Virtual TQ10k Success

As Athletics Northern Ireland’s first venture into virtual events and amid the chaos of coronavirus, the Virtual TQ10k and 1k Family Run was a resounding success.

Over 500 people took part in the 10k and 1k virtual runs, using the opportunity of their one exercise a day to complete their chosen distance. All entrants were asked to keep to the social distancing rules of their own country and to only take part if it was safe to do so.Annadale Striders John Craig took the ultimate bragging rights, by completing his 10k in an impressive 32:12, to take the top spot. He was followed (figuratively) by the Victoria Park & Connswater AC duo of Keith Purdy in 34:17 and Gary Dane in 35:09.

Jog Lisburn’s Fiona McFall was the leading female with her solo time of 41:40. Newry City Runners’ Una Campbell finished in 2nd place in a time of 42:51 with Orangegrove AC’s Gemma Blake completing her 10k in 43:07.

Set with the challenge of completing a solo 10k run, many thought this just wasn’t enough and so went above the call of duty to complete further distances. Brian Armstrong completed a Half Marathon in a time of 1:51:55, while RunFit’s Patrick Moore completed the distance in 1:52:28. Colleen Murnion came very close to the full Marathon distance, running an expressive 20 miles in 3:19:32, while Peter Maguire finished 19.6 miles in a time of 3:33:22.

But it wasn’t all about the 10k distance- a number of youth athletes took to the streets, or their back gardens to complete their 1k distance. Mallusk Harriers’ Joseph Eager came out on top with a time of 2:59, followed by Ballymena & Antrim AC’s Aisling Smith in 3:21 and Dromore AC’s Lily Rimmer in 3:26.

The runners were also joined by those outside of Northern Ireland. All the way from Germany, Michael Kreiß finished his 10k in 43:32; Niklas Wieczorek finished in 1:03:23; Jochen Ruedele finished in 51:49 while Nina Vorspohl finished in 1:05:20. Scotland was represented by Kerry Gray, who completed her 10k in 1:22:15.

Ireland was well represented, with athletes having the even more difficult task of completing their 10k while keeping within the 2k radius of their house. Alison Clark (Reaghstown Chasers) finished in 1:00:05, while Dublin’s John and Breda Doherty finished in 1:02:06. Wicklow Runners’ Cassandra Dunne finished in 1:02:21, with her team mate, Emma De Courcy finished in 1:02:59. North East Runners AC’s Janet Mooney finished in a time of 1:11:52 with team mates, Louise Power coming in 1:12:00 and Eamonn O’Reilly finishing in 50:49. Mary Callaghan (Team Dog) finishing in 1:06:53 while, running around Letterkenny, Emma Kieran finished in 1:01:23, while Roisin Farren completed her 11.3k around Dundalk in 59:39 and Piotr Obara from Mullingar finished in 41:14.

England-based sisters, Sophie and Emily Forster took part in the Family 1k race, finishing in 6:38 and 7:12, respectively, with mum, Lynne completing 12.25k in 1:09:07.

The full results can be found here: www.athleticsni.org/Results

It may not have been the classic TQ10k, but the virtual race proved that running can still bring people together, even during a lock down.

Interested in virtual racing? We will be announcing some exciting news for our Athletics NI club’s tomorrow on our website.

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