Donegal Cross-Country Championship Juveniles

From the start of the 4 lap race, Mc Kinney was in the leading group of eight, which was dominated by Letterkenny athletes. Mid way through the second lap, Joe Patton from Letterkenny A.C opened a commanding lead which he held comfortably to the end. Mc Kinney was the only athlete to respond to the challenge and built up a commanding position in second place entering the final lap. Despite his mid race efforts, Mc Kinney battled bravely and did well to hold off the emerging challenge from the chasing pack.  He stormed home over the final 400m to secure a well earned silver medal. In the team race, Finbarr Gallagher followed closely, with Patrick Doherty just seconds behind. Gerard Doyle made a promising cross-country debut for the Club with a strong run to be the fourth scoring member on the team. Owenie Mc Kinney showed once again his typical battling style with another good performance on the grass, as Mickey Donaghy completed the team with a strong finish in the final 200m. These performance guaranteed silver medals behind Letterkenny A.C.

In the women’s 3km race, Aoife Logan made her debut in cross-country running with a solid ninth place finish. Darren Donaghy clinched and excellent third place in the U 9 boys’ race. Eimer Redden, Lauren Mc Keever, Emma Doherty and Deirdre Doherty combined to get silver medals in the U 11 girls team race, while Fergus Cox, James Monagle, Thomas Monagle, Ethan O’ Kane and Nathan Harkin recorded good runs in the U 11 boys 1km. Declan Donaghy finished a very creditable fourth in the U 13 boys race and was unfortunate not to win as he had a commanding lead going into the closing stages. Unfortunately, a wrong turn going into the home straight forced the Carndonagh athlete to lose three places in the final 300m. Clonmany athlete Derek Lee Doherty showed good form in the same race. Kate Doherty finished in the top 15 in the U 13 girls race.  Patrick Mathews led the U 15 boys’ team to bronze medals with a great seventh place finish. Declan Farren followed up on his second place finish last week with a creditable 10th place. Jacob Sanchez and Steve Sheridan completed the scoring team with strong performances in 19th and 20 respectively. A strong fourth place finish by Clonmany athlete Daniel Mc Laughlin helped the U 17 boys take gold medals in the team event. Stephen Friel worked well to take seventh place, with James Griffin just two places behind in 9th. Rodger Griffin raced to 12th place to complete the scoring team.

Up-Coming Events
The Ulster and Northern Ireland cross-country championships for U 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 juvenile athletes takes place on Saturday 25th October in Jordanstown, Co. Antrim. The first round of the winter track and field league takes place on Saturday 1st November at the Danny Mc Daid track in Letterkenny.  The Donegal senior cross-country is set for Sunday 2nd November at the Finn Valley Centre.