BY HARRY WALSH
On an ideal day for cross country running, young Letterkenny athlete Peter Gibbons showed the rest of the field a clean pair of heels in winning the U16 title, eleven seconds clear of his closest challenger Jonathan Whan, City of Lisburn, with Finn Valley’s Oisin Gallen a further 13 seconds adrift in third spot.
Gibbons also led Letterkenny to silver team medals where he was joined by Daire Curran (20th), Oisin Toal (22nd) and Michael Gallagher (33rd).
The LAC Boys U18 team went one better, bringing home gold, led by Conor Morrison in sixth place, with Dale Gallagher (13th), Shaun Boyle (14th) and Patrick McConigley (16th) all running well.
In the Girls U16 race there were bronze team medals for Finn Valley (Aine McGrath 23, Leanne Kelly 24, Eimear Kelly 25 and Eloise Carlin 27).
Valley won team gold in the first race of the afternoon, Girls U10, with their lead runner Andrea Brown also winning individual silver with Chloe Coyle (5th), Amy McMenamin (16) and Cara McConnell (21) making up the team.
Inishowen AC were very much to the fore in the Boys U10 race with Seamus Harley winning gold, Fintan Doherty (Rosses AC) bronze while Harley was joined by Jamie McDaid (4), Michael McLaughlin (7) and James O’Hagan (13). It was also noteworthy that two other local clubs had top ten finishes in the race through Paul Ryan (Milford AC) and Oisin Kelly (Cranford AC) in sixth and eighth respectively.
Donegal were also well represented at the head of the Girls U12 race through Karen Gallagher (Letterkenny AC) and Aoife McGrath (Finn Valley) who finished second and third overall behind young Shercock athlete Aine Corcoran
McGrath, Emer O’Neill (16), Daniella Jansen (22) and Lauren McDaid (27) also won silver team medals for Finn Valley.
Gold was also the colour of medals won by the Finn Valley U12 Boys team. Leading the way for them was Jack Gillespie in second place with Shane McMonagle (8), Adam McCrudden (9) and John Reid (13) all inside the top 15 as were Cranford pair Johnny McGroddy (5) and Stephen Black (10) who, together with Conor Black (15) and Dylan Dorrian (16) won silver team medals.
Finn Valley pair Aaron McGlynn and Bryan McNamee were just outside the individual medals in the Boys U14 race – finishing fourth and fifth respectively – while Donal Farren (Letterkenny) in 8th and Eoin Kelly (Cranford AC) 10th also ran very well while Aoibhinn McHugh (Finn Valley) and Laura Crossan (Letterkenny AC) finished eighth and tenth overall in the Girls U14 race.
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)