Heaslip and Hegarty win their respective races in the Great Glenville Run

MORE than runners turned out on a mild morning for the ninth annual Great Glenville Run which was organised by Watergrasshill AC.

And for the second year in succession, the women’s course record was broken following an excellent performance by Kerry athlete Shona Heaslip. 

Twelve months ago Aoife Cooke of Eagle ran an impressive 21:30 for the four miles but this was well and truly smashed as Heaslip improved on it by a whopping 47 seconds when finishing fifth overall in 20:43.

This was Heaslip’s second visit to Cork in as many weeks as the Riocht athlete had ran 33:05 for the Thomas Kent 10km at Castlelyons, a race in which she finished in second position overall behind winner Sergiu Ciobanu.

“I was just off the back of a breakaway group of men after the start and was running with Kristaps Liepins and I broke away from him around the two-mile mark,” explained the Glenville winner.

“I’m running a 10km in Telford in the UK in two weeks time and then I’m heading to Kenya just after Christmas for three-and-a-half weeks and will hopefully target a half-marathon when I come back,” said the 29-year-old who represented Ireland over that distance at the Word Athletics Road Running Championships in Latvia in October.

Cooke, getting back after injury, was well outside her best when taking second in 23:24 with third place going to Linda Kelly from Carrigaline in 24:55.

Denis Hegarty from nearby Watergrasshill led a Leevale clean sweep when coming home a clear winner in a time of 19:53. 

Conor McCauley – who was sharpening up for the following week’s Valencia Marathon – took second in 20:12 with third spot going to Aidan Noone in 20:20.

Fourth was another Leevale athlete, Tom McKenzie, in 20:36 with fifth spot going to Colin Merritt - now in the M50 category - having his first race after a long layoff and who recorded a fine time of 20:52.

“Although I’m from Watergrasshill, I’ve never won this before,” said Hegarty. 

“Two years ago I went way too hard at the start so I learned my lesson from that.” 

Winner of the 10km held in conjunction with the Cork City Marathon back in June, Hegarty had concentrated on triathlons during the summer but then turned to the road with a victory at the Stryker race in August.

In another excellently organised promotion by the Watergrasshill club, in addition to a long list of prizes in all categories there was a pink themed travel mug for finishers, along with ample refreshments afterwards in the local Glenville school.

Results:

Men:

1 D Hegarty (Leevale) 19:53; 2 C McCauley (Leevale, M40) 20:12; 3 A Noone (Leevale) 20:20; 4 T McKenzie (Leevale) 20:36; 5 C Merritt (unatt, M50) 20:52; 6 A Goulding (Leevale) 21:08.

Women:

1 S Heaslip (Riocht) 20:43; 2 A Cooke (Eagle, F35) 23:24; 3 L Kelly (Carrigaline, F45) 24:55; 4 E Doyle (unatt) 26:39; 5 A O’Mahony (Watergrasshill, F35) 27:48; 6 M Mills (Eagle, F40) 28:39.