On Friday evening in athletics, it was a case of ‘all roads lead to Letterkenny’. Letterkenny AC hosted another very successful International Track and Field Meeting. The results of the event are covered in detail elsewhere. However, the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the final event, the Donnelly and Foley Mile. American Robert Downey dipped under the 4 minute barrier with a time of 3.59.58. Danny Mooney of Letterkenny AC put on a superlative display and recorded a time of 4.04.21.
Meeting records were set in the women’s 800m, 3000m steeplechase and shot putt, as well as the men’s and shot putt, enhancing the reputation of the event on the European athletics circuit.
Ivan Toner made a return to the familiar winners’ rostrum when he took first place in Tuesday evening’s Raphoe 5K. Ivan’s winning time was 16.42. Patrick Brennan’s recent good form continued and his time of 18.36 gave him 5th place. Martin Gormley was 1st in the M50 category in 18.59. Sinead Peoples was the second woman home in 19.29 and was followed by Ben George in 19.58. Darren Beecroft had an excellent time and crossed the line in 20.13.
Frank Pinder’s time was 20.39. Noreen McGettigan took 2nd place in the F40 category in 21.48. Richard Raymond’s superb summer continued and his time of 22.12 gave him 2nd place in the M60 group. Another consistent LAC M60, Philip Connolly came home in 25.08 and another M60 stalwart, Jimmy Gildea, clocked 32.59.
On Wednesday evening, John Hughes travelled to the beautiful south west Donegal town of Ardara and the journey was well worthwhile. John finised in a time of 19.48, which gave him 3rd place overall and first place in the M40 category. The race winner was Charlie O’Donnell of Rosses AC, whose time was 18.25.
A few days earlier, an intrepid band of LAC explorers had ventured even further west when they ran a race on Inishbofin Island. The race, which was 4.3K in distance, was won by Sean McFadden in 15.53. Barry Mackey came 2nd in 17.00 and Irene McFadden was the first woman, and 4th overall, in 17.54.
Track specialist, Brian Boyce, continued his excellent form at the weekend. A week ago, he picked up a double Bronze in the Athletics Ireland Master’s Championship. This weekend he was in even better form in the Northern Ireland Master’s Championship at the Mary Peters’ track in Belfast. He acheived a golden double. He was 1st in the M40 category in his preferred distance of 400m in a time of 54.58s. He also came 1st in the 200m when he ran 24.23s.
In Saturday’s Letterkenny parkrun, Aoife McElwaine was the first woman, in a time of 22.43. Mary Sweeney, in her first Letterkenny parkrun, was the 3rd woman, in 25.36. Last week, Peter McLean reached the half century mark and this week began the road to another half century in order to get to the 100 mark. Peter’s time was 27.47, which gave him 1st place in the M55-59 category.
The winning lotto numbers on July 6th were 15, 16, 20, 23. There were no jackpot winners. 4 match 2 winners received €20:
Mary Elliot, Paul Lee, Aidan McKenna and RB c/o JB. Next week’s jackpot will be €2,000, which would be sufficient to purchase several pairs of running shoes.
Hugh Gallagher.
LAC PRO.
