Colin Merritt wins Boston Scientific Half Marathon

The Boston Scientific Half Marathon and 5k Fun Run took place in Clonmel last Sunday in glorious weather. The Club would like to apologise to all the athletes for the wrong distance as they ran an extra 1.9K so all the times are for 14.29 miles. It was truly a wonderful sight to witness so many athletes in the town and it was a fitting tribute to the effort and contribution of all the organising team over the past couple of months. The race headquarters at the Clonmel Vocational School, the Mall was a hive of activity from early in the morning. The Club would like to thank Boston Scientific for sponsoring this great event. The Club would also like to thank Clonmel Borough Council, South Tipperary County Council, Waterford County Council, the Gardai, Civil Defence, Red Cross, South Tipperary Volunteers Association, Hillview Sports Centre and all the stewards and club members for all their help in making this a great event.

The early pace was set by a group of four athletes that included the West Waterford duo of Raivis Zakis and Philip Harty as well as Paul Buckley of Ferbane and the eventual winner Colin Merritt of Carrignavar. Midway through the race Colin moved into the lead and kept the strong pace going to come home a worthy winner in 78 mins 59 secs, great running in such demanding warm conditions. Then we had Raivis Zakis running well to finish 2^nd in 80 mins 13 secs with Paul Buckley of Ferbane 3^rd in 80 mins 20 secs. Philip Harty of West Waterford was 4^th in 82 mins 5 secs with Dzintars Klava of West Waterford 5^th in 82 mins 42 secs. Vasiliy Neumerzhitskily of Clonmel ran well to win the 0/40 award in 88 mins 41 secs with Fergus Wall of Bandon 2^nd in 89 mins 28 secs. Pat Heffernan of Fethard ran very well to win the 0/45 award in 88 mins 21 secs with Ken Devine of St Finbarr’s 2^nd in 88 mins 33 secs. Larry Lacey of St Joseph’s won the 0/50 award in 92 mins 4 secs with Mike McGrath of Eagle 2^nd in 106 mins 8 secs. Pat Twomey of Eagle won the 0/55 award in 99 mins 50 secs with David Brady of Raheny Shamrocks 2^nd in 108 mins 26 secs.

The Ladies race was also very competitive with Angela McCann of Clonmel running very well to win in 92 mins 36 secs, great running. Then we had Kealey Tideswell of Clonmel also running brilliantly when finishing 2^nd in 98 mins 50 secs, two great performances. Then we had Phyllis Flynn of West Waterford breaking up the Clonmel clean sweep when finishing 3^rd in 101 mins 57 secs with Aine Roche of Clonmel with Mary Molloy also running a great race finishing 5^th in 103 mins 58 secs. Susan Murnane of Limerick won the ladies 0/35 award in 108 mins 6 secs with Loreto Duggan of St Mary’s Clare 2^nd in 109 mins 8 secs. The 0/40 ward was won by Deirdre Flynn in 107 mins 33 secs with Diane Beehan of Waterford 2^nd in 109 mins 40 secs. Josie Ui Chuirrin of West Waterford won the 0/45 award in 118 mins 24 secs with Nora Flynn Murphy of Gneeveguilla 2^nd in 129 mins 5 secs. Siobhain Latchford of Kilkenny won the 0/50 award in 121 mins 13 secs with Maura Falsey  of Kilmurry Ibrickane 2^nd in 127 mins 43 secs.

By Niall O'Sullivan