Letterkenny Athletic Club Notes



Letterkenny AC athlete Karol Duggan’s scintillating 2017 cross country season reached its zenith on Sunday in the British and Irish Masters’ Cross Country International at Gransha, Derry. Karol had a most successful outing, from both a personal and a team perspective.  Karol was up against the top masters  from Ireland and Britain and finished 12th overall and 7th in the M35 race. He helped his team to gold medals. Irish athletes, Paddy Hamilton, 2nd, Paul Moloney 4th and  Stuart Moloney in 6th place combined with Karol to earn 19 points for their team. That was sufficient to beat a strong Northern Ireland team by 14 points.
Letterkenny AC athletes were to the fore in Sunday morning’s Remembrance Day 10K at the Finn Valley Centre. Danny Mooney was a convincing winner and crossed the line in 32.02, which put him 79 seconds clear of his nearest challenger, Finn Valley AC’s Mark McPaul. The winner of the women’s race was also a runner from LAC, Maria Ni Mhaolagain. Like Danny, Maria was also a very convincing winner. She ran her first ever sub 40 minute 10K. Her time of 38.35 took a gargantuan 5.15 off her existence PB of 43.50, which represented  12% off that figure. Maria had 1m46s to spare over the second woman, Finn Valley AC’s Leoni Mullen. Maria is also a very talented  200m sprinter and this display shows versatile she is.
Brian Crossan clocked 39.40 and Liam Ferry 40.45. The Ferry brothers, Kevin and Brian,  both finished in 41.58. Richard Raymond continued his good form and the evergreen Kerryman clocked 45.41. Art McGrath finished in 50.53.
Several LAC runners took part in Saturday morning’s Letterkenny parkrun. Paul Toner’s time was 19.44, which saw him finish as the first LAC runner, which he has done often in recent weeks. Paul was 3rd overall and 1st in the M40 category. Paul Lee showed that he has recovered from the recent Dublin Marathon by clocking 21.34 for 8th place and 1st place in the M50 age group.
Young Katie McGee showed the club has a bright future when, in her first parkrun, she ran 23.21, which gave her 1st place in the JW 11-14 category. Naoise Enright, showing good form since running the Dublin Marathon, also finished in 23.21. Noel Lynch, another who ran in Dublin, was the 2nd M45 finisher, in a time of 23.46. James McBride was the leading M65 runner in 23.51. Marian Kerr was the first M40 runner in 24.24. Ryan Bradley had a successful parkrun debut and he was the leading JM10 runner in 24.28. Perennial parkrun competitor, Peter McLean, clocked 27.57 in his 58th outing. Peter was 5th in the M55 category. Grit McGee, another debutante, finished in 35.18, which saw her gain 2nd place in the W40 age group.
LAC’s “Annual Turkey Trot”  will be held at 10.30am on Sunday December 3rd. The race, over the well known fast and flat course,  has a novel aspect to it. Unlike most races, the winners are not necessarily the fastest runners. The winners are the runners who can most accurately match their pre race prediction  and their actual time. 10 turkeys are available. The entry fee is €8. The club is grateful to ‘Voodoo Venue’ for their continued, generous sponsorship.
The winning Lotto numbers drawn on November 16th were 4, 5, 12, 22. There were no Match 4 winners. 1 Match 2 winner, Paul Carr, won €80.
                                       Hugh Gallagher.
                                            LAC PRO.


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