Launching 2019 in style!
The marketing department in Athletics Ireland was off to a busy start to the year. The first race to be launched was the Great Ireland Run 2019. This is the first year for this event to be staged, under licence, by Dublin City Harriers and Athletics Ireland. We launched on January 10th, and early bird entries sold out just six days later which was a great start to the year!
At the start of February, we launched the Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge 2019. Thursday 12 June, the GT5K kicks off in Cork for the first race of the 2019 series. We take to the Runway at Belfast City Airport on Thursday 20 June. On Thursday 27 June, the GT5K series takes to Ballybrit racecourse for the second year & once again on Wednesday 4 September, the GT5K series moves to Dublin.
The chosen charity for 2019 is the Simon Communities in Ireland. They are a network of eight regionally based independent Simon Communities based in Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway, the Midlands, the Mid West, the North West and the South East that share common values and ethos in tackling all forms of homelessness throughout Ireland, supported by a National Office.
Earlier this year we announced that six high profile Irish Life Health athletics events would be streamed in 2019. The first event streamed was the Junior and Under 23 Indoors which took place Sunday January 27th. Nearly 20,000 people tuned in to watch the first streamed event of six this year. The live streaming goal for 2019 is to reach over 300,000 views.
At the start of the year we had some exciting news with Irish Life Health being announced as an official partner to Athletics Ireland. They have backed the sport of athletics as a sport for life, delivering health and lifelong activity. A panel of athletes, Thomas Barr, Joe Gough & Annmaire McGlynn, was chaired by Dr. Tom Comyns, lecturer in Human Movement Science at the University of Limerick & Gary Ryan, former Olympian and Project Manager UL Beo to speak on the subject. Irish Life Health through its partnership with Athletics Ireland is committing to a sport that delivers on health, wellness and lifelong activity.