Saturday, September 3 was the first occasion that the prestigious World Masters Mountain Running Championships had been held in Ireland, with runners from all around the globe travelling to Clonmel in County Tipperary for the honour of racing in their countries’ colours.
Springwell are pleased to announce that three members were selected for representative honours with Barry Mullan and Carolyn Crawford selected for Ireland and Adele Tomb selected for the UK. A highly competitive field of runners took on the challenge of a 10.5km course that began in Clonmel town, before climbing into the Comeragh Mountains in adjoining County Wexford, with 635m of ascent along broken trails and open mountainside.
Barry, Adele and Carolyn have all had a successful season in the mountains and it was all worthwhile preparation for this event, as they all rose to the challenge to produce strong performances. Barry ran 59:10 to place 40 th in the M45’s, Adele was 17 th in the W50’s with 1:12:19 and Carolyn 29 th in the W40’s with 1:17:34.
The event isn’t just one day of racing, once the international race on Saturday is over there’s the opportunity to take part in an open race on Sunday, so accompanied by club mate Margaret Kearney, Barry donned the purple vest for another day of mountain running. Sunday’s course was a challenging 509m of ascent over 8.5km with Barry 12 th in 51:34 and Margaret 40 th in 1:07:33.
Waterside Half Marathon
Thankfully the torrential rain and howling gale of the night before abated just before the start of the 2022 Waterside Half Marathon on Sunday, September 4. The sunshine, blue skies and calmer winds made for a much more pleasant race as over 1300 competitors took to the banks of the River Foyle. The mass start in St Columb’s Park led the runners onto the greenway along the side of the river towards the Foyle Bridge. A lap of Gransha Park had to be completed before they crossed the bridge and raced along the opposite bank to the Peace Bridge and the finish on the running track back in St Columbs Park.
A strong turnout from Springwell saw 36 members take on the 13.1 mile challenge and some strong performances resulted in both the men’s and women’s teams placing on the podium in the team events. The women’s team of Bernadette O’Kane, Mandy Stewart, Jenny Chartres and Sarah Stewart finished in second while the men’s team of Chris Denton, Christopher McNickle, Paul Thompson and Alan Nevin placed third in the team event.
Springwell RC - 16th Chris Denton 1:17:06 (3 rd M45), 21st Christopher McNickle 1:18:47, 25th Paul Thompson 1:19:13, 42nd Alan Nevin 1:23:14, 43rd Stephen McLaughlin 1:23:46, 57th Maurice Walker (2 nd M50) 1:25:32, 70th Aaron Steele 1:27:39, 96th Ryan Kennedy 1:29:49, 125th Rhys Walker 1:33:17, 168th James Hughes 1:37:01, 172nd Bernadette O’Kane 1:35:32, 173rd Mandy Stewart 1:37:10, 179th Jenny Chartres 1:36:52, 228th Barry McCluskey 1:41:13, 246th Adrian Finlay 1:41:53, 249th Michael Johnson 1:42:16, 275th Ryan Gray 1:42:42,
READ MORE:
280th Geoff Allen 1:43:08, 285th Sarah Stewart 1:43:16, 531 st Leisa McKenna 1:53:52, 602nd
Enda Young 1:56:47, 640th Jim Bradley 1:56:55, 684th John Butcher 1:58:47, 714th David Hughes 2:00:30, 718th Leanne Quigley 2:00:54, 721st Antoinette Conway 2:00:21, 775th Michael McKeown 2:02:35, 838th Alan Steen 2:08:18, 993rd Alison Duncan 2:16:55, 1008th Heather McLaughlin 2:18:28, 1011th Kate McNicholl 2:18:06, 1036th Andrew Wilmot 2:20:24, 1075th Colin Connolly 2:23:15, 1135nd Michelle McElhinney 2:30:24, 1152nd Anne McKenna 2:32:18, 1153rd Paul McKenna 2:32:18, 1191st Fergal Mackle 2:41:06
Parkrun
This weekend saw 46 Springers doing their parkrunning at 11 different venues with five personal bests recorded. Saturday was a very inclement morning so it a very big “THANK YOU” to all the volunteers who make parkrun happen.
Nobles - Patricia CRAIG 26:35; Ecos - Caroline OWEN 56:23; Portrush - Bernadette O’KANE 21:07 PB, Cathy ADAMS 24:00, George BRIEN 24:34, Mervyn THOMPSON 24:56, Catherine PINKERTON 25:25, Gary MOORE 25:26, Barry MCBRIDE 26:27, Pamela HOWE 26:50, Andrew WILMOT 27:33, Andrew WILSON 29:27, Amanda SCOTT 29:58, Lorraine ABERNETHY 34:02, Emer THOMPSON 34:09, Aisling HYNES 35:09, Fergal MACKLE 43:10, Kenneth BACON 1:02:52
Castlewellan - Gary KENDALL 22:48
Bere Island - David O’NEILL 18:10; Limavady - David SHIELS 20:20, Lesley LOGAN 21:38 PB, Fergus THOMPSON 21:50, David CAMPBELL 22:38, Adrian FINLAY 22:54, Shane MCLAUGHLIN 23:14 PB, David MCGAFFIN 24:40, Pauline MULLAN 24:49, Alan WHITE 25:23, Janet PATRICK 25:47, Alan STEEN 29:38, David MCCOOL 29:58, Ingrid HAMILTON 30:43, Nicola WHITE 30:44, Heather MCLAUGHLIN 36:19, Leanne QUIGLEY 36:20, Alison C DUNCAN 36:21
Birkenhead - Jim BREEN 27:22
Tullow - Jude MOORE 22:33, Paul MOORE 23:23, Grainne MOORE 29:00; Monsal Trail - Alanna MILLAR 25:07; Limepark Playing Fields - Ciaran MCERLAIN 20:38 PB, Deborah MC PHEE 25:50 PB; Ballinamore - Elaine MONTGOMERY 33:38, Catherine BYERS 34:10
1.
Alison Duncan at the WHM
2.
Adele Tomb and Carolyn Crawford at the World mountain Running Championships
3.
Barry Mullan at the WMRC
4.
Barry Mullan open race at the WMRC