DONEGAL WILL be well represented at this weekend’s Irish Life Health National Masters Indoor Championships in Athlone.
The Irish masters have been blazing a trail in recent years and displaying a positive image that it’s never too late to compete and do so in style.
Finn Valley AC duo Mark Connolly (above, left) and Brian Ó Domhnaill won World and European Masters gold medals in 2019 and will look to further their success at national level this Sunday.
Last March, Connolly won gold at the World Masters Championships in Poland as part of the Irish team in the 8k cross-country.
Connolly goes this weekend in the 800m, 1500m and the 3000m races.
Ó Domhnaill was a gold medalist with iIeland at the European Masters in Vienna back in September, competing in the 20k race walk. This weekend, Ó Domhnaill is in 300m action.
Former Irish Senior cross-country queens Kay Byrne and Catriona Devine – part of the dominant Finn Valley teams of the 1990s – are also in action this weekend.
Byrne is in the 1500m and 3000m, with Devine set to go under starter’s orders in the 400m and 800m.
Bosco Reid will be in shot put and weight for distance competitions.
Letterkenny AC’s Kathryn McDevitt competed in last weekend’s Irish Indoor Championships and she competes this weekend in 200m and 400m.
LAC’s Barry Mackey has entered for 1500m and 3000m action; Hugh Gallagher goes in the 1500m and 3000m; Brian McBride is in the 300m and Danny Sharkey is listed in the 3000m walk.
In-form Rosses woman Helen McCready will be hoping to make a mark in the 300m race.
She is joined by Rosses AC club-mates Nicole O’Donnell (60m), Trisha Gillespie (high jump), Sinéad Doogan (long jump), Aidan Gillespie (long jump) and Joseph Joyce (shot put and weight for distance).
Damian Crawford of Lifford-Strabane AC will bid for success in both the shot put and the weight for distance.
Inishowen AC’s Martin Mooney has entered 60m hurdles, long jump, shot put and weight for distance, while Anthony Doherty of Milford AC is in the 3000m.
