Finn Valley AC Club Notes: Celebrating European Championship Efforts and Youth Triumphs

This week, the focus has been on the great success of Irish athletes at the European Championships in Rome, a weekend that will increase the profile of the sport and provide inspiration for many young athletes into the future. Mark English, a member of the Irish team at 800m was in action Friday morning with a view to improving his medal tally from these championships from previous years. Mark, now 31 years old was drawn in lane 4 and in clocking 1.46.73 finished 5 th in what was the toughest heat on the morning, unfortunately not progressing to the semi-finals. Mark very quickly reassessed his position and rightly stated in a post-race interview that at the season end, 2024 will be about the Olympic Games in Paris which is now very much his sole target. Mark had previously medalled 10 years ago in Zurich and 2 years ago in Munich, holding medals from indoor European level from 2015 and 2019. Unfortunately, two other FV athletes that were in contention for these European Championships were forced to withdraw due to injury; Brendan Boyce and Roisin Flanagan. Eilish Flanagan intends to run this weekend in Canada before returning home to Europe. 

Our young 14/19 age group athletes were in competition at the Mary Peters track over the weekend, chasing Ulster Championship medals and qualification for the National Championships next month. On day 1, title winners included Mark Wilkinson (high jump), Riona Doherty (long jump), Dean Leeper (shot and javelin), Ciaran McConnell (800m) and Amy Timoney (hurdles). 

On day two, victory was established by Darci Clarke (1500m), Eimear McCarroll (1500m), Sally McMenamin (1500m), Odhran McBrearty (1500m) , Jayden Sproule (200m), Katie Louise McMonagle (long jump and 200m), Leah O’Gara (walk) and Daniel McHugh (200m). In addition, there were numerous medals and qualification spots achieved by athletes across all disciplines.

This Saturday the Donegal Athletics Board are holding an underage development athletics meeting for young athletes that haven’t medalled at county or ulster level to date this season. It’s an opportunity for them to finish the season on a high and achieve success for their dedication over the previous months. Entry online.

Featured Image: Finn Valley AC mixed relay silver medalists