The sun came out and with it a record response in excess of 500 bringing the 2 day Finn Valley festival of school athletics to just under the 1000 participants the event builds and builds and with excellent organisation it is indeed most encouraging . Meet Director Patsy Mc Gonagle expressed his thanks to the many officials ,teachers /schools and indeed the enthusiastic response of the children as they engaged in long and high jump ,turbo javelin,wheelchair,shot,sprint and midddle distance plus relays . It all went along at a cracking pace with a return to the same venue next Wednesday for finals an 11 am start .