performed very well despite being on antibiotics and jumped to a new p.b. of 5.49m in the U/16 Long Jump. Pauric also qualified for the 60m final with a new p.b. of 7.78 seconds and was very unlucky to miss a medal by 2/100's of a second. Joe McGinley, 8.04, Matthew Larkin, 8.18 and Peter McGowan 8.20 also ran very well in the 60m. Joe also qualified for the semi-finals of the 200m running 26.12 seconds finishing 4th. Matthew Larkin was 5th in the 60m hurdles heat in 10.14 seconds and Catriona Penrose was 6th in her heat of the 60m hurdles.

Laura Reid was 6th in her heat of the U/14 800m and will be pleased with her p.b. of 2.42.7 minutes. Andrea McGowan was 14th in the U/14 Shot Putt with 7.11 metres.

As usual the relays provided great excitement for the spectators. Our U/13 boys of Ian Ward, Shane Bonner, Paul Doherty and Ryan McDaid took on the 4 x 100m and having successfully come through very tough heats and then semi-finals finished 4th in the final in 57.5 seconds. When you consider that three of these boys, Ian, Shane and Ryan are the National Cross-Country Champions in both the U/11 and U/12 categories it was really quite a remarkable feat to finish 4th in a sprint relay final.

Our U/15 boys of Packie Mailey, Maurice Boyle, Enda Doherty and Declan Hennessey contested the 4 x 200m relay. They also ran brilliantly to qualify for the semi-finals in a new p.b. of 1.54.9 then once again improved their p.b. in the semi-finals to 1.54.6 to qualify for the finals where they again pushed themselves to a new p.b. of 1.54.2 to finish in 4th place.

Congratulations to all our athletes who did so well and will now look forward to the track & field season which is about to begin. Thanks to the coaches, Christine Feely, Bernie Alcorn, Patsy Doherty, Seamus McGranaghan and Sean Carlin and to the parents who traveled to support - Bridget Boyle, Sam Ward, Pat and Pauline McLaughlin, Philomena and Brian Doherty.

NOELEEN PORTER ALL IRELAND 10K CHAMPION

Once again Finn Valley's Veteran and Senior athletics performed excellent in the National 10K road championships which were held in Navan last Sunday. Valley has performed well at these championships for the past two year and today was a repeat performance.

Valley's Noeleen Porter who has been competing well throughout the year and had an excellent cross country season, continued her performance in the National 10K. Noeleen ran a race of her life finishing first individual lady in a time of 36.36min a new personal best time. This is Noeleen's first ever individual National Senior Title. Noeleen also lead the Valley ladies to team victory with Catriona McGranaghan (37.14) 4th lady. Catriona's main aim for the summer is the track championships but made herself available today for the team and shows the great team loyalty she has for the club. Marion Steinger was Valley 3rd scorer in a time of 38.03. Marion traveled from London with Richard Simms for the race and again their loyalty and commitment to the club is much appreciated. The Valley ladies now qualify to compete in the European Club 10K Road Championships along with the European Club Cross Country Championships which they qualified for when they won the National Cross Country Senior Championships earlier this year.

Valley's Veteran men also continued their success by winning National Veteran 10K team title. The team was lead home by Valley's newcomer James McMahon who finished 14th and 3rd in the over 40 category in a time of 32.22. James was followed closely by Valley's Dominick Bonner 15th (32.36) and Pat McElroy the final scorer in 49 (35.11). Neil Martin and Jim Hynes also was part of the veteran men's team with Jim Hynes finishing 2nd in the over 60 category.

Kay Byrne once again had a gutsy performance in the veteran ladies winning the individual race in a time of 38.37. Kay has been sick for the past week and was unsure of competing however she was committed and ran for the team. Kay was backed by Meave McElroy (41.452) and Margaret Murray (44.38) the team finishing 2nd .

In the senior men's race the team was once again lead by Kieran Carlin 11th (32.06), Richard Simms 28th (33.34), Mark Connolly 33 (34.00), Pat McElroy 49 (35.11) and Bernard McCabe (36.33). The Senior men were unfortunate to miss out on team medals finishing 4th just 16 seconds off bronze medals.

This was a good weekend for Finn Valley at all levels and the club is working on going from strength to strength. In a cross country survey for 2001/2002 Finn Valley came out as 2nd best club in the country. This is down to the commitment of all involved in coaching and helping with the everyday running of the club. The wishes to thank all involved and will be continuing to work to get even better results.

Next weekend Jeff Cassin will be traveling to Manchester to compete in 50K Grand Prix Race walk. The Club wish Jeff the best of luck.

On Saturday the 20th April the club are holding a Introduction Coaching Course. At present over 17 Finn Valley members have registered for the course. This is very encouraging for the club and it is hoped that it will have an impact for the club later.

Finn Valley will be organizing a trip for juveniles to compete in the Swedish Youth Games later this season. This will be of great experience for the young athletes and give them an insight to competing at international level at a young age.

Training continues at the club every Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7.30pm and Sunday morning at 10.30am.