The winners podium at the 41st Waterside Half Marathon was red and white this morning as the City of Derry Spartans duo of Kyle Doherty and Judith Storm led home a bumper field at Ebrington Square.
It is the second successive year the local club has claimed the men’s and women’s titles at the event as Jayne Bleakley claimed the women’s wheelchair title for the first time and Carndonagh athlete Karol Doherty retained his men’s wheelchair crown.
Reigning Waterside and Strabane Lifford Men’s Champion Doherty shaved six seconds off him time in last year’s event to come home in a time of 1 hour, 11 minutes and 20 seconds followed by his club mate Alan Bogle and last week’s Donegal Half winner Gary Slevin.
Judith Storm claimed the women’s title in a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes and 38 seconds and was joined on the podium by the Donegal duo of Kirsty Downey on Inishowen AC and Linda McGrath from Lifford Strabane AC.
Throughout the packed field there were hundreds of runners raising money for their chosen charities with many recording personal bests around the challenging course where the warm humid conditions proved energy sapping.
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Lilian Barr, officially started the race.
“The atmosphere at the Waterside Half Marathon was electric this morning,” said Mayor Barr. “I loved welcoming home the runners into Ebrington and seeing the emotion on their faces as they reached their own personal goals.
“Congratulations to each and every runner who completed the event, in particular, the category winners who I was privileged to present with their awards.
“I would like to acknowledge the dedicated work of Council’s Festival and Events team and all their partners in successfully delivering a race of this magnitude and the hard work, much of it unseen, they put in behind the scenes.”
Jacqueline Whoriskey, Festival and Events Manager at Council, thanked all their partners who helped deliver another successful event.
“Thank you to all our partners and the volunteers who made managing an event of this scale possible,” she said.
“The high temperatures made for a challenging day for many but there were some brilliant individual performances and we’d like to congratulate every single runner who took part.
“When you see the smiles on the participants’ faces as they emerged from the Peace Bridge and through the mall at Ebrington it makes all the work on this event worthwhile.
“We have ambitious plans to further grow the event and we will sit down with all our partners and local athletics clubs in the coming months to make sure the 2025 edition is again the biggest and best yet.”
Full results from the Waterside Half Marathon can be accessed at: https://www.myrunresults.com/.
