Jessica Anne Craig and Tony McCambridge are your fastest athletes at Irish parkruns this weekend (September 14th).

North Down AC’s Jessica Anne Craig was the fastest woman with her 17:41 at Belfast Victoria. Craig, who was a silver medallist at the Northern Ireland & Ulster 5000m Championships in June, has set PBs at 5km (16:49) and half marathon (79:24) this year. Her time was enough to see her finish second overall and over two minutes ahead of the next fastest female runner.

Sinéad Murtagh ran her fastest parkrun time this year with 18:27 at Ormeau. The sub three marathoner has raced less in 2019 but has still produced strong performances with a 5th place finish at Jimmy’s 10km, winning Newry City 10km and finishing 12th at Omagh Half Marathon.

Aoife Coffey also broke 19 minutes this week to clock a huge new PB of 18:35. The junior athlete, who competes for Lucan Harriers, was a winner of the Great Sugarloaf mountain race in August and is an Irish International mountain runner. Coffey finished 3rd at last week’s Lucan 5 mile race.

Tony McCambridge again ran the fastest parkrun time in Ireland this week with 15:48, a couple of seconds quicker than his time last week in what was a parkrun PB for the St Malachy’s man. McCambridge is targetting selection for the European Cross as an under 20 this autumn and led a strong group of local athletes at Waterworks including Matthew Lavery (16:07) and Andrew Milligan (16:16). Lavery was 10th at the Laganside 10km two weeks ago in a huge PB of 33:31.

Man in the know Connor Curran explains that athletes from across a number of clubs have been getting together to use Waterworks has a hard group effort. “With a little bit of communication between us all, we are helping to improve the quality at the top end” says Curran, who himself ran 16:31 at Waterworks, just missing out on the top 10 this week after couple of fine runs at Poolbeg from John Higgins and Stephen Hurley.

Second fastest this week however was Evan Fitzgerald who ran 15:55 at Clonmel – a big PB and the second fastest time run ever on this course. Fitzgerald was 3rd at te Carraig na bhFear 5k road race in August and 6th at the St Luke’s 5km Road race this September in 15:55.

Men’s top 10

1) parkrun: Waterworks
Tony McCambridge, 15:48, St. Malachy’s
2) parkrun: Clonmel
Evan Fitzgerald, 15:55, Clonmel Athletic Club
3) parkrun: Waterworks
Matthew Lavery, 16:07, North Belfast Harriers
4) parkrun: Waterworks
Andrew Milligan, 16:16, North Belfast Harriers
5) parkrun: Waterworks
Callum Morgan, 16:18, St Malachys AC
6) parkrun: Waterworks
Gavin McCaffrey, 16:27, North Belfast Harriers
7) parkrun: Malahide
David Rooney, 16:28, Raheny Shamrock AC
=8) parkrun: Poolbeg
John Higgins, 16:29, Mayo AC
=8) parkrun: Poolbeg
Stephen Hurley, 16:29, Crusaders A C Dublin
=8) parkrun: Valley
Adam Ferris, 16:29, St Malachys AC

Women’s top 10

1) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Jessica Anne Craig, 17:41, North Down AC
2) parkrun: Ormeau
Sinéad Murtagh, 18:27, Newcastle & District AC
3) parkrun: Griffeen
Aoife Coffey, 18:35, Lucan Harriers
4) parkrun: Stormont
Leann Gibson, 19:30, Victoria Park and Connswater AC
5) parkrun: Tralee
Suzanne Neilan, 19:37, An Ríocht A.C
6) parkrun: Wallace
Karen Wilton, 19:44, Jog Lisburn
7) parkrun: Ballincollig
Niamh Corbett, 19:45
=8) parkrun: St Anne’s
Nessa Cahill, 19:46
=8) parkrun: Poolbeg
Margaret Galvin, 19:46
10) parkrun: River Valley
Malika Hammani, 19:56

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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