Sunday last saw the second day of the Donegal Championships Uneven Age hosted by Finn Valley where the weather couldn’t have been kinder to the large crowd of athletes and supporters who attended.
First up for Cranford AC were our U9 girls and Cliodna McBride, on her first race for the club, got the day off to a great start coming home in a brilliant 2nd place closely followed by Karen Neely, Tara McGarvey, Orla Cunningham, Cliona O’Connell and Emma McGee. Jerry Coyle led the u9 boys home in 8th position with Colin Gallagher making his debut for Cranford and Killian Caldwell both finishing strongly.
Miah Fletcher had a superb run in the u11 girls race where she was well ahead of the field to win the Gold medal and Donegal title with Lucy McGarvey finishing strongly in 12th place, Leah Gallagher, also making her debut for Cranford, had a great run to come home in 18th place with Meabh O’Connell and Mevagh McBride close behind.
The u11boys were up next and Caolan McFadden put in another amazing performance where he effortlessly maintained the lead throughout the race to win the Gold Medal and Donegal title. There were also good performances from Michael Moore, Ryan McMenamin, Dean Hewitson and Diarmuid Gallagher. A great performance from these young lads where they also claimed team Bronze.
We had a large entry in the u13 Girls where another new club member, Joycelene Diver, got off to a great start and went out very strongly. We look forward to seeing what this young girl will do with more experience. She was joined by Nazara McFadden who had a great finish to lead the Girls home in 23rd position followed closely by Clodagh Neely, Orla Neely, Blaithnaid Gallagher, Aine O’Connell and Caoimhe Browne. These girls also won Team Bronze.
Max Roarty had a superb run in the u13 boys where he stayed with the lead pack throughout to come home in an impressive 3rd place to win Bronze. Cian McMenamin also put in an excellent performance to finish in 7th place and with Aidan McFadden, Eoin Friel and Caolan Curran all finishing strongly they were well rewarded when they won Team Bronze.
Caitlin O’Hara had another great run in the strong field of u15 Girls where she came home in 14th place with Sophie Curran putting in a gutsy performance to finish close behind having run her race with only one shoe after she lost her spike early on in the race in what was by now a very mucky track.
There was another Team Bronze for our u15 boys where Oisin Kelly put in a great performance competing against older opposition to come home in 4th place followed by Oran McMenamin who looked very strong in 15th place, Johnny Trearty who is in excellent form in 23rd, Killian McFadden in 27th and Allan Neely in 28th.
Molly Trearty competed in the combined u17/u19 Girls in what was a very competitive race with all the girls battling for positions and was well rewarded when she made a dash for the line in the last 20 metres to claim the Bronze medal.
Johnny McGroddy looked in exceptional form where he stayed with the lead pack throughout the tough 4K course and had a fine finish to claim the Gold medal and be crowned Donegal U17 Champion.
The last race of the day was the u19 boys in what was a excellent race and there were some brilliant performances from these young men with Eoin Kelly competing well finishing in 8th position and Kevin Logue looking strong in 11th place.
Thanks to the Coaches, Eamon Giles, Joe Boyce, Ernie McElhinney, Rose Gavaghan and Bridie Trearty and to the parents who came along to support the athletes. Next up is the Even Age Ulsters in a couple of weeks time in Rostrevor.
