Athletics - Record Numbers Take Part in Fifth Dublin Docklands Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge

A record number of teams and runners took part in the fifth Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge on a vibrant evening on Dublin’s Docklands (September 13).

Growing in popularity and success, the event saw over 5,200 runners (1,390 teams) from over 250 different companies taking part on a flat one lap course.

The first team across the line and the winners of the male category were the Defence Forces in 1:02:38, the female winners were Davy in 1:33:41 and the winners of the mixed category were Mason Hayes & Curran in a time of 1:33:41. Mark Kirwan from Glanbia came out on top in a time of 14:30 while Caroline Crowley from Beauchamps was the first woman across the line in 16:39.

Aimed at encouraging social running amongst Dublin’s business community, the event welcomed both seasoned runners as well as beginners. Each team had a minimum of four participants.

This was the final run of the successful Grant Thornton 2016 series following on from the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown on June 9th and Cork City on June 29th.

Grant Thornton had 39 teams taking part while Bank of Ireland topped the pile of entries with 54 teams. Other significant entries included Dunnes Stores, Aon, Workday, Radisson Blu and Davy Stockbrokers.

Georgina Drumm, President of Athletics Ireland, said: “As an association one of our core strategic objectives is to promote health and fitness in the population as a whole.  It is great to see the Dublin business community coming out again this year in such large numbers to participate in the Grant Thornton Corporate 5K Team Challenge.”

The event is organised by Athletics Ireland as one of its key fundraising events to support its Junior High Performance programme which supports young emerging talented athletes to fulfil their potential. In addition the Alzheimer Society of Ireland received 10% of all entrants to assist their work in providing dementia specific services and supports and advocating for the rights and needs of all people living with dementia and their carers.