Donegal athletes target home glory as Cranford host National Cross Country

Eamon Giles was just 19 when he formed Cranford Athletics Club in 1961.

Sixty-one years later, Giles and Cranford AC host the National Cross Country Championships.

The Rosapenna Hotel and Golf Resort will welcome the great and the good of the sport. It is the second time for the event to be held in Donegal and the first since Finn Valley AC staged it in 1999.

“It is something that I thought had gone past us,” Giles says. “We have tried many times, but it is only now that we have been successful.”

It will be a big occasion for Cranford AC's rising star Caolan McFadden, who won the recent under-17 Ulster title. McFadden has been in flying form this season and won 800m and 1500m titles on the track.

This weekend has been his aim from a long way out and a challenge for a national gold on home soil is a real focus for the athlete coached by Eamon Giles and Rose Gavaghan.

“Downings now is the main one for me,” he said recently. “It’s the big one to get.

“I’m very happy with the form now, it’s been excellent lately.”

Sean McGinley of Finn Valley AC is another man aiming to make a mark on the big stage. McGinley, who is coached by John Rogan, has been in good form of late and will be gunning to make a mark.

Sunday's event also serves as a qualifier for the European Championships.

In Santry last year, Letterkenny AC won their first ever women's senior title, led by Ann-Marie McGlynn in sixth, and they subsequently came ninth in Europe.

Nakita Burke, Christine Russell and Natasha Adams completed the scoring quartet on a historic day for the black and amber. Letterkenny AC won on 87 points with Leevale totalling 98.

Leevale's Lizzie Lee was the individual winner last year, something that really underlined LAC's achievement.

With Leevale again expected to offer a prominent challenge, Letterkenny will need to replicate their surge from 12 months ago.

While Russell has since relocated to the United States, McGlynn, Burke and Adams remain with Noeleen Scanlan – the recently-crowned Donegal cross-country champion – and Shauna McGeehan also set to toe the line.

Finn Valley AC's hopes of a potential challenge for the women's crown was thwarted with the Flanagan twins, Eilish and Roisin, remaining in America. Instead this weekend, the twins will go in the Sugar Run 5k in Germantown, Tennessee.

Finn Valley AC won the women's junior team title in 2021 and their squad is all eligible again for Rosapenna.

Amy Greene has since joined and she will go under starter's orders in the Finn Valley AC singlet alongside Sarah Bradley, Nuala Bose, Emer O'Brien and Eimear McCarroll. Cara Laverty, who was on the winning team last year, is now a scholarship student at Providence College in Rhode Island.

Finn Valley came sixth in Europe earlier this year and, with the flame still burning from that, they remain keen for a repeat of the trick.

The host club will also be looking at the likes of Oisin McHugh and Oisin Kelly as they target places on the podium.

It is a far cry from the formative years when Giles first dipped his toes.

“When we started off, there was no organised athletics in Donegal,” Giles says.

“I decided that we would start a club and , after a couple of meetings, I didn't get any great encouragement. People said we had no money and no athletes and that we had too far to travel for competitions. Pat Marley and Jim Hunter came in along with me.

“We got in touch with the Oakleaf club, who were very successful at that time, and they gave us a lot of advice. Away we went from that.”

When the gun goes on Sunday, it's the culmination of years and decades of endeavour.