Sun Shines On 1,000s Of Runners At The SPAR Great Ireland Run

International athletes joined famous faces and thousands of runners on Sunday the 6th of April for a superb race at the Phoenix Park in Dublin at the 12th staging of the SPAR Great Ireland Run.
The 10K event is the only run in Ireland to be awarded silver label status from the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) in recognition of its high standard of organisation, elite participation and media profile.
The 10K once again featured a superb field of international distance runners. This year’s event was won by the current World Cross Country Champion Japheth Korir of Kenya in 29 minutes 12 seconds. The women’s champion was Iwona Lewandowska of Poland in 33 minutes and 39 seconds.
The SPAR Great Ireland Mile was a hotly contested race with reigning champion, Ireland’s Paul Robinson taking first in a solid time of 4 minutes 2 seconds, two seconds ahead of his compatriot John Travers who was a further two seconds ahead of Britain’s Ross Murray.
Famous faces taking part included Coronation Street star Paula Lane, who plays Kylie Platt in the popular soap and Fair City favourite, Ryan Andrews who plays Sean Cassidy.
The SPAR Great Ireland Run was shown live on RTÉ 2 from 12.55pm and included the SPAR Junior and Mini Great Ireland Run events for 3-15 year olds and the SPAR Great Ireland Mile, a fast paced event which featured some of Ireland’s best male runners over the shorter distance.
Record entries had also been taken in the SPAR Junior and Mini events with over 1,200 children taking part. The next generation of Irish athletes were out in force with Sonia O’Sullivan’s daughter, Sophie Bideau taking first place in the SPAR Junior Mile and Catherina McKiernan’s daughter Deirbhile O’Reilly finishing third.
Willie O’Byrne, Managing Director of BWG Foods (owners and operators of the SPAR brand in Ireland) said: “I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the SPAR Great Ireland Run. Whether you were trying for one of the top spots against the elite athletes or walking the course for your chosen charity, you should be proud of your accomplishment and we really hope you had a great day in the Phoenix Park.”
The 2014 SPAR Great Ireland Run also gave runners the chance to represent their county in the All Ireland County Challenge competition for the Ronnie Delany Trophy and this year’s fastest county was Kilkenny. To qualify each county must have had at least five registered runners, and the winner was determined by the fastest average time of each County’s competitors, using chip finishing time technology. Each county also had a recorded time for the fastest male and female finisher.
Every 10K finisher received a technical event T shirt, medal, goody bag and chip timed results.