Letterkenny Athletic Club Notes



The highlight of the Donegal cross country season, the Donegal Senior Championship, was held on Sunday at the Finn Valley Centre. The 2 Letterkenny Athletic Club teams put on excellent performances and came away with a plethora of individual and team medals.
Terrific packing ensured that the women’s team retained the title  they won last year. Finn Valley’s Teresa McGloin was first across the line and was followed by the very consistent LAC pair of Nakita Burke and  Noeleen Scanlan. There were excellent runs by Shauna McGeehan and Maria Mulligan, who finished 5th and 6th respectively. This gave the club 16 points, putting them in an unassailable position. The 4 counters were given good back up by Sinead Peoples, who also had a strong run.
In the men’s race, Karol Duggan continued his tremendous recent form and stormed to victory. Ciaran Doherty, another very consistent LAC performer, was 3rd. Fine runs by the other 4 LAC runners earned silver medals for the team, being denied gold by good packing from the victorious Finn Valley team. Eoghain McGinley, Ciaran McGonagle, Ivan Toner and Kevin McGee turned in strong performances on the energy sapping course, which was a mudbath in many parts.
Donal Farren ran  in the historic ‘Colours’  Road Relay between UCD and Trinity on Sunday. Donal was competing for Trinity  and ran a time of 9m38s, which was the  2nd fastest leg of the day.
Paul Toner was the winner of Saturday morning’s Letterkenny parkrun. Paul’s time was 20.28. He has a phenomenal 2017 record in the Letterkenny parkrun. He has run 4 times this year and this was his 3rd victory. Paul’s other outing saw him finish 2nd.  Paul Lee, just 6 days after running the Dublin Marathon, had an excellent time of 22.10. He was 1st in the M50+ category. Richard Raymond clocked 23.12 and was 1st in the M60+ category. Parkrun specialist, Peter McLean, running the event for the 56th time, crossed the line in 26.10.
Former LAC stalwarts, married couple, Maria McCambridge and Gary Crossan, helped their current club, Dundrum South Dublin, to success in Sunday’s Leinster Senior Cross Country Championship in Santry.  Maria played a major role in ensuring that DSD won gold. She was 3rd overall. Gary played a part in helping them to silver in the men’s team event.
Pauric McKinney, another man who served LAC so well in the past, was a notable absentee from Sunday’s Donegal cross country championship. He had run the championship every year since 1988 but had to miss out this year due to an injury. Pauric is wished a speedy return to full fitness.
Letterkenny AC will have representation on the Irish team who will be competing in the 5 Nations’ Masters’  Cross Country International in Derry on November 17th. Karol Duggan has been selected for the M35 team and Annmarie McGlynn for the F35 team. Fionnuala Diver, who ran, and produced excellent performances,  in the F35 team in the 2015 and 2016 events, is a reserve for the team, following her fine showing in the recent trial race.
The winning numbers in the LAC Lotto draw on October 26th were 3, 5, 10, 20. There were no Match 4 winners. 4 Match 2 winners won €20-
Paul Toner, The Gormley Family, Paddy McIntyre and Ita Birch.
The winning numbers on November 2nd were 7, 11, 15, 23. One Match 3 winner won €80- Pat Hilly, Blakesley Bar.
                                    Hugh Gallagher.
                                          LAC PRO.


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