FVAC NOTES 24 March 2025
As the indoor season slowly comes to a conclusion in the next few weeks with the National Indoor Championships on this weekend and the following weekend, we look back at our last weeks activity. The highlight was a silver medal performance in the National 10k Championships in Dunboyne on Sunday from Jon Jo Doherty, returning a time of 31.03 to grab the silver medal in his masters category. There was further good news as Noreen Bonner, with a time of 47.42, claimed a W65 silver medal i#in her age category. Other club athletes who participated were Amy Green (36.18), Blanaid Patton (39.32) good to see her dipping under the 40 minute mark, and Michael Penrose (42.55). Michael has been an ever-present competitor in county, provincial and national championships for many many years and his enthusiasm is evident to this day.
On a dreary wet Saturday morning, the Donegal Athletics Board hosted an open throws meet at Letterkenny track, catering for all ages, with a small number of Finn Valley athletes in attendance namely Bosco Reed and Emily McHugh, with Bosco clinching the gold in the shot and Emily taking silver in the Javelin and bronze in the shot.
It was a busy evening at the Finn Valley Campus on Wednesday with the young athletes participating in an open competition hosted by Finn Valley AC with 150+ young athletes participating in a variety of events; sprint, middle distance, long jump and turbo with the U12 age group athletes having the option of the walk and high jump. It was a worthwhile exercise and all the officials and supports gave the event that extra boost to many many months of hard training with the opportunity to compete at long last. Their next big opportunity will be the Schools Athletics in early May, again at Finn Valley Campus.
Looking ahead, amongst the events that will focus on our athletes are the Primary Schools Athletics, Secondary Schools Athletics and County, Provincial, and National Champioships all outdoors once the outstanding indoor fixtures are completed.
We are delighted to announce that, in partnership with Donegal Sports Partnership and Healthy Ireland, another 8 week block of junior athletics for neurodiverse children began. We are particularly proud to be associated with this project and the reaction has been hugely positive. Many children and their parents are dealing with an aspect of life where resources and opportunities are limited and we are only too pleased to lead this in a Donegal context. The Programme is led once again Ann and Declan Slevin – enquiries to Ann on 086-8679169
The club invite all members, and indeed the community, to attend an informal reception for Mark English at the Finn Valley Centre on Saturday at 1.3pm when we will acknowledge his European Championship Medal and the club will also acknowledge Arlene Crossan and her first senior international vest in the 4x4 relay.
The recent club teamwear order has begun to arrive with vests, tshirts and shorts ready for collection from The Finn Valley Centre while the quarter zips and jackets will be here March 28th.