Sean Tobin and Iseult O’Donnell ran the fastest parkrun times in Ireland this weekend (16th November).

Times were fast in both the men’s and women’s top 10 this week as Dublin Track Club had an outing at Malahide where Irish international star Sean Tobin broke the Irish parkrun record clocking 14:19 – in his first ever parkrun outing!

Tobin, a top 10 finisher in the Euro Cross, has had a strong 2019 following his return from the States breaking the course record at the Cobh 10 Mile and running 29:06 at the Crescent City Classic 10km in April. Tobin has also set personal bests at 3000m outdoors (7:59.64) in Melbourne in February and 5000m (13:56.22) at Nijmegen in June as well as competing at the Euro Indoors and World XC Championships. In April Bláithín Sheil spoke to the founder of the Dublin Track Club, Feidhlim Kellyspoke to the founder of the Dublin Track Club, Feidhlim Kellyspoke to the founder of the Dublin Track Club, Feidhlim Kelly.

Malahide was also the location of the fastest woman’s time this week where Iseult O’Donnell ran 17:25 to clock the 3rd quickest time ever on the Dublin course. The Raheny Shamrock athlete was also in PB form on European soil this summer as the 800m specialist clocked 2:06.16 at the Flanders Cup in Belgium. O’Donnell was 9th at the Dublin Senior XC Championships a fortnight ago.

On one of the fastest week’s ever for men’s parkrun times in Ireland Daniel Stone clocked 15:07 to keep Tobin just in sight at Malahide and finish as this week’s 2nd fastest parkrunner. The under 17 Raheny Shamrock athlete had a fine run at the Spar International XC in October finishing 10th in the junior race.

Completing a Dublin Track Clun 1-2-3 was Daire Finn who clocked 15:12 at Malahide to edge out his team mate
Cillian O’Leary who ran 15:18. Finn was a member of the Irish u/20 team at the 2018 European Cross Country Championships and set a 3000m PB of 8:24.84 at Athlone in February.

Fresh off the back of a 2nd place finish in the u/17 Scottish National Short Course XC Championships last week Julia Cash ran a big parkrun PB of 17:56 at Belfast Victoria to finish as this week’s 2nd fastest woman. Cash, who runs for Giffnock North, was also a medallist at the Scottish Secondary Schools’ XC Championships in March where she finished 3rd.

Georgina Wiley chased Cash all the way to run 18:10 at Belfast Victoria which was a big parkrun PB for the Kent athlete. Wiley has had a fabulous 2019 clocking PBs across the board including running 84:52 at Valencia Half Marathon last month and 38:54 to PB at the Middlesex 10K in September.

Irish distance running legend Catherina McKiernan was the 4th fastest on the list clocking 18:23 at Marlay parkrun. A fantastic week overall where you needed to run 16:07 to get in the men’s top 10 and 19:21 to get into the women’s with many familiar names not making the cut this week.

Men’s top 10

1) parkrun: Malahide
Sean Tobin, 14:19, Clonmel Athletic Club
2) parkrun: Malahide
Daniel Stone, 15:07, Raheny Shamrock AC
3) parkrun: Malahide
Daire Finn, 15:12
4) parkrun: Malahide
Cillian O’Leary, 15:18, Raheny Shamrock AC
5) parkrun: Derry City
Scott Rankin, 15:43, Foyle Valley AC
6) parkrun: Marlay
Eoin Taggart, 15:50, Clonliffe Harriers A.C.
7) parkrun: Clonmel
Evan Fitzgerald, 15:51, Clonmel Athletic Club
8) parkrun: Malahide
Aaron Hanlon, 15:53
9) parkrun: St Anne’s
Jamie Gahan, 16:06, Portmarnock Athletic Club
10) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Chris Hutchinson, 16:07

Women’s top 10

1) parkrun: Malahide
Iseult O’Donnell, 17:25, Raheny Shamrock AC
2) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Julia Cash, 17:56, Giffnock North
3) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Georgina Wiley, 18:10, Melbourne Midday Milers
4) parkrun: Marlay
Catherina McKiernan, 18:23
5) parkrun: Shanganagh
Catherine O’Connor, 18:44, Parnell AC
6) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Edwina Ternan, 19:09, Orangegrove Athletics Club
7) parkrun: Gorey
Clodagh Kelly, 19:15, Croghan AC
8) parkrun: Marlay
Niamh Corbett, 19:17
9) parkrun: Bangor
Fiona McQuillan, 19:20, North Down AC
10) parkrun: Mungret
Ann MacPhail, 19:21

If you would like to run faster at parkrun, top tips to help runners of all abilities can be found here.

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