St Joseph’s Creggan teacher, Gary Murray stormed to a cracking 14m 35s victory at Wednesday night’s eleventh staging of the prestigious Sean Furey Insurances Buncrana 5K, just missing fellow Donegal man Ciaran Doherty’s Irish male course record by a single second, as over 200 runners enjoyed the good conditions and the fast course by the Lough Swilly shore.
Murray and runner up Declan Reed were well clear by the first kilometre and a sustained charge by the St Malachys man saw him get so close to Doherty’s 2013 record of 14m 34s. Behind him the Derry Spartan belied his M40 status with another fine effort, clocking 14m 47s, one second quicker than last year when he also finished runner up. Completing the podium places was Finn Valley’s Barry Harron in 15m 16s, just a few strides and one second ahead the top M45 Pauric McKinney’s excellent 15m 17s.
The Derry men Noel Logan of the Spartans and Foyle Valley’s Chris McGuinness filled out the top six with 15m 20s, a PB, and 15m 32s respectively.
Women's Race
In an equally exciting Women’s race Teresa McGloin of Finn Valley significantly improved her best time on the course with a swift 16m 17s and was chased home in 16m 35s by Lifford’s Natasha Adams. The winning time was some ten seconds down on Maria McCambridge’s 16m 07s 2010 womens course record. This pair were always clear of the opposition which was led home in third spot by the always impressive Sarah Lindsay of Foyle Valley, with a strong 18m 54s effort.
The next three finishers were almost together in the downhill dash to the line with just over a second separating them. Fourth spot was secured by Maeve Maher McWilliams of the NW Tri Club in 19m 18s while it took the electronic chip timing to separate Inishowen’s Theresa Doherty and the F55 winner Ruth Magill of Lagan Valley on 19m 19s.
The four to score team races were also well contested with the male Spartans retaining their title from Letterkenny and Foyle Valley, Declan Reed and Noel logan being well supported by Greg Roberts, 15m 41s and Connor Dohertywith a 15m 42s PB.
Irene McFadden, Nakita Burke, Naoise Enright and Jane McGinley combined well to give Letterkenny the Women’s team title with the Spartans and Foyle Valley completing the top three.
Age Group Winners
Apart from the age group winners already mentioned the male Spartans had James Brown impress as M40 winner on 15m 52s and Michael Melarkey’s 17m 01s gave him the M U20 victory. Letterkenny had the top M35 Ivan Toner on 15m 50s and top M60, Brian McBride, 21m 23s. Michael McKnight ran 17m 40s for the M50 award, Joe McCarthy, back in City of Derry colours was the top M55 with 18m 32s and Desmond Brownlie of Lagan Valley was the top M65 on 28m 47s.
Sisters Jackie McGinley and Paula McGilloway were the leading F45 and F50 finishers, posting 19m 26s and 21m 41s respectively. Theresa Doherty’s fine 5th overall gave her the F35 prize; Eimer Gallen of Finn Valley was the leading F40 with 21m 06s and Emma Mcgilloway ran 20m 43s to claim the f U20 crown.