Photos courtesy of Eoghan Furey & Paddy Donoghue

Helena Crossan finished a highly creditable third in a time of 19.03 at the County senior cross-country championships at the Finn Valley Centre in Stranorlar on Sunday last. Crossan used the race as her final competitive outing before she competes in the World 100km championships in Rome this weekend. In doing so, the Carndonagh based distance runner led the Inishowen women’s team to third place overall in what proved to be one of the most competitive county championships in recent years, with just nine points separating the top four teams. Karen Crossan was the team’s second scorer with a strong run in sixth place overall in 19.42. Evelyn Mc Ginley made an excellent cross-country début with a twelfth place finish. Mc Ginley showed reserves of strength in the second half of the 4.5km race which she completed in 22.20. Elizabeth Mc Daid battled well to finish fourteenth overall in 23.05 and completed the scoring team. Bridie Cassidy displayed great determination over the last 500m of the race as she fought back from going off the course to overhaul Elaine Morrow from Letterkenny in an exciting sprint to the finish line, which she reached in 24.15. In the team race, Inishowen finished third on 35 points. Finn Valley took gold on 30 points, with South Donegal Club Tir Chonaill A.C. second, just three points behind. Letterkenny were fourth with 39 points.

Like in the women’s race, the men’s 9km event proved to be an exciting and enthralling race with a large field of 38 runners taking part. Joe Mc Kinney led Inishowen to well-deserved bronze medals in the team event by finishing very strongly in the second half of the race to clinch 12th place overall in 34.23. Niall Mc Gee finished 19th in 36.23. Finbarr Gallagher raced well to finish 27th overall in 38.31, just six days after running 3.09 in the Dublin City marathon. Patrick Doherty ran a steady race to run 39.08 and finish 29th, while Gerard Doyle adapted well to his longest cross-country race so far with a good 31st place finish in 39.54. Owen Mc Kinney showed no ill-effects of his excellent personal best run of 3.27 in the Dublin marathon on Monday week last as he completed the scoring team in 33rd in 42.37. Mickey Donaghey showed true grit throughout the race and finished 35th in 43.30. While not on the scoring team, Mickey was ahead of the sixth place scorer from Cranford A.C. and helped the team to clinch third place by one single point.

RESULTS DONEGAL SENIOR XC & WINTER T&F DAY 1

PHOTOS DONEGAL SENIOR XC (Eoghan)

Elsewhere, Stephen Friel finished third in the 60m in 8.03 seconds at the Winter League in Letterkenny on Saturday last. The third year Carndonagh Community School student took gold in the 300m in 43.6 seconds.

This Sunday, the Ulster/Northern Ireland juvenile and novice cross-country championships take place at the Finn Valley Centre in Stranorlar.