Athletics: Shane Donnelly represents Acorns on Welsh hills

Shane had a great race in warm conditions. The course was eight miles long with a 900 metre ascent which Shane covered in 1.09.11 to finish 38th overall.

Well done to Acorn Cathaoir Purvis who finished third in the district C Ulster Schools 3k qualifier in a time of 9.32 (PB).

Well done to everyone who took part in the first 5k of our club league series on Wednesday evening at Meadowbank Track.

The sun was splitting the rocks and air was at a premium, but everybody dug in and gave all they had. Well done everyone and thank-you to all the timekeepers.

Darrell McKee (16.35) came in first place just ahead of Shane Donnelly (16.55), Eoin Hughes (17.06), Martin Loughran (17.12), Bliadhan Glass (17.13), Aaron Meharg (17.15), and Martin McVey (17.15).

Acorn John Knocker travelled up to the Mary Peters track on Friday evening to take part in the Les Jones 10k. John is showing great form at the minute and this continued as he ran an event personal best of 46.16.

Well done everybody at the MUSA parkrun. Conditions were very warm, but that didn’t stop anybody from giving their all.

Congratulations to Tracey Quinn (23.40) on being first female finisher. In his first parkrun Caogain Kidd (23.44) beat his mum Edel (26.04 PB) while Denise Wright (25.45) had a great PB.

Aidan O’Hagan (17.02) was second overall and the first Acorns finisher. He was followed by Martin Foster (19.27 PB), Alan Shaw (20.15), Roger McLean (20.23), and Oliver Murphy (20.25).

The Antrim Parkrun saw 227 runners participating in near perfect conditions, on what was another record week for participation.

Martin Loughran bounded home in a time of 17.47 with Brian Thom (19.29), Lisa Simpson (21.29), Stacey Hinfey (22.55) and Daire Hinfrey (23.42) following him in.

At Limavady, Diarmuid O’kane (17.43) and Colm Mullin (17.57 PB) were competing while Denise Bownes (33.50) was the only Acorns member at Portrush. Maura McKenna came hom in a time of 26.13 at Ormeau.

Well done to Acorns Darrell McKee and Natalie Hall who took part in the Northern Ireland 10k Championships on Sunday at the Mary Peters track at the ChampionChip Ireland sponsored event.

Darrell finished fifth overall with a great time of 34.24 and Natalie who had problems with her laces during the run still managed to finish third female overall and with a personal best of 39.23.

Also on Sunday, a bunch of Acorns travelled to Strabane to take part in the Strabane/Lifford Half marathon.

The first Acorn to finish was John Knocker in a great time of 1.40.23 (PB) and third in his category.

Don Brownlee also had a great run finishing next in 1.47.10, followed closely by Rosemary Hargan in 1.48.34. Colin Thom was next in with 1.54.44 followed by Nicola McElduff in 2.08.52 and then Ciara Gribbin in 2.24.33.

UPCOMING FIXTURES

Thursday 19 May

Wilkies’ 5 Mile

Friday 20 May

Albertville 4

Belfast Runher 5k and 10k

Tuesday 24 May

Maghera 10K

Could all Acorns ensure that club memberships if not paid already are paid as soon as possible to Ciara Quinn in Magherafelt or Frances Bell in Cookstown.