Reed & Whoriskey claim Furey 5K race

Reed retained his individual title and led his City of Derry squad in a successful defence of the team honours while Whoriskey’s superb run yielded a personal best of 18 minutes and 18 seconds but the female Spartans lost their team crown to a very strong Omagh Harriers trio.

However local runners were pretty dominant across the board as the Furey Insurances 5K series got off to a flying start. Reed and Foyle Valley’s Scott Rankin were ahead from the gun and despite being chased down mid race by another Spartan Richard Johnston, they fought out the final metres with only a second separating them on the line. Reed clocked 15 minutes and 12 seconds to Rankins 15 minutes and 13 seconds with the hard working Johnston taking championship bronze on 15 minutes and 18 seconds.

A terrific upfront battle betwen the three of them with a clear indication of more exciting duels to come.

With Gary Slevin stepping up brilliantly to finish fourth on 16 minutes and 03 seconds the red vests A squad comfortably retained the NI championship.

Foyle Valley missed Keith Shields and Rankin was supported by Chris McGuinness 11th and Pius McIntyre 13th for team bronze. A great example of team packing saw the Spartans B string, Paul McCafferty 5th and top M45, James Brown 7th and first M40 and Colin Roberts 8th, take well deserved team silver behind their front liners.

Springwell’s talented Neill Johnston took the male U20 award in sixth while Spartans Nick Cassidy and the returning Greg Roberts completed the top ten. Mark Mullan ran 17 minutes and 36 seconds for the top M35 finisher, North Belfast’s Laurence Johnston, Jim Breen of Springwell and Ballymena Runners Ray Curran were the leading M50, M55 and M60 respectively.Lagan Valley’s John Glover was first M60 and Springwell’s Jim Platt the top M65 as the age group awards showcased the input of several different clubs.

The womens race witnessed a terrific tactical run from Catherine Whoriskey who came through just before half way and kept the opposition at bay superbly, taking the win by four seconds from Springwell’s Gemma Turley, 18 minutes and 22 seconds, and Michelle Strum of Omagh Harriers on 18 minutes and 35 seconds. With the top F40 Julie Butler not far behind on 18 minutes and 40 seconds and leading female U20 Sara Moore next on 19 minutes and 01 seconds the Omagh women easily took the team championship from the Spartans and Inishowen AC.

Jackie McGinley and her sister Paula McGilloway completed the scoring Spartans trio and Evelyn McGinley, Henrietta Elves and Eilish Galbraith gave Inishowen team bronze. Former winner Cathy McCourt of North Belfast returned to competitive action with a 19 minutes and 20 seconds run and took the F35 prize, Paula McGilloway looked good for the F45 award as did the F50 winner Una Gavin.

Inishowen wheelchair athlete Karol Doherty took the course in his stride, sorry on his wheels, clocking 17 minutes and 34 seconds to finish well up in the big field.

The awards were presented at the post race function in the UUMagee Sports Centre which provided an excellent event HQ, by Declan McCarthy of Atlanfish and Dara Furey of Furey Insurances.

Race two in the series is in Buncrana on Wednesday May 29th at 7.30pm and further infomation on this one will be available soon.