Brian Maher and Charlotte Ward ran the fastest parkrun times in Ireland this weekend (14th December)

Irish international and 2018 National 10k Champion Brian Maher topped the list of fastest parkrun times in Ireland this weekend with 15:24, 11 seconds outside his own course record at Kilkenny. With a 10000m PB of 29:44 and 5000m best of 14:12 Maher has been one of Ireland’s most familiar athletes over the last decade featuring at World and European XC Champs. The Kilkenny City Harrier was 13th at last month’s All Ireland XC Championships.

Charlotte Ward is a woman in great form in 2019 and she ran the fastest parkrun time by a woman this weekend with 18:38 at Belfast Victoria. Ward as set personal bests at 3km (9:59), 5km (17:15), 10km (36:30), 10 miles (60:08) and half marathon (79:30) in a stellar year so far. Most recently Ward was 7th at the Percy Pud 10km when setting her 36:30 best. Whilst listed as a City of Hull athlete by parkrun we believe Charlotte is a Hallamshire Harrier.

Another Kilkenny City Harrier, Thomas Hayes, gave Brian Maher a run for his money at Kilkenny parkrun and finished second fastest man this week running 15:33 and taking 12 seconds off his previous parkrun best set over three years ago. Hayes ran 2:25:04 at Frankfurt Marathon in October and has had a fine year setting PBs at Venloop Half Marathon (65:49), Fast Friday 10000m (30:26) and Armagh 5km (14:29).

19:17 was enough to ensure Edel Reilly was first home overall at Castlebar parkrun and finish as seocnd fastest woman this week. Reilly ran 37:52 to set a new PB at Belleek 10k earlier this month and was 2nd at the Hollymount 6km road race in November clocking 23:25.

In his first every parkrun outing Evan Keane ran 16:07 to clock the second fastest time ever on the Waterford Nature course and finish as this week’s 3rd fastest man. Well known as a junior Keane was 3rd in the junior 3000m at 2018 National Senior Championships.

Lexi Hopping ran 19:18 at Malahide parkrun to finish as this week’s third fastest runner. We don’t know much about Lexi, other than she has a parkrun PB of 18:34 and that her name isn’t an easy one to google search!

Men’s top 10

1) parkrun: Kilkenny
Brian Maher, 15:24, Kilkenny City Harriers
2) parkrun: Kilkenny
Thomas Hayes, 15:33, Kilkenny City Harriers
3) parkrun: Waterford Nature
Evan Keane, 16:07, Waterford AC
4) parkrun: Castletown
Lee Van Haeften, 16:12
5) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Stephen McComish, 16:32
6) parkrun: St Anne’s
Rossa Hurley, 16:44, Donore Harriers
7) parkrun: Malahide
Thomas Collins, 16:46, Portmarnock Athletic Club
8) parkrun: Malahide
Brendan Murphy, 16:50, CSO Runners
9) parkrun: Holy Cross College
Conor Gallagher, 16:53, Letterkenny AC
10) parkrun: Waterford Nature
Brian Murphy, 17:01, Carrick-on-Suir AC

Women’s top 10

1) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Charlotte Ward, 18:38, City of Hull AC
2) parkrun: Castlebar
Edel Reilly, 19:17
3) parkrun: Malahide
Lexi Hopping, 19:18
4) parkrun: Killarney House
Kerry Eagar, 19:36, Star of the Laune AC
5) parkrun: Coole
Sinead Foran, 19:37, Athenry Athletics Club
6) parkrun: Bangor
Fiona McQuillan, 19:40, North Down AC
=7) parkrun: Ormeau
Dearbhla Sheridan, 19:44, Belfast Running Club
=7) parkrun: Derry City
Pauline Thom, 19:44, Ballymena & Antrim AC
9) parkrun: Brickfields
Niamh Clifford, 20:03, Star of the Laune AC
10) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Gemma Blake, 20:09, Orangegrove Athletics Club

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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