Congratulations to Maria McCambridge who won the national marathon title in Dublin on Monday in a personal best time of 2:35:28. The Letterkenny AC runner bettered her previous best time by just a second and her sterling performance earned her seventh place overall.
Speaking after Monday’s marathon, the 37 year old said: “As soon as the Olympics weren’t on for me, I just put it behind me, and put my head down in preparation for this.
“The race actually started off really slow, and I was with the leading girls up to 10K, which wasn’t the plan.“Suddenly they took off into a 5:30-pace, and I wasn’t going to do that, just stayed with my own pace, and had a great second half.
“So it is very satisfying, and that’s the great thing about being a runner – there’s always another race. It’s not the Olympics but I’m delighted,” she added.
Her husband, Gary Crossan, made it a real family day out as he pushed their 18-month old son, Dylan, around the course in a buggy in 3:05.
It was an extremely rewarding day for the club members who travelled to the capital at the weekend for the event. The group included Barry Meehan (2:50), Padraig Friel (3:03), Ciaran Coyle (3:21), Garvan McCloskey (3:21), Seamus Morrison (3:29), Noel Lynch (3:56), Jacqueline Ireland (4:44) and Linda Sweeney (5:27). Monday’s marathon had 12,186 finishers.
Well done to Gerard McGranaghan who won the Bluebird Car 5K held in aid of The Oran Nibbs Foundation held on Saturday morning in Churchill. His time was 16:55 – 25 seconds quicker than runner-up, Marcus McClintock, with Padraig Breslin taking third in 18:22. Irene McFadden took the honours in the women’s race in a time of 19:38, with her Letterkenny AC clubmates Monica McGranaghan (19:40) and Frances Judge (20:00) taking second and third respectively.
The club will host the Donegal cross country championships this Sunday at Ballymaleel off the main Letterkenny to Ramelton Road. Club captains, Aidan McKenna and Niamh McDaid are hopeful of fielding strong teams in the men’s and women’s races. The action gets under way at 12 noon.
There was no winner of the club’s lotto jackpot on Saturday night. The numbers drawn were 1, 5, 16 and 17. The only match three winner was Martin Gibbons and won himself 80 euro. This weekend’s jackpot will be 550 euro.
The club extends its sympathy to the family of Stanley White, Beechwood Avenue, Letterkenny, who passed away on Friday morning at the Donegal Hospice. A highly respected individual, Stanley did so much for the youth through his involvement with Iona schoolboys, Letterkenny Rovers and Donegal Youth teams. Stanley was one of life’s true gentleman and epitomised all that was good in both life and sport. May he rest in peace.
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