In pictures: Sharon Foley enters Donegal Athletics Hall of Fame

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Lifford trailblazer Sharon Foley was inducted into the Donegal Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday night.

As the Donegal Athletics Board toasted another successful year of action all the way from juveniles to the Olympic Games, Foley became the latest entrant to the illustrious Hall of Fame.

The holder of a staggering 40 Irish gold medals, including 22 National Senior titles, the now Sharon Gallen paved a new path in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Her first Irish senior gold arrived in 1989 when she won the high jump, clearing 1.74m, just days after winning the schools gold and U17 gold with 1.70m and 1.77m leaps.

She won her first national title when triumphing in the U13 long jump and her expansive talents showed when winning the National U16 multi events. The National U23 heptathlon title was also won.

The 13-year-old Irish high jump record (1.84m) of Bridget Corrigan, set in 1980, was broken on a sodden Sunday at Tullamore in 1993.

Having been a contender for the 1992 Olympic Games, Foley didn’t make it to Barcelona, but she remained among the leading athletes in the country and at the BLE Open Sports, Foley jumped 1.85m, just days before her 21st birthday.

At Rotterdam in June 1993, Foley went better again, scaling a 1.88m height at the Europa Cup – bettered only that day by Moldovan Olga Bolşova, who cleared 1.94m.

She wore the Irish senior vest 27 times and in 1993 she became the first Donegal born woman to compete at a World Athletics Championships when going in the high jump in Stuttgart.

On Friday night at Jackson's Hotel, she was accompanied by her proud family for her This Is Your Life moment with the local athletics fraternity. The Hall of Fame award was presented by Brendan O'Donnell, son of the late Ben O'Donnell who nurtured and coached Foley through her many events and successes.

Olympic 800m semi-finalist Mark English of Finn Valley AC and Kelly McGrory of Tir Chonaill AC – who ran in the women's 4x400m semi-final at the Olympics – were crowned the senior athletes of the year.

Tir Chonaill AC hurdler Fintan Dewhirst and Lifford-Strabane AC multi-eventer Ashleigh McArdle were named as junior athletes of the year with Letterkenny AC endurance runner Ciaran McGonagle and Finn Valley AC's Sinead McConnell – who won three medals at the recent World Masters Athletics Championships in Sweden – taking the masters awards.

2024 Donegal Athletics Board Awards

Hall of Fame: Sharon Foley (Lifford-Strabane AC).

Junior Athletes of the Year: Mark English (Finn Valley AC), Kelly McGrory (Tir Chonaill AC).

Junior Athletes of the Year: Fintan Dewhirst (Tir Chonaill AC), Ashleigh McArdle (Lifford-Strabane AC).

Master Athletes of the Year: Ciaran McGonagle (Letterkenny AC), Sinead McConnell (Finn Valley AC).

Patsy McGonagle Cup: Oisin Thompson (Finn Valley AC).

Bernie O'Callaghan Cup: Danny Sharkey (Letterkenny AC).

Eamonn Giles Cup: Ace Rodriguez (Finn Valley AC).

Ben O'Donnell Cup: Gareth Crawford (Lifford-Strabane AC).

PJ O'Carlin Cup: Ben Carr (Finn Valley AC).

Club Awards: Cranford AC – Charlie Rogers, Oisin McBride, Clodagh Neely, Michael Moore, Caolan McFadden; Finn Valley AC – Darcie Clarke, Adam Breen, Lauren McConnell, Paraic McGettigan; Inishowen AC – Yvonne Gourley, Cassie Sheehy, Adam Farren, Einin O'Boyle; Killybegs AC – Mila Rose Boyle Conwell, Lucy McHugh, Keelan O'Donnell, Ethan Diver; Letterkenny AC – Clodagh Gallagher, Brendan Ndambira, Erin Friel, Harry McIlwaine; Lifford-Strabane AC – Cabrini Pyne, Joseph Ike, Caoimhe Gallen, Luke Ward; Milford AC – Laura Boyce, Tiernan Kerr, Walter Dill, Daeva Diver; Olympian YAC – Maeve McGeehin, Martin Corbett, Aoife McGeehin, Charlie McHugh; Rosses AC– Katelyn O'Donnell, Eli Duffy, Niamh Doogan, Eva Logue; Tir Chonaill AC – Melissa Ward, Jacoby McHugh, Ava Anderson, Eoin Boyle.