Jessica Anne Craig and Alan O’Shea ran the quickest parkrun times in Ireland this weekend (July 20th).

Jessica Anne Craig claims the course record at Belfast Victoria and Alan O’Shea also breaks the course record at Ballincollig.

A big step forward in Belfast

North Down AC’s Jessica Craig took big chunk of her parkrun best running 16:51 to break the course record at Belfast Victoria parkrun. The Northern Irish international has already set a 5km PB of 16:49 at the Cardiff Race for Victory 5km in May.

The winner of this years Portadown 10km, Craig took 23 seconds off her previous parkrun best and 14 seconds off the course record.

The familiar name of Annette Kealy maintained her consistent presence at the top of the fastest parkruns in Ireland. The masters athlete this week claimed the number two spot with 18:16 at Malahide.

Sisters Kirsti and Lucy Foster, both under 15, feature at third and fifth position. Kirsti, the older of the two East Down AC athletes ran 18:33 at Belfast Victoria to match her PB. Lucy Foster ran a new PB of 19:03 on the course which provided four of the top 10 fastest female times this week.

O’Shea breaks the course record at Ballingcollig

Bantry AC man Alan O’Shea ran 15:51 to take 10 seconds off the previous best time at Ballincollig parkrun. Sub 2:20 marathon man O’Shea was running only his second parkrun and the winner of the Cork 10km in March took nine seconds of his previous best.

Prolific Tony McCambridge had a fine run at Waterworks finish in 16:14. In what was his 152nd parkrun the St. Malachys AC runner finished over two minutes clear of the next finisher. The Northern Irish international mountain runner has had am excellent 2019 with big PBs at 3,000m (8:41) and 5,000m (15:04).

Ballymena & Antrim’s under 17 Gavin McCaffrey was this week’s third fastest runner with 16:21 at Antrim. Another athlete who has had good success so far in 2019 McCaffrey broke nine minutes for 3,000m only last week running 8:57.57 at the Irish Milers Club Open at Drogheda.

Men’s top 10
1) parkrun: Ballincollig
Alan O’Shea, 15:51, Bantry Athletic Club
2) parkrun: Waterworks
Tony McCambridge, 16:14, St. Malachys AC
3) parkrun: Antrim
Gavin McCaffrey, 16:21, Ballymena & Antrim AC
4) parkrun: Carrickfergus
Andrew Milligan, 16:22, North Belfast Harriers
5) parkrun: MUSA Cookstown
Brian Taggart, 16:23, Sperrin Harriers
6) parkrun: Listowel
Eddie O’Connor, 16:32, St Mary’s University College AC
7) parkrun: Portumna
Tom Lupton, 16:38, Portlaoise AC
8) parkrun: Castlewellan
Declan Toal, 16:41, North East Runners
9) parkrun: Valley
William Simpson, 16:49
10) parkrun: Tymon
Éanna Ó’Brádaigh, 16:50

Women’s top 10
1) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Jessica Anne Craig, 16:51, North Down AC
2) parkrun: Malahide
Annette Kealy, 18:16, Raheny Shamrock AC
3) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Kirsti Foster, 18:33, East Down AC
4) parkrun: Poolbeg
Sorcha Loughnane, 18:58
5) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Lucy Foster, 19:03, East Down AC
6) parkrun: Killarney House
Shona Ní Fhloinn, 19:12, Dooneen AC
7) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Leann Gibson, 19:26, Victoria Park and Connswater AC
8) parkrun: Fairview
Aoife Brady, 19:36, Sportsworld
9) parkrun: Castlewellan
Laura Mathews, 19:37, North East Runners
10) parkrun: Orangefield
Jennifer Black, 19:38, Victoria Park and Connswater AC

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

RELATED: 7 ways to run faster at parkrun

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