DONEGAL IS well represented in the nominations for the sportswomen.ie Irish Sportswoman of the Year 2016.
Rower Sinead Jennings and badminton player Chloe Magee are nominated, as are paralympian Katie-George Dunlevy and triathlete Aileen Reid, all of whom are either from or have close family links to Donegal.
Jennings, at 39, finally realised a lifetime’s ambition this summer when she got to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio.
From Hawthorn Heights in Letterkenny, Jennings – alongside her partner Claire Lambe – finished sixth in the final of the women’s lightweight double sculls.
Jennings and Lambe made it to the final via an impressive and determined semi-final when they finished third.
In doing so, they became the first Irish female rowing pair to reach an Olympic final, something that Patsy McGonagle – the Irish Athletics Team Manager in Rio – said was the best EVER achievement by a Donegal sportsperson.
Jennings attempted to reach the Olympics on three previous occasions, but finally got there this year.
Raphoe native Magee set a new record this year as she became Donegal’s first three-time Olympian.
Magee previously competed in the women’s singles in Beijing and London, while she is now concentrating on the mixed doubles alongside her brother, Sam.
Dunlevy, from Crawley in England, is the daughter of Mountcharles native John Dunlevy. At the Paralympics in Rio, she won two medals, a gold and a silver.
Along with her tandem partner Eve McCrystal, Dunlevy – who has a visual impairment – won a silver medal in the Women’s Tandem Road Race.
That came after they won gold in the Time Trial.
Derry-born triathlete Reid’s grandparents hail from Malin. She finished 21st in the triathlon at the Olympic Games.
