Cork City Hosts Its First Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge

870 runners, making up 218 teams, took part in the Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge last night in the Mall, Cork City. Aimed at encouraging social running amongst the business community, the event welcomed both seasoned runners as well as beginners. Starting outside the Grant Thornton South Mall offices participants ran through the heart of Cork city.

This was a team event with four participants per team combining to determine the winner. There were prizes on offer for the top five teams in the Male, Female and Mixed categories, and all entrants received a souvenir technical t-shirt and a goody bag. The first team across the line and the winners of the male category were The Edge Sports Shop, the female winners were Her Primary Care Physio and the winners of the mixed category were UCC Athletics. The first male across the line was Ryan Creech in 15.05, while Carol Finn took the female honours in a time of 18.17.

Grant Thornton and Citco Technology had the largest number of team entries with 11 teams each. While Cork City Council, KBC Bank and AIB bank had all entered five teams. Gearoid Costelloe, Partner, Grant Thornton Cork said: "We were delighted to bring this event to Cork for the first time and to support the wonderful work done by both the nominated charity ISPCC Childline and by Athletics Ireland."

Former Munster Rugby player, John Kelly, Director in Grant Thornton Cork said: "We are delighted to see so many corporates in the Cork area run tonight as a team and enjoy a great evening of exercise and fun. There was a great team spirit and some healthy competition too."

John Foley, CEO 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 Cork business community participating in this 5k run".

The next Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge for the diary is the flagship event taking place in the Dublin Docklands on Tuesday 1st of September 2015. To enter your team for this event go to www.grantthorntoncorporatechallenge.ie.