Valley's Neil Martin makes the long journey to Jamaica this week to manage the Irish team for the World Junior Track and Field Championships to be held in Kingston. This is once again a great honour for Finn Valley . who are building up a strong reputation in management and coaching field. Neil has already been team coach for various Irish teams, and last year was Team Manager for U23 European Championships. This selection is a fitting reward for the Glenfinn coach who has been involved in athletes since he was a juvenile. This year he coached the successful Finn Valley ladies senior cross country team which won the All Ireland Cross Country Team Title in both the short and long course. Neil has played a vital role in the development of the club. He is Treasury of the Ulster Council and part of the executive on the AAI committee. A total of ten athletes will travel with Neil, and the club wish them all the best of luck.

Bernie Alcorn Team Coach for Celtic International

Finn Valley also received the good news this week that Bernie Alcorn has been selected as team coach for the Celtic International to be held in Tullamore on 3rd August. Again this is a well-deserved appointment. Bernie who is liaison juvenile coach with Finn Valley has also like Neil been involved in athletes since her juvenile days. Congratulations Bernie and the best of luck.

Feely and Masterson on Celtic Team

Valley is also delighted to hear the news that Kevin Feely and Ciara Masterson have both been selected on Irish Team for the Celtic Games. Kevin has been selected in the shot and Ciara in discus. The club wish to congratulate both athletes and also their coaches, Sean Carlin and Bosco Reid.

Cranford Four mile race

Cranford held their annual 4-mile race last Friday and a number of Valley athletes competed.

Kevin Holian makes his return to the racing scene and finished 2nd senior man. Margaret Synott was 2nd senior lady. Nancy McNamee was 2nd over 35. Bridget McGlynn won the over 45 category and Jim Hynes was 2nd over 50. Sean McDevitt and Paddy Bond also competed.

The club wish to congratulate Cranford who are celebrating 40 year of athletics. This is a great achievement for the club. Well done to all involved.

Bosco Reid competes in Navan

Bosco Reid guest for Letterkenny at the National League championships in Navan. Bosco finished 2nd in the shot with a fine throw of 11.66 and was 4th in the hammer. This is good preparation for Bosco as he prepares to compete in the British and Irish Veteran Championships.

Irish National Track and Field Championships

The AAI Track and Field championships takes place next weekend in Santry. Valley has a number of competitors. Jeff and Yvonne Cassin, James Gibbons compete in the Walks. Catriona McGranaghan, Clodagh McCool and Kieran Carlin compete in the 1500m and 3000m. The club wish their athletes and all Donegal athletes the best of luck next weekend.

Finn Valley's Web Page

Finn Valley's Web page is up and running. All Valley's up to date information can now be assessed at http://www.finnvalleyac.com. Anyone out there who has information on the development, history or any other relevant information they want added to the web should give the information to any club committee. The club wish to thank Jonathon Campbell and Richard Alcorn who continue to work diligently updating the web page and are doing a great job.

Training.

Training continues at the club for all juveniles who have qualified for the All Ireland Track and Field Championships every Tuesday and Thursday night at 7.30pm and Sunday morning at 10.30am. It is of utmost importance that all turn up for training. All other juveniles are now on their summer break. Training will resume for all athletes early September when preparations will commence for the upcoming Cross Country Season.

Note from Webmaster. Over the next few weeks, I'll be making improvements as follows:

• 1. Tidying up and updating the Records section;
• 2. Typing in Donegal Athletic Board Records;
• 3. Doing some reorganisation of the site: e.g. making a Donegal Athletic Board area; making a picture gallery area.

If you're sending me stuff, try to get it into HTML or text. If tables use '.csv' or HTML. Word documents cause me a lot of difficulty. Of course pictures are fine (.jpg if possible). If you're sending really large ones let me know first; my remote mailbox can overflow; also, don't forget that a 100KB file will take about 40 seconds to download; 1MB - 7 minutes! j.c.