Letterkenny AC: Danny Mooney shows his class at Abbotstown

Danny Mooney showed his class with a superb 1500m victory at the Irish Life Health AAI Indoor Games at The National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown.

A scintillating finish saw Danny leave all his rivals trailing in his wake. His time was 3.51.71 and his nearest 2 challengers were both from Ennis Track Club, Damien Landers and Rory Chesser. 

Nakita Burke’s rich vein of form continued on Saturday when she was the first woman in the Omagh CBS 5K. Nakita had a superb time of 17.36. She was also the 2nd overall finisher, with Martin Cox being the only runner ahead of her. 

In the Omagh 10K, Sean McFadden had a fine run. He clocked 36.41 to finish 5th overall and 3rd in a highly competitive M40 category. The overall winner, Keith Shiels, was also a M40 runner and he crossed the line in 32.58. Ciaran O’Donnell ran well and clocked 41.35. Stephen Shiels’ time was 45.04.

In Saturday’s Letterkenny parkrun, Donal Farren joined Paul Toner, Sean McFadden, Nakita Burke, Jack Holian, Barry Meehan and Martin Gormley as LAC winners of the event. Donal also had the distinction of recording the fastest ever time out of all 105 of the Letterkenny parkruns to date. His time was 17.10.

Barry Meehan was 3rd in 20.10 and Barry Mackey was 1st in the M55 category in 21.05. Paul Lee was the leading M50 runner in 22.37 and 2 M40 runners Naoise Enright, 22.58, and Martin Temple, 23.06, had top 10 finishes, meaning that 60% of the top 10 were LAC runners. 

Cathal Roarty was 2nd in the M50 category in 24.04. Deirdre Ni Dhuibhir, in her first parkrun,  crossed the line in 24.19. Sinead Peoples finished in 24.20. Sean McFadden went around in 24.21, which provided him with a gentle warm up for the Omagh 10K later in  the same day. Marian Kerr was the leading W40 runner in 24.49. Noel Lynch finished in 25.51. Peter McLean completed his 64th parkrun in 28.06. Mark McFadden finished in 42.13.

In the Glenmore 10K in Ballybofey on Sunday, Natasha Adams made a highly successful return to racing after a long spell out due to injury. She recorded an excellent time of 58.42 to finish as 2nd woman and 5th overall. The winner was City of Derry’s Greg Roberts in 53.22 and Teresa Doherty’s time of 57.49 gave her 1st place in the women’s race. Sean McFadden showed why he’s regarded as an endurance specialist when he completed his 3rd run of the weekend in 60.11. Patrick Brennan continued his good form and clocked 1.03.19. Liam Doherty made a good comeback to racing and came home in 1.05.54. John Hughes clocked 1.09.40 and Adrian Callaghan 1.10.01. Kevin Kiely was the 2nd M60 runner  in 1.12.01. Paul Lee’s time was 1.12.28.

Irene McFadden was the 1st F40 runner in 1.13.04 and fellow LAC F40, Catherine McKinley, finished in 1.13.58. Frank Pinder’s time was 1.14.54,  Kevin Greenan’s was 1.19.31 and Maura O’Grady’s was  1.23.51. 

Earlier in the week, in the Garda/PSNI National Cross Country Championships in Dublin’s  Phoenix Park, Michael Galvin was the 4th counter on the  Northern Region’s team, which  finished 2nd. They were beaten by Garda Training College by just 3 points. The 10K was run in tough conditions. 

The winning numbers in the LAC Lotto on February 1st were 1, 17, 19, 23. There were no Match 4 numbers. 2 Match 2 winners, Raymond Birch and Teri Boyle, each won €20. The jackpot remains at €2,000.