McPeake takes top spot at Maghera

There were over 200 starters when the whistle went and by the first mile McPeake was well clear with Jonathon McCloy Ballymena runners Paul Thompson Springwell, followed by a large group that included Sperrin athletes Aaron Meharg, Jonathon Dempsey, Mel Hughes Julian Grimes, Niall Higgins, Diarmuid O’Kane, also in the group were Niall Brown u/a, Jim Breen and Hugh Boyle of Springwell.

While the leading lady for the Harriers was Fiona Crozier, and when the went through the half way mark McPeake was heading for a win and McCloy was looking good for second but after that nobody was sure of what position they would finish in with the battles that was going on throughout the race especially between the Harrier athletes themselves.

But there was nobody going to catch McPeake and he crossed the line in a great time of 34-03 with McCloy finishing strong to finish in 35-26 with Thompson taking 3rd in 36-52 with Meharg 36-57 out-sprinting Brown 36-58 to the line and taking 1st & 2nd locals in the race.

Next and winning the O/40s was Dempsey in 37-39 with Grimes next in a Pb 37-42 and 2nd O/40 with Higgins taking the O/35s in 38-02 then Boyle 1st O/50 38-05 O’Kane 2nd O/35 38-26, Jim Breen 2nd O/50 38-28, Christopher Miller was next in 38-31 and that was the top 12 finishers in the race, in the Ladies Helena Quinn was the winner in a time of 41-00, next was Geraldine Quigley Larne ac 41-39, 3rd Alison Rankin Springwell 42-16, 4th Mirela Ghidau 43-07, 5th Linda Gillen Springwell 44-06, 6th Cara Suiter 45-10.

Here are the rest of the Harriers time’s Alan Shaw 2nd O/45 38-46, Paul McLaughlin 39-03, Mel Hughes 39-03,

David O’Brien 39-06, Francis Stewart 39-12, Pierce McCullagh 39-39, Martin McGirr 40-02, Gavin Wylie 40-04, Colly Gallagher 40-14, Conor Martin 41-43, Gerard McNally 42-12, Gregory Cahoon 43-29, Paul Martin 43-39, Barry O’Neill 45-25, Fiona Crozier 2nd F/local 45-58, Kieran O’Hagan 46-43, Grainne Heaney(F) 48-55, Natasha Henry (F) 48-57,Niall Gallagher 49-54, Mairead Hughes (F) 52-41, Adele McNally (F) 53-08, Niocla Gillespie (F) 54-38, Deirdre Conway (F) 54-43, Ashlene Evans (F) 56-50, Adele Scullion (F) 57-08,

Harriers run well

Six Sperrin Athletes were in action on Thursday in the Foyle Valley athlete clubs running of the Wilkie 5 mile road race.

At the half way mark Glenn Donnelly was having a great race in the top six, with Paul McLaughlin and Alan Shaw running alongside each other for the second race in two days, next was David O’Brien having his third race, in five days.

He was followed by Marty McGirr also having his second race in two days, and then the Legend himself Irwin Speirs having his second race in five days, and while conditions were good the athletes were getting it hard to breathe in the humid conditions. But this didn’t stop them posting great times and were lead home by Glenn in a great time of 28-09 in fifth position next home was Alan Shaw in 30-24 with Paul just behind in 30-35 then David battling on to the line to take second position in the O/50 in 30-35 with Marty next in 31-32 with the” Legend” next in 32-44 and taking the O/60s also well done to Erin McDaid who travelled with the Harriers to the race who ran a great race to take 2nd overall in 27-10 well done everyone.

Stunnerz in Runnerz

This Saturday will see the first running of the Ladies only Stunnerz in Runnerz which is been promoted by Sperrin Harriers and is been Sponsored by “DC” Contracts,So Ladies your big day is here so let’s see yous all at the Meadowbank Arena. Registration will start at 10am with the race starting in Parkmore at 12-00pm sharp,And with almost 200 entries already in there is not a lot of the nice pink Tec.t- shirts left so hurry up and get entered, but don’t worry you can enter on the day, everyone get’s a great goodie bag, and there will be plenty to do after the race from getting your nails polished, Training shoes to be looked at, Advice on training & Health and the best part is you will be getting your Tea/Coffee/Sandwiches/Buns/Cup-Cakes severed to you by the Sperrin Harriers good looking men ???

Edinburgh Marathon

Four Sperrin Harrier athletes made the trip to Scotland to compete in the Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday last, the race was held on one of the hottest days of the year so far, This did’t stop Fergal Mulgrew taking 20min’s of his Pb for the distance when he ran a great race to finish in a time of 3hr-07min and with club mate Damian Galvin just behind him in 3hr-08min then big Raymond Thom having ran in Belfast a few weeks ago ran a great 3hr-43min, our final runner home was Tom McDonald who ran 4hr-42min well done guys.

Harriers at Parkrun

Well done to the three Sperrin athletes that ran in the Ecos Parkrun in Ballymena on Saturday where conditions were very hot. Gerard McNally 20.21,Oliver Murphy 23.34,Adele McNally 25.23.

Sheffield Half Marathon

Congratulations to Darren Warnock who competed in the Shefield Half Marathon and also Kevin Murphy and Rodney Young, who completed in the Meath Half Ironman.

Then on the following Thursday Kevin travelled to London to participate in the UK Civil Service 10k Championships, Kevin ran a time of 40.59 and was well placed in his age category.