Donegal athletes to be honoured at Athletics Ireland Juvenile Star Awards

Donegal athletes will be to the fore on Saturday-week at the Athletics Ireland Juvenile Star Awards.

The awards will be presented at a function in the Mullingar Park Hotel.

Conor Kelly of Finn Valley AC and Erin Friel from Letterkenny AC will collect special awards, while Cranford AC’s Caolan McFadden will pick up a county star award and Finn Valley AC will be presented with the Kennedy Cup as the best Cross Country Club in 2025.

At the European U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, Kelly took gold. His 45.83 seconds that afternoon was a new Irish U20 record.

Kelly had been a bronze medal winner at the 2024 European U18s and hit back to win a classy gold.

At the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Skopje, Macedonia, Friel won bronze over 400m.

The Kathryn McDevitt-coached Friel, who hails from Newtowncunningham, clocked a new personal best, 54.02 seconds, in the final to take third. 

Friel was also part of an Irish girls’ medley relay team which landed a new national recored, 2:07.06, to finish fourth in the final.

The Loreto Secondary School student then ran in the European U20 Championships in Tampere, finishing sixth with the Irish women’s 4x400m team in their heat with Friel the fastest of the four in a 53.54-second split.

Friel has bene confirmed as the winner of the Keara O’Hart, Sprints award.

Kelly and Friel will also pick up juvenile recognition awards having won European medals in 2025.

McFadden has been announced as the winner of the Donegal county star award.

At the National Juvenile Track and Field Championships, McFadden won the U19 800m in a Championship record 1:51.53. He also landed gold in the U19 1500m and took bronze in the U20 800m.

McFadden won a super gold in the Schools 800m clocking 1:51.98 to take the win.

Read next: Relay gold for Tir Chonaill AC's Shane Toolan at European Masters

Onto the cross country campaign, McFadden - who is bound for Villanova University later this year - earned silver in the U20 race at the National Cross Country Championships in Derry.

Finn Valley AC will take the Athletics Ireland Juvenile Cross Country Club of the Year award after a superb season of action at the various age groups.