Report by Race Director Michael Cunningham:
The annual Sportsworld race was held on a cool May 17th morning on the streets of Terenure. This is a running club organised event which tries to get local people involved in running, provide a high standard race and raise funds and awareness for different charities. This year’s race had 1400 entries with a top quality field at the front in both the men’s and women’s field.
At the half way stage we had 5 men in a tight pack pushing the pace with Mark Christie, Brendan O Neill, Freddy Keron Situk, Mark Kenneally, Peter Brandon Somba (Kenya) trying for a break away. Mark Christie came out on top with a strong finish in 23.52 with Brenan O’Neill just one second behind. The popular Raheny athlete Freddy Keron Stuk was third in 24.08.
It was a welcome return for Mary Cullen who took the honors in the women’s race in a time of 26.28 with Sarah Mulligan in second and Fiona Clinton in third.
Full results available on Precision Timings website here: Terenure 5 results
Sportsworlds top runner was Karol Cronin in 25.54 who lead home the Sportsworld mens team to first place in the team event. There were great runs by Gareth Murran and Gavin Finaly. Karl Chatterton, Kevin Curran and Derek Saville had the pleasure of 100 Sportsworld club members cheering them on for their first Sportsworld 5mile race representing the club.
Our race charity this year was Fighting Blindness and their representative Tony Ward ran the race with his guide. When we were deciding on this year’s charity Tony Ward came to visit the committee and his sense of humor, determination and promise to run the race left us no choice in picking a charity. Watching Tony run with apparent ease and managing a 30 minute 5 mile is hard to comprehend in what must be an incredibly challenging and scary environment.
As well as increasing the race numbers there was also a big improvement in running club involvement in the race. There was a huge turnout from Crusaders AC who were also the Senior women’s team winners.
It is vital that running clubs support other club races as without the running clubs behind these races there would be no progression of the fun runner to the club runner, 5mile to a marathon or any chance of developing future Olympians.
There was a huge amount of work done by club members in the days and months coming up to the race with too many names to mention but the race committee does need to be mentioned.
The race is only a success because people are willing to give up their time with meetings, budgets and bringing new ideas to the race and putting the time in to get them done. Joe Haugh, Noel Tobin and Maria Finnegan were all new race committee members this year and gave up a lot of their time to work on the race and took on responsibility for a number of tough jobs. Paddy Lynch, Sean O Byrne and Stephen Willougby have all worked on the race before and still come back for more.
I think being in a running club is more than just coming down to the club and training, I think being part of the club involves giving at least 1 year to the main committee or race committee. There are plenty of roles in both committees and the 2016 race committee will be organised soon so make sure you’re involved.
More photos of the other award winners and race are available here: Race Photos & Race Photos inc finish line
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