Sport and culture in Armagh

Runners from Finland

Next Thursday night runners from all over the world will descend on the City of Armagh for the International Sport and Cultural week that includes the International Road Races. Senior men will run almost five loops around The Mall, an 18th Century park surrounded by historic buildings and churches. The lap is 1030metres and the men's race is 5km. The masters and women will race over 3km. There will be other races for juniors of various distances depending on age. This unique setting will be full of hundreds of spectators cheering on the runners under the Christmas lights that are reignited especially for the event.

Senior men - fast and furious

International Sport & Cultural Week is more than just another sporting event. The race in Armagh now celebrating its 21st Anniversary year has an important ethos running through how it is organised. Many of the runners will stay in the area for a few days and travel to the Battle of the Boyne Site, Oldbridge, Drogheda, Co. Louth on the following Sunday to test themselves over a cross country course.

Ras na hEireann is now celebrating its 42nd birthday and shares the same aims and objectives. The two races have jointly tried to create a series of athletic events that respect the participants and are based on respect for diversity and humanity. They welcome the runners and create a pleasant few days where they can meet local people, other runners, other cultures, enjoy great hospitality and experience Ireland.

The organisers of the Armagh race have put together an impressive line up of international and elite runners that are sure to produce a very exciting race but they should also be admired for the line up of athletes they have from their own club.

Armagh AC seems to be spoiled for choice and the club entry in both the 3K and 5K is testimony to the hard work of the club coach and inspirational leader Dermot Kerr. The local club has a total of 13 runners entered for the 5K and 22 on the line for the Men’s 3K. Runners to look for include the two generations of Kerr’s running with Dermot’s son Stephen looking to improve on his previous outings in the 3K and Denis’s son Shane hoping for a good result in the 5K. Dermot holds the V50 record of 15.35 since 2009 in the 5K while Denis holds the 3K record of 9.37 since 2009. These two brothers and their sons have an incredible average runbritain handicap score of 2.2! Dermot is on 1.0 and his son, Stephen is on 1.4. Denis has a score of 5.7 and his son, Shane is on the lowest of all 0.7

With the club hosting the event many of the runners will be working before and after the race getting the course ready and clearing away afterwards an indication of the positive club spirit that exists in Armagh AC.

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