Springwell Running Club - Press Release 23rd February 2025

The past week has seen the Club’s Men’s Half Marathon record being broken, the conclusion of the 2024/25 Cross Country season at Lurgan Park, and some far travelled parkrun tourism. After several days of heavy rain and strong winds, the clouds cleared and the rain stopped on Saturday morning for parkrun and the cross country.

Village Bakery Wrexham Half Marathon

The Springwell Half Marathon club record was broken by Ciaran Ferris at the Village Bakery Wrexham Half Marathon recently. Ciaran held the previous club record of 1:10:20, a record that he set at Antrim Coast Half Marathon back in 2021. However, in Wrexham on Sunday 16th February, Ciaran took almost 30 seconds off this time to run his first sub 70 minutes half marathon in a time of 1:09:51. This time saw Ciaran finish in 29th place in a race that traditionally attracts a field of top athletes, with 90 runners below 1:15 on the day. A fantastic performance that now sets a new target for Ciaran and his clubmates to aim for.

NI & Ulster Senior Cross Country Championship

The finale of the local Cross Country season took place on Saturday afternoon in Lurgan Park. This was the final league fixture that also doubled up as the Senior Cross Country Championship race. With numbers down through this Cross Country league campaign due to the many races being postponed and rescheduled through December and January, it was great for the men’s team to regroup and get a team out for this one.

Lurgan Park is a venue that has been used a lot in the past for the Senior Championship, so it was great to see the fixture return here for 2025. The course for the men’s race was 5 laps of an undulating route that had a bit of everything, although slightly less mud than was expected after the days of heavy rain that preceded Saturday.

As always for the Senior Championship, it was an extremely competitive race with the majority of the country’s top runners turning out. Leading the Springwell men home in 16th place after a superb performance was Ciaran Ferris (0:34:06), only 6 days after setting a new club record in the half marathon. Next home was Christopher McNickle (0:38:53) in 69th position, before James Weir (0:40:13) and Stephen McLaughlin (0:40:48) battled home in 90th and 91st positions respectively. Next home were 2 runners making a return to cross country racing after several years, with Darren Walsh (0:43:14) in 111th place, and Niall Kennedy (0:45:13) in 117th. Jonny Rowntree (0:47:15), who has had a great Cross Country season, finished in 123rd place, before the rest of the team cheered James Hughes (0:51:41) to the finish line in 139th place.

A great day out for the men, and that rounds off another Cross Country season until the next season begins in November!

Cancer Research UK London Winter Run

On what was its 10th Anniversary, just under 20,000 runners took to the streets of London for the London Winter Run – a 10km road race organised by Cancer Research UK. The race starts on Trafalgar square and takes in many of the landmarks on the north bank of the Thames including St Paul’s Cathedral, before returning to finish on Whitehall. Aside from the sites and landmarks along the route, there was also a lot of entertainment provided for participants and spectators, including brass bands, choirs, polar bears, huskies and penguins!

We had 4 ladies from Springwell go to London for the weekend, who got their parkrun fix at Battersea on Saturday morning before toeing the line on Sunday morning on Trafalgar Square for this race. Sheila McConnell was the first purple vest home in a time of 1:03:58, followed by Amanda Scott in 1:06:01, before Catherine Byers and Lorraine Abernethy who both finished in 1:09:01.

Parkrun

It's not quite spring yet, but the sun came out for the Springwell parkrunners this weekend, where it was bright, breezy and mild along the North Coast. There were 53 Springwell runners out at 13 different parkrun around the world on Saturday.

Amanda Scott, Catherine Byers, Lorraine Abernethy and Elaine Montgomery were at Battersea parkrun, Fergal and Catriona Mackle were at Brueton Park near Solihull, while Heather McLaughlin, Alison Duncan and Adrian Finlay competed at Zielony Jar in Krakow, Poland.

These were the farthest travelled Springwell parkrunners within Europe, however they were all well beaten by Barry McBride who ran at South Beach Recreation Reserve parkrun in Perth, Australia.

Well done to all those who got out and took part, whether locally or around the world.

Portrush parkrun

Stephen BEGGS 00:22:30; Cathy ADAMS 00:22:41; Fiona PRUE 00:23:35; Paul LAVERTY 00:23:53; David MCGAFFIN 00:24:40; Fergus THOMPSON 00:24:46; Alan PLATT 00:24:57; Mervyn THOMPSON 00:25:27; Mervyn ADAMS 00:25:37; Michael ALCORN 00:25:54; Andrew WILMOT 00:26:55; Jonathan HUDDLESTON 00:28:08; Gemma WRAY 00:32:40; Aisling HYNES 00:34:30; Brian HARPER 00:35:45; Heather HARPER 00:36:08; Rhona LAVERTY 00:37:03; Andrew WILSON 00:40:11; David O'NEILL 00:42:56; Emer THOMPSON 00:52:48; Patricia CRAIG 01:00:15

Limavady parkrun

Ciara MCSHERRY 00:20:41; Chris DENTON 00:20:44; Nicole O'CONNOR 00:24:49; Michael MCKEOWN 00:25:45; Janet PATRICK 00:27:42; Linda MC MICHAEL 00:32:27; John MCMICHAEL 00:33:47

The Fisherman‘s Walk parkrun

Reggie COLVILLE 00:19:42; Dara WATTERSON 00:22:30; Alan WHITE 00:26:31; Sonya COLVILLE 00:29:14; Nicola WHITE 00:30:04; Donna YOUNG 00:43:59

Battersea

Amanda SCOTT 00:31:10; Catherine BYERS 00:32:41; Lorraine ABERNETHY 00:32:50; Elaine MONTGOMERY 00:38:39

Ecos parkrun, Ballymena

Rodney MC PHEE 00:18:45; Deborah MC PHEE 00:22:53; Liz MCLAUGHLIN 00:37:42; Kenneth BACON 00:45:18

parkrun Zielony Jar

Adrian FINLAY 00:23:50; Alison C DUNCAN 00:27:34; Heather MCLAUGHLIN 00:30:51

Brueton parkrun

Fergal MACKLE 00:35:24; Caitriona MACKLE 00:40:34

Belfast Victoria parkrun

Karen GARVIN 00:27:26; Bernie HANNIGAN 00:30:34

Macclesfield parkrun

Gary KENDALL 00:23:04; Kay HACK 00:32:12

Holy Cross College parkrun

Reid JACK 00:33:44; Anne JACK 00:33:45

Antrim parkrun

Shaun CARTON 00:21:23

Comber parkrun

Colin CONNOLLY 00:29:41

Stormont parkrun

Ali SHAW 00:31:53

South Beach Recreation Reserve parkrun

Barry MCBRIDE 00:27:26