Grant Thorton Corporate 5K Team Challenge 2016 Launched
GRANT THORNTON CORPORATE 5K TEAM CHALLENGE 2016 LAUNCHED
- National Sports Campus, Fingal – 9 June
- The Mall, Cork – 29 June
- Dublin Docklands – 13 September
Business advisors Grant Thornton and Athletics Ireland have today announced the dates for the Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge series for 2016.
The locations and dates are the National Sports Campus in Fingal on Thursday 9th of June and The Mall, Cork City on Wednesday 29th of June, with the flagship event taking place in the Dublin Docklands on Tuesday 13th of September. The Corporate Challenge is organised by the national governing body Athletics Ireland whose mission is to support and develop the athletes of Ireland of all ages, disciplines and abilities.
Aimed at encouraging social running amongst the business community in Dublin and Cork, the event welcomes both seasoned runners as well as beginners. Each run will be a team event and a minimum of four participants will enter with team members’ times combined to determine the winner.
Paul McCann, Managing Partner with Grant Thornton said: “The Corporate Challenge is a great opportunity to build team spirit and to create a sense of healthy competition. We are delighted to partner once again with Athletics Ireland and to support the work that they do to promote fitness and making a difference to young promising athletes. Now in its fifth year this event goes from strength to strength with more people participating. The Docklands run last September was a sell-out with over 5,000 runners from 139 different companies!”
“We recognise the importance of promoting fitness and by supporting this event, we also hope that we are enhancing the awareness of the important role it can play in the workplace. In addition, it’s a great opportunity to raise some funds for charity and this year, 10% of each entry fee to each Challenge will go to The Alzheimer Society of Ireland to assist their work in providing dementia specific services and supports and advocating for the rights and needs of all people living with dementia and their carers.”
Event Ambassador, Olympian and former London Marathon winner Catherina McKiernan commented, “The growth of the event is testament to the feel-good factor that running brings. It is a fantastic sight to see so many runners taking part each year from the regular runner to the complete beginner, this event is a great way to encourage people to take the first step towards getting fit enough to run a 5k. The team element adds a sense of fun and camaraderie amongst work colleagues in a really well organised event. I'm looking forward to being a part of it again this year.”
John Foley, Chief Executive of Athletics Ireland, said “As an association one of our core strategic objectives is to promote health and fitness in the population as a whole. This event enables us to reach beyond our core membership into the business community by encouraging them to focus on a fitness programme which targets a 5k run; a good starter point for novice runners.”
Foley added: “Grant Thornton’s sponsorship of this event allows for it to be a revenue earner for the association with profits generated channelled into our Junior High Performance Athletics programmes. These programmes provide support and expertise to close to 100 of our emerging young athletes to help them to fulfil their potential.”
All events have chip timing along with goody bags for all participants who are encouraged to fundraise for the chosen charity, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, through mycharity.ie.
To ENTER your team now and download Catherina McKiernan’s training programme go to www.grantthorntoncorporatechallenge.ie.