The weather turned the corner in time for the Sydney leg of the Young Leaders Global 5k on Saturday morning at Sydney Park, St. Peters, taking the virtual baton from Brisbane who launched the Global run for this year. After a week of cooler than normal temperatures and heavy rain, the clouds cleared in time for the start of the run at 8am when approximately 30 runners set off sporting their ‘The Irish Run the World’ tee-shirts. It proved to be a real family affair with singer and entertainer Damian Leith and the AIF Treasurer Yvonne Le Bas participating in the run with their children and spouses.
A special mention goes to Kiki Leith who was our youngest participant on the day. The key motivation for many of the runners was the lure of the Irish pork sausages sizzling on the bbq and cans of Cidona at the end of the race, kindly sponsored by Taste Ireland.
Our wonderful chefs on the day, Tina King Garde and Eilish O’Dwyer did a fantastic job to feed the hungry athletes and their supporters ensuring no one went home disappointed.
Karl Keating was the first person home (for the second year running) in a blistering time of 20 mins 47 secs and right behind him in second place was one of our key sponsors Eamon Eastwood from Taste Ireland in 21.47. Conor Byrne finished in 3rd place in a time of 23.55. Joan Hodgins was the first lady across the line in a time of 24.37 followed by Andrea McElhinney in 25.27.
A special note of thanks goes out to our key sponsors Taste Ireland, Aircom, PJ O’Briens, The Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce and Scentre Group who together with the fund raising efforts of the runners managed to raise close to $8,000 for the Australian Ireland Fund nominated charities, a fantastic result. The individual fund raising glory must go to Yvonne Le Bas who personally raised $2,430, well done Yvonne! The Australian teams, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, spectacularly raised over $21,000!
At the completion of the race Sydney handed the baton over to Melbourne before the race took hold in the rest of the cities around the world. Congrats to everyone involved and we look forward to another great Global 5k event in 2016!
