Irish Schools Success for Finn Valley Athletes

The Irish Schools Championships were held in Tullamore last Saturday and with these Championships providing the highest level of competition in Ireland in Track & Field Athletics medals were at a premium.

Nikki Alcorn, representing her school Loreto Letterkenny, was our first medal winner of the day putting in what was probably her best race performance ever to win the Silver Medal in the Intermediate 2000m Walk behind Laura Reynolds of Marian, Mohill. Nikki was involved in an intense battle throughout the race for the silver medal between her, Carmel Quinn of Mohill and Amy Butenshaw of St. Paul’s, Monasterevin with positions changing constantly during the race. Nikki eventually pulled away with 200m to go and was rewarded with 2nd place and a new p.b. of 10 minutes 20.18 with Amy Butenshaw in the Bronze medal position.

Our next medallist was Pauric Feely, St. Columba's Stranorlar who competed in the Senior Triple Jump. Pauric won the bronze medal with a very good jump of 12.46m behind Leslie Leung from St. Patrick's, Ballymena. This was a great achievement for Pauric as he has been doing minimal training for the past month due to exams and will no doubt have a good Track & Field season ahead of him when he resumes training.

Geraldine Kelly, Stranorlar Vocational School also competed in the Triple Jump (Intermediate) putting in a great performance to win the Bronze medal with a jump of 10.14m. Geraldine was in silver medal position until the final round when she was overtaken by Stephanie Keys, Thornhill, Derry. Indeed it was a 1,2,3 for Ulster with the winner of the competition S. Dougherty of Belfast Royal Academy having a brilliant jump of 10.96m to take the Gold medal.

Laura Friel, St. Columba's had a very good high jump competition in the Junior Girls with a new p.b. of 1.50m finishing 5th. This was a great experience for Laura to finish so high up in such top standard competition.

Fionnuala Bruton and Shauna Guthrie competed well in the Junior Girls 1200m Walk with Fionnuala finishing 7th in 6 minutes 19 seconds and Shauna 9th in 6.42.

Donegal Track and Field Championships

This was the second round of the Donegal Track and Field championships, Letterkenny was the venue last Sunday and once again Valley had some fine performances.

In the uneven aged group relays our U11 and U13 boys 3rd. U15 girls A team won gold medals and U15 girls B team won bronze medals. Under 15 boys was 3rd and Under 17 girls and our Under 17 boys finished 2nd.

In the Even aged groups relays our U12 boys and U14 girls A team finished 2nd and U14 girls B teams 3rd. U14 boys and U16 girls won gold medals.

In the walks events Shane Bonner and Ryan McDaid new comers to the even finished 1st and 2nd in the Under 15 boys. Aoife wheelan continues her good form winning the gold medal in the U15 girls and Shauna Guthrie who had competed in the All Ireland Schools the previous day finished 2nd and Clara Dunnion 3rd. Fionnuala Bruton who also competed the previous day in the All Ireland Schools won the U17 girls. Fionnuala then went onto compete in the shot where she won silver medal, finished 3rd in the U17 girls 200m, 3rd in U17 300m and second 1500m. A busy weekend for Fionnuala.

Laura Feely continued her good form winning the under 15 girls shot while Gavin McCrudden was 2nd in the U15 boys shot. Ciaran O Grady won the gold medal in U17 shot. In the Masters event George Gallen coach to Finn Valley juveniles won the shot and Pat McElroy was 3rd.

In the Long Jump Justin Brown was the winner in under 11 boys and Caoimhe McMenamin was 3rd in the U11 girls. Karen Ferguson was the winner in the Under 13 girls and Aileen Brennan 2nd. In under 17 boys Ciaran O Grady was 3rd.

In 60m sprint Jasenna Lynch was 2nd in the U11 girls.

In 200m Fionnuala Bruton 3rd in the U17 girls and Mark McGowan 3rd in U17 boys. Joe McGinley won the U19 boys event with Stewart McLean 2nd and Brendan Alexander 4th.

300m. Ailish Patton was 2nd in U17 girls and Fionnaula Bruton 3rd.

Mark McGowan was the winner in the U17 boys 400m and Brendan Alexander the winner in the U19 boys 400m.

600m. Jasenna Lynch was 3rd in the u11 girls and Oisin Merritt 3rd in the boys U11. Niamh Doherty won the U13 girls 600 and Karen Ferguson 2nd. Ryan McNulty 3rd in the U13 boys

1500m. Breda McGinty won the U15 girls with team mate fionnuala Lyndsay 2nd. Shane Bonner was 2nd in the boys U15. Shauna Gutrie was 1st in the U17 girls, Fionnaula Bruton 2nd and Natasha Duffy 3rd. Frank Chaney was 2nd in the senior men's 1500m.

Training

Training continues Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7.30 p.m. and Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m.

The Ulster Championships for the 9-13 age group will be held next week,“ travel arrangements on the club notice board.

Norther Ireland & Ulster Open Track and Field Championships will be hold in Antrim stadium on Saturday. Best of luck to all competitiors at the weekend.

Bernie Alcorn and Anne McGill, P.R.O.