Finn Valley AC return to the European stage this weekend as the club’s senior women take on the European Champions Clubs Cup (ECCC) Cross Country in Albufeira.
The competition will bridge a 21-year gap with Finn Valley’s women making the voyage for the first time since a team finishing 12th in Mantua, Italy in 2005.
Noeleen Scanlan, Nuala Bose, Teresa Doherty and Maggie O’Hara will don the blue and white singlets this weekend in Portugal.
Catriona Devine has been appointed as the team leader for the trip and is no stranger to this race having competed each time previously the club qualified.
“It’s great to be part of it,” Devine says. “It’s the pinnacle of cross country running, you’re up against the best in Europe really. The race itself is a fantastic race and a very high calibre race. It’s great to be back in Europe again and we can only progress from this.”
In their halcyon days of the 1990s and early 2000s, Finn Valley AC’s senior women competed nine times in the ECCC Cross Country. In 1995, at Maia in Portugal, Finn Valley AC finished sixth with Devine, then as Catriona McGranaghan, joined by Dawn Hargan, Kay Byrne, Ita Boyle, Belinda McArdle and Margaret Synott.
A year later, in Lanciano, Italy, Finn Valley were sixth again with McGranaghan, Byrne and Boyle accompanied by Jill Bruce and Rosaleen Campbell.
“An absolutely fantastic achievement for us,” Devine says now, 30 years on. “It was really understated at that time; a small rural club like ourselves and the majority that we were racing against over there, like the Portuguese and Spanish, were full-time athletes.
“To be up against girls like Albertina Dias, who was a brilliant Portuguese and she was fully sponsored at that time. When we look back, we kind of took it for granted too.”
The Castlefin woman was also a part of the team that competed in Europe at Cassino (1994), Newport (1997), Istanbul (1998), Lanciano (1999), Salamanca (2000), Jaén (2003) and Mantua (2005).
This week, Finn Valley AC are shorn of Amy Greene – who led their charge as the second U23 at the National Seniors in Derry – this week due to a recent injury. The likes of Eilish Flanagan (injured), Roisin Flanagan and Leoni Cooke (unable to to travel), Cara Laverty and Eimear McCarroll (in the US on scholarship) are also unavailable for this weekend.
“It’s all about building and about the experience going forward,” Devine says. “We have a very, very strong women’s team now. We’re leaving six good girls at home and we can only build on this.”
Last year, SC Braga of Portugal won the team gold, followed by Bilbao from Spain and Fenerbache from Turkey.
Devine says: “Top 12 would be even sweeter, but this is really a starting point for this team and we just need to build now and take it forward.”
