Finn Valley AC to Honour Olympian Mark English & Ulster Senior Champs Recap

The Olympics are now over and done with and thus ends the journey that Mark English was on in this, his third Olympic Games, on this occasion reaching the semi-final once again. This is a credit to the Donegal man who began athletics as a youngster at Woodlands school, competing in the Finn Valley area Primary Schools competitions. It’s been an outstanding season to date, and no doubt he will race a number of other high profile meets before signing off on 2024. Finn Valley AC have extended an open invitation to adults, parents and children to come along to the athletic club on Saturday at 2pm when a welcome home reception will be held, not only to acknowledge Mark’s tremendous season but also his achievement in qualifying for three Olympic Games.

Elsewhere, the venue was Mary Peters Track Belfast where as many as nine Finn Valley athletes collected championship medals in the Ulster Senior Championship an event that most definitely closes the track and field season for the club. Topping the list of achievements was Lauren Callaghan winning the long jump, James Kelly winning the Shot with a throw of 17m plus and in silver medals position his training partner Gavin McLoughlin now home from a period in Australia. There was success also for Amy Timoney who set a new 100m hurdles club record returning 15.17. Add to that, medals for Janine Boyle in both the 100m and 200m and Bridget McDyer, 3^rd in the Shot Putt. Sommer Lecky, who had some weeks ago won the National Senior high jump title once again, added the Ulster Title clearing 1.75m on this occasion. Blaine Lynch from Castlederg, who has competed on a limited number of occasions this season, took a silver medal in the javelin with yet another throw of 50m plus. Thus ends what has been yet another busy and exciting season for club athletes ranging from the Children’s Games right through to Masters Athletics.

While mentioning Masters Athletics, we extend best wishes to Sinead McConnell who left Wednesday for Gothenburg Sweden to compete in the World Championships. She has trained under a little bit of pressure with the added issue of managing an injury throughout but no doubt she will return determined performances, and we look forward to the result. Also competing abroad this weekend is Stephen Slevin who is included on an Irish U17 selection at the Scottish Championships in Grangemouth, Glasgow. We wish him well on this, his first selection for an Irish team

Finally, training commences on Tuesday evening at 6.30 and all members and coaches are reminded to endeavour to get their squads back on deck at the earliest, as the Schools Cross Country and the Annual Champions Cup (all of which are hosted at Finn Valley AC in September) are just around the corner.