The Glenswilly GAA 5K has been one of the most popular of the Donegal Grand Prix races in recent years and this was shown again in Tuesday evening’s event. There were 349 finishers. Karol Duggan turned in another top notch performance and won the race in a superb time of 15.27. Ivan Toner’s recent good form continued and he was the next Letterkenny AC runner across the line. He recorded an excellent time of 16.15, which gave him 3rd place overall and 1st place in the M40 category. Marathon specialist, Ciaran McGonagle, was the next M40 runner in 16.36.
Raymond Birch had another fine performance. He also clocked 16.36, finishing in 6th place and winning the M35 category. Sean McFadden had a good run and came home in 17.41. Nakita Burke had an excellent time of 17.42, giving her 2nd place in the women’s race. The winner was Finn Valley AC’s highly consistent Teresa McGlone, with a time of 16.31.
Barry Mackey continued his highly successful summer. He had set a 5K PB of 18.43 recently, matched it then got to within 1 second if it. However, on Tuesday, Barry made the breakthrough that his dedicated training merited. He ran 18.27, and took 16 seconds- or 1.4% – off his PB. Barry was 2nd in the M50 category.
Paul Toner clocked 18.58, Michael Galvin 19.08, Liam Ferry 19.23, Adrian Callaghan 19.35, Peter Gallagher 20.18, Stephen Shiels 20.37, Phil Boyle 20.55, Eimear Gormley 21.33, Gerard Mullen 22.10, Lee Gildea 23.57 and Fergal Burke 26.40.
Patrick Brennan’s good form continued in Friday evening’s Aghyaran 10K. His time was 38.17. Darren Beecroft also ran well and finished in 43.46. Chris McGuiness of Foyle Valley won the race in 33.25.
Danny Mooney had a very busy, and a highly successful weekend. On Saturday, he put on a tremendous performance in the 1500m at the British Milers’ Club event in Loughborough in the English East Midlands. He ran a time of 3.46.48 in the ‘A’ race, which was won by Donore Harriers’ man, John Travers. Danny showed his remarkable powers of recovery when he won the Buncrana Street Mile in 4.38 on Sunday evening. Fellow LAC man, David Smith, was 2nd in 4.59.
Last Sunday, Stephen Shiels and wife, Margaret, both had good runs in the Mantis to C.A.K.E. 5K in Killygordon. Stephen’s time was 19.36 and Margaret’s was 22.40. John Fisher won the race in 16.21.
Martin Gormley was 2nd in Saturday’s Letterkenny parkrun in a time of 19.46. He was also 1st in the M50 category. Aaron Nepgen won the Letterkenny parkrun for the second consecutive week, in 19.40. Liam Ferry was 3rd, and the leading M35 runner, in 20.48. Young Ronan Burke ran well and finished in 30.43.
7 days earlier, Cathal Roarty exchanged his usual Letterkenny parkrun outing for the less arduous inclines of Dublin’s Cabinteely parkrun, where he was the 3rd M50 runner. His time of 23.16 was faster than any of his 18 Letterkenny parkruns to date in 2018.
Hugh Gallagher.
Letterkenny AC PRO.
