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26th
April 2011
Bradley Blows Away Opposition At Letterkenny 3K
Connor Bradley sat out last Wednesdays record breaking Furey
Insurances 5K opener on Bay Road but confirmed his well being
with an impressive 8m 45s unopposed win at Sundays Letterkenny
3K, finishing well clear of Letterkenny stalwarth Pauric McKinney
on 9m 3s with James Flanagan a further 3 seconds behind in
third place. The speedy Spartan now moves to the track for
this weekends Irish Universities championships in Antrim where
he is expected to challange in the 1500 metres.
Meantime there was a 400 plus turn out at Saturdays Ballyliffin
10 Coastal Challange,a testing multi terrian circuit in and
around the Inishowen village . The winner in a new record
time of 56m 23s was John Harkin,a native of Carndonagh but
now residing in Tullamore and wearing the blue and white Tullamore
Harriers strip. The M40 individual bronze medalist in Februarys
National Masters cross country
finished well clear of 2010 winner Paul Ward of Tir Chonail
AC, who despite beating last years winning time by a full
minute found his 57m 9s only good enough for the runners up
spot this time. In third place with 58m 41s was Con Doherty
and Helena Crossan led home an Inishowen AC clean sweep in
the Womens race with a 65m 4s winning effort. Teresa Doherty
and Elizabeth McDaid with 71m 8s and 75m 31s took the minor
placings.
Foyle Valleys Pius McIntyre was a good 4th in 60m 29s and
the Spartans Dara Furey ran 64m 52s for 12th in the huge field.The
Spartans super vet Christy McMonagle clocked 70m 20s for 29th
overall and showed once again his panache over the longer
racing distances.
Back to last Wednesdays Bay Road 5K which got the 2011 Furey
Insurances Series off to a brilliant start with Paddy Hamilton
and Teresa McGloins top quality new course records of 14m
39s and 17m 6s respectively. A record entry of over 180 produced
an excellent racing spectacle on the flat,fast course with
the almost perfect conditions and fantastic specator input
adding to the mix on the night. Promoting club City of Derry
retained their NI team championship with good runs from Greg
Roberts 2nd; JP Williamson 3rd and Paddy Mhor Doherty 5th.
The red vests were well clear of Letterkenny AC and city rivals
Foyle Valley, who had 4th placed Scott Rankin supported by
Paddy Nicell 24th and Eamon Doherty 25th for team bronze.
Teresa McGloin was too hot for defending champion Cathy McCourt
of North Belfast Harriers who was disappointed with her 17m
53s and third placed Roberta Dornan ran 18m 23s to lead her
club to the team championship gold,4 points ahead of Finn
Valley. Jackie McGinley 8th, Catherine Lilburn 12th and Amy
McDaid 13th combined to sive the female Spartans team bronze.
Age Group Winners
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Local runners were to the fore in the battles for the various
age category awards. Amy McDaid took the female U20 prize;
Rosie O Brien of Foyle Valley was the top F40 and the Spartans
duo ,Bridgeen Byrne and Roisin Lynch topped the F45 and F60
categories. Paddy doherty led home the M35,s;Declan McCarthy
and Peter Lilburn claimed the M45 and M55 prizes,the latter
with an impressive 17m 57s clocking.
Next up in the Series is the Lisnagelvin race on Wednesday
11th May with the usual 7 30pm start time. Another big entry
is expected here and full details including how to enter online
can be accessed via www.sparta-athletics.co.uk . Full results
of the Bay Road race are also available on this site.
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