National Title for Jeff Cassin

Congratulations to Jeff Cassin who won the National 50K Walk at the Dublin Grand Prix of Race Walking in the Phoenix Park on Sunday last. This was a great performance by Jeff in this very difficult technical event. Unfortunately the windy conditions put paid to any hopes of the Olympic qualifying time which Jeff is very close too.

Ann McGill was also in top form at the Phoenix Park winning the 3K Masters Walk in 17 minutes 04 seconds with Geselda Pensose coming 2nd on the O/35 section. Geselda's children Michael and Madeline also did very well in the U/14 and U12 races with Michael 2nd and Madeline 5th.

Fionnuala Bruton continues her good form winning the Silver medal in the U16 race with clubmate Maeve Culhane 3rd. Finn Valley won the team race here. Shauna Guthrie won the Silver medal in the U14 race.

Tailteann Games

We had four athletes on the Ulster Schools Team for the Tailteann Games in Tullamore on Saturday with varying degrees of success. Michael Reid was very unlucky in the Discus holding 3rd position until the very last throw of the competition where he was overtaken but he put in a very good performance to record a best throw of 36.14m. behind L. Mangan, Belvedere College in 3rd place on 37.08m.

Nikki Alcorn and Charlene Kelly contested the 3000m Walk with Nikki finishing 6th in 17.03.2, a new p.b., and Charlene 8th in 19.45.7. Geraldine Kelly found the very windy conditions difficult in the triple jump and did not produce anything like her normal form and finished 6th with a best jump of 9.85m. However all these athletes will have gained considerably from the excellent competition.

Lifford 5K

Kieran Carlin was 2nd in the Lifford 5K in a time of 15 minutes 10 seconds behind Pauric McKinney 15.07 and Kevin Holian was 3rd in 15 mins. 11 seconds. Teresa McGloin won the Senior Women's race in 19.40 with Noreen McConigley also running well to record a time of 21 minutes exactly. Pat Hegarty was 2nd in the men's Masters race in 16.27.

Finn Valley 5K

The Finn Valley 5K roadrace will be held at the Finn Valley Centre on Friday night at 7.30 p.m. and all Senior and Masters athletes are expected to compete. This race is part of the Donegal Grand Prix Road Race series.

National Juvenile Championships

Our Juvenile athletes are continuing to train for the National Championships in Tullamore with the U14 to U19 athletes on the first weekend i.e. 10th and 11th of July and the U9 to U13 athletes and relays on the following weekend.

Bernie Alcorn, P.R.O.