FVAC NOTES 2025
The dominant athletics activity last weekend for those of us in Finn Valley, and indeed in Ireland, was the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Apeldoorn, Holland. The club were honoured to have two representatives on the team, Mark English 800m and Arlene Crossan who made her international debut in the 4x4 relay. We enjoyed three days of intense activity and excitement as Mark came through the rounds to Sunday’s final. Mark had, on two previous occasions, medalled at these championships, once in Prague and on another occasion in Glasgow, adding to his two European outdoor medals. He was now chasing a 5th medal to become, along with Sonia O’Sullivan, one of the best Irish achievers ever in terms of medals at a major championship. Mark brought all his experience to bear in the final and to the great joy of us all in Donegal, ran an outstanding race to return a time of 1.45.46 clinching his third European indoor championship medal of his career and his 5th overall. A stunning final lap by an athlete who gained his first medal some 10 years ago and added to what has been a remarkable career of achievement and longevity. He departed on Tuesday to Dubai, to a training camp and will travel onwards from there to the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China in 10 days time. It was an edge of the seat performance for those of us watching back here in Ireland and obviously the impact of a performance such as this is wonderful for athletics in the area. We are very pleased to be associated with Mark, regarded as the finest athlete ever to come out of Donegal and we wish him well in the coming months both in the world indoor and outdoor championships.
Arlenne Crossan began life as a young primary school athlete and showed strong indication of talent in both the long jump and 200/400m as a youth athlete, gaining selection for the European Youth Olympics amongst other notable achievements. She unfortunately lost her way through injury in the intervening years but has shown great tenacity and desire in the last 6 months an approach which has produced 2 Donegal records at 200 and 400m, thus selection for the Irish 4x4 relay team. In the final events on Sunday evening, she was on track as the third leg runner for Ireland in the 4x4. It was an under-par team but finished 6th and no doubt she will have taken a lot of confidence and a lot of learning from her days with the squad. Her split for her leg of the 400m was 53.50. She now needs to build and work towards consistent sub 54 400m returns and possibly consider the 400m hurdles. The immediate plan is to spend 3 weeks warm weather training with some of her fellow teammates and come out fighting in the summer months. It was no doubt a special moment for her parents, Sean and Bernie and indeed her entire family.
The Irish Schools Cross Country finals were held at the Ballybrit racecourse in Galway, the highlight from a local perspective being Odhran Mcbrearty from St Columba’s College who dug deep to see off a strong challenge from two cork athletes to win by 2 seconds and in addition lead the Columba’s team to Silver team spot with the aid of Padraic Mc Gettigan, James Donaghey, Mark Alexander. In winning the title, was in fact retaining what he had achieved the previous year which was in many ways exceptional. We offer congratulations to him and the team.
The other medal winning athlete from the club was Darcie Clarke who was a member of the medal winning Lumen Christi College team, running a very good individual race to finish 3rd. At the National Under 20 Championships in Athlone, Leah O’Gara picked up a silver medal in the 3000m and notably recorded a new Donegal record time of 15.06.53 eclipsing the previous record 15.48.33 set by her coach Sinead McConnell in Turun Poland in 2023.
Across in Scotland, Lauren Callaghan, adding to the silver medal that she won at the Irish Senior Championships in the long jump, got out to 6.10 in Glasgow to take the Scottish title. The other notable achievement in Scotland came via Mark Wilkinson who cleared 1.75 collecting the bronze medal in the U17 high jump. In the senior men’s long jump, Oisin Thompson cleared 6.71 to finish4th.
The big road race in the northwest in the was the Derry 10m. There was a big squad of Finn Valley athletes involved with the leading valley athlete Mark McGinley, who finished 7th in the time of 56 minutes, while Gary Gallagher returned a time of 61 minutes. Others to note were Corey Duffy 1.03.50, Joanne Campbell 1:09.33, Ita Kelly 1:14.06, Attracta McBride 1.26.20, Brian Harvey 1.30.22, Kelly McGarrell 1.36.33, Finola McGahern 1.38.01, Goretti Marley 1.41.27, Cora Harvey 1.42.20, Emer Anderson 1 43.07 and Sonya O'Donnell 1 49.07.The next major distance race on the road in Donegal will be the Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge on April 19th which is sold out with the 1200 limit reached.
In Athlone at the weekend also, Amy Greene taking part in the U23 1500m had a personal best of 4.39.73 to finish 7th. Amy Timoney competed in the U20 hurdles also in Athlone finishing 4th.
Athlone was also the nucleus for the National Masters Championships with 4 Finn Valley athletes in the medals. Bosco Reid, continuing what has been a successful link with master’s athletics, winning his shot while Catriona Devine not only won the 1500m but returned to the track later in the 800m returning a time of 3.21. Finishing 2nd also in their respective 3000m races was Kay Byrne and Noreen Bonner.
Finn Valley received the welcome news in recent days that they have won the Kennedy Cup which is an acknowledgment from Athletics Ireland that they are the top ranked Juvenile Cross Country Club in Ireland. This is a unique achievement and certainly a great credit to the coaches, parents, and indeed athletes who put in the hard graft pre-Christmas.
Last week Finn Valley celebrated the Women in Sport week led out by Ann Slevin the Club Women In Sport officer, who launched a number of initiatives around the project, most particularly a link with Dooish NS and with all the young club athletes who were introduced to team talks by a number of our leading ladies in athletics, outlining elements that brought success to them in their careers namely Noreen Bonner, Shauna Carlin and Catriona Devine. The club are grateful to Ann for her effort over the period to bring awareness to both girls and women in sport.
The Daily Mile is being rolled out to a number of schools on a limited capacity due to lack of resources but the following schools have been invited to participate; St Marys Stranorlar, Dromore Killygordon, Dooish NS, Drumkeen NS, St Bridgets Convoy and St Mary’s Castlefinn.