Several Letterkenny AC runners made the 330 KM round trip to Dundalk IT for the National Novice cross country championships.
Karol Duggan had an excellent run to finish 15th in a time of 19.52 in a highly competitive men’s race comprising 172 runners. Karol was a highly promising teenage runner who has now returned to athletics.
He is currently fulfilling the youthful promise he showed and led the Donegal team to bronze medals in the Inter County section.
The team were just 3 points behind runners up, Antrim. He was given good backing by 5 Finn Valley AC runners, Mark McPaul, Dermot McElchar, James McFadden, John McElhill and Dalton McGuigan. There were also excellent runs from another couple of LAC runners, Adam Friel who finished in 21.22 and Raymond Birch who clocked 21.42.
In an equally competitive women’s race with 136 competitors, LAC’s 5 runners all put in tremendous performances. In-form Nakita Burke had an excellent top 20 placing in a time of 15.29.
With the help of Irene McFadden (16.09), Jane Toner (16.23) and Deirdre Diver (16.57), the LAC team finished in a highly creditable 6th place in the Inter Club category. Siobhan Gallagher also had a good run and crossed the line in 17.09.
The Donegal team came tantalisingly close to gaining medals in the Inter County section.
They finished in 4th position, with 75% of the team being LAC runners- Nakita, Irene and Jane. The 4th Donegal counter was Lifford & Strabane AC’s Leoni Mullen.
Coach Teresa McDaid had a rather longer return journey of 5,500 KM to the European Cross Country Championship in Chia, Italy in her role as team manager of the Irish Senior Women’s team and Under 23 Women’s team.
Fionnuala McCormack competed for a record 14th time. She turned in an excellent performance to finish in 5th place.
She clocked 25.28 for the 8,000 metres course and was just 1 second behind the 4th placed runner. The team finished 6th, after battling with Romania for bronze medals for much of the race. In Teresa’s Under 23 team, the top performer was Bethanie Murray.
Several LAC runners ran in the Letterkenny Parkrun 5K on Saturday morning. Seamus Morrison was 3rd in a time of 21.08. Paul Lee’s time of 21.48 gave him 5th place. R
ichard Raymond’s good form continued and the big Kerryman ran 22.15, to finish 6th overall and 1st in the M60-64 category. Cathal Roarty’s time of 23.34 was the fastest of his 6 parkruns to date. He was 8th and the 2nd M50-54 runner.
Mr ‘Letterkenny Parkrun’, Peter McLean ran the event, which only started 10 months ago, for the 33rd time. His time of 26.22 gave him 1st place in the M55-59 category.
The race winner was Gary Crossan, now of Dundrum South Dublin, but who represented LAC for so long and with such distinction.
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