Valley excel at Ulster Championships

It was back to the beach at Fintra, Killybegs, plenty of enthusiasm a
beautiful day and quite a few excellent provincial results. The overall
hitlist amounted to five Team gold, two team silver thus National
qualification for seven teams for Dungarvan in December while the
brother and sister partnership of Rebecca and Ian Ward won as did
Georgie Kelly U11 boys from Toobin N.S. following the path of an other
young man from the Burnfoot area Ryan Mc Daid who won this age group
title some years ago in Rostrevor, Co. Down.

The day began with a battle versus Cranford U-11 girls with the scorers
Olivia Roe 4, Blathnaid Patton 8, Shauna Finn 10, Caoimhe Mc Menamin
15, Shannon Mc Laughlin 17, Cranford once again with a terrific display
took the title.  Then it was back to the beach a stampede led by
Georgie Kelly and he stayed ahead with support from Jonathon Carlin 6,
Gavin Mc Laughlin 12 and Matthew Carlin 14. The U-13 girls saw a
resilient Rebecca Ward chase down the gold with 100m to go to her
absolute credit she did and that was an important message in her
developement as a winning athlete.

The U-13 Boys led by Mark Bonner 2, Eoghan Bonner 9, Dean Bonner 10,
and Justin Browne 13 took gold. The U-15 Girls took gold with Niamh
Doherty 13, Karen Ferguson 15, Emily Murphy 19 and Jodie Stewart 20.
Then it was on to the U-17 Girls with a 9 points defeat by Letterkenny,
The Valley team lead by Shauna Guthrie 10, Clara Dunnion 11, Ailish
Patton 14 and Ciara Hegarty 24. The U-17 boys individual race was
loaded with talented boys, Ian Ward, Collins, Omagh, King,Milford,
Gormley ,Belfast, Doherty North Belfast but Ian Ward was in control and
looked very good leading Valley to team Gold. Aiden Connolly 10, Shane
Bonner 11,Ryan Mc Daid 20 - 9 points to spare from Malachys The U-19
Girls were lead home by improving Maeve Culhane 3, Fionnula Bruton 4
and Nicola Alcorn showing her loyalty to the cause 6th, now a student
at D.C.U, thus ending a great day and yes they had another swim an
indication of the the recent wonderful weather we are having.

Thanks are due to all the coaches and parents who contributed to such a
team overall performance.

Next up is the National Marathon in conjunction with the Dublin City
event. We wish good luck to all at Finn Valley who will be
participating.