Donegal athletes bidding to be crowned at the castle

There are targets and rewards galore for Donegal athletes to aim for at the Castle Irvine Estate in Fermanagh on Sunday.

The vast 230 acre grounds of the Necarne Demesne near Irvinestown plays host to the National Senior Cross Country Championships.

The U23, Junior and Even Age Championships take place on the same day and Donegal has a strong representation across club, county and provincial teams vying not just for medals, but international vests.

Letterkenny AC have the makings of a strong senior women’s team on the entry list at least as the national seniors head north of the border after a long absence.

LAC won the senior women’s team crown in 2021 and were the silver medal winners in 2022.

Two-time National Marathon champ Ann-Marie McGlynn leads the charge while an interesting entry in the black and amber is 2012 Olympian Caitriona Jennings. Although more regularly featuring in endurance events of late, Jennings’ inclusion among the participants is a signal that LAC mean business.

Christine Russell, Claire McGuigan, Noeleen Scanlan, Nakita Burke and Shauna McGeehan all feature on the entries - although Russell is said to be injured and McGuigan is due in an international masers on Saturday - with LAC vying for honours in a team tussle that could also feature the likes of North Belfast Harriers and Dublin City Harriers. All depending, though, on who toes the line.

In 2021, McGlynn, Burke, Russell and Natasha Adams won gold for LAC who competed for the next two years at the European Champion Clubs Cross Country Championships. The 2025 version of that competition takes place in Albufeira.

For Finn Valley AC duo Amy Greene and Sean McGinley - both the Donegal Senior Cross Country winners this year - the aim of the game is to make it to the European Cross Country Championships in Antalya, Turkey next month.

Caolan McFadden, seventh last year, is aiming at Europe too and the Cranford AC man, who won the U18 Ulster title in Belfast, will look to impress and battle for a spot on the junior team. Age might suggest otherwise, but confidence and form dictate that McFadden can set his crosshairs a little further.

Harry McKenzie, the Enniskillen Runners man who will be on home turf, and Finn Valley AC’s Odhran McBrearty  - second and third to McFadden in Ulster - will also be in the U18 race which has a strong Ulster contingent.

Finn Valley AC’s Flanagan twins, Eilish and Roisin, are recuperating from injuries and will not be in action while Eimear McCarroll will continue to compete in the United States rather than jet across the Atlantic.

“It’s a nice local venue for us,” says Finn Valley AC stalwart Mark Connolly, the meet director for Sunday’s event. “A good few of the athletes who have come from the schools system will have competed a the venue so they’re familiar with it.

“There has never been a national championships in Fermanagh before so it’s nice to get this.

Enniskillen Running Club have been very strong in recent years and this is a nice reward for them. It brings athletics to another county and the local people are buzzing about it.

“This brings the sport to a new audience, which is very important. A lot of people out there who do the road race scene haven’t experienced what championship running is all about.”

Up to 8,000 fans are expected on Sunday and Athletics Ireland were taken by the standard of the venue. Connolly has been working closely with the likes of Eamonn Monaghan and Geraldine Stewart in recent weeks.

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It looks ultra-competitive across the full schedule of competition with an added incentive for the under-16 participants in that the top eight finishers will get to compete at an international cross country event in Leeds next February; the first four making up the Celtic Challenge team and the next four going as part of an Athletics Ireland development squad.

Youngsters like Oisin McBride of Cranford, the Ulster U14 victor, and a raft of teams out of Rosses, Cranford, Finn Valley and Letterkenny will all be jostling to be in the medal hunt.