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.
LAC’s “Annual Turkey Trot” will be held at 10.30am on Sunday December 3rd.