A number of locally based businesses have pledged their support to the talented young Letterkenny AC athlete Erin Friel who is currently with the Irish senior athletics squad ahead of the World Relay Championships which takes place in Botswana this weekend.
Donegal athletics legend Danny McDaid has been hugely impressed by the progress of the Newtoncunningham girl who has excelled in 400m races nationally and abroad in the past couple of years.
Keeping Friel on track for further success prompted McDaid to secure the support of Duffy Express Freight, Newtoncunningham, Divers Hyundai, Letterkenny and McDonalds, Letterkenny.
Announcing the sponsorship boost at an event in Arena 7, Danny McDaid said. “This is something I wanted to do for Erin.
She is a special young woman with lots of potential. I want to thank the businesses for their support for Erin over the next three years.
William Duffy, Terence Diver and Richard McNamara head up well known local businesses and they can see the potential that Erin has to go on to bigger things.
Follow your dream is something I believe in and Erin is doing that.
She is following that dream with the Irish senior team at the World Relays in Botswana. Erin is then going on an athletics scholarship in the USA which will be great for her career.
She won a 400m bronze medal at the European Youth Olympics last year. So it’s onwards and upwards for Erin and hopefully in time she can qualify for an Olympic Games.
I want to thank Kathryn McDevitt who has been Erin’s long time coach and has been a key part of her career up to the present day” McDaid said.
Erin Friel, a Leaving Certificate student at Loreto Convent Letterkenny, thanked the local businesses for their support with her athletics career over the next three years. “It’s great to have that support and it will help me to have the best preparations for competitions.
I want to thank Danny McDaid for organising all that for me. Letterkenny AC and my coach Kathryn McDevitt have done so much for me and I am really grateful for that.
I am looking forward to being part of the Irish senior team for the first time and to be selected for the World Relays in Botswana and the whole experience of the training camp in South Africa.
It’s all really exciting and then in August I’m off to Florida to start an athletics scholarship. That is something that I wanted to do so that will hopefully help me in my career” Friel said.
Terence Diver of Divers Hyundai, William Duffy of Duffy Express Freight and Richard McNamara from McDonalds have all wished Erin well with the Irish senior team in Botswana this weekend and are looking forward to seeing her competing regularly for her country at the highest level in the coming years.
Erin has been in South Africa at an Irish training camp along with fellow Donegal athletes Arlene Crossan of Finn Valley AC and Tir Chonaill AC’s Fintan Dewhirst before heading to Botswana for this weekend’s World Athletics Relays.
Among the highlights of her career so far include a bronze medal in the 400m at the 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival in Macedonia with a new personal best of 54.02. Also last year, Friel was a member of the Irish women’s 4x400m side that finished sixth in their heat at the European U20s in Finland.
In March she won silver at the U19 Indoor Finals. She also secured a World U20s qualifying time with a silver medal in the U20 400m indoor final in Athlone.
This weekend in Botswana Friel is in both the Irish senior women’s 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m squads.
