McAlister & Turley take Titanic Quarter 10K Victories
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St Malachy's Joe McAlister confirmed his pre-race favourite status with an emphatic victory in the 5th Titanic Quarter 10K Race which had yet another record of some 2000 runners.
However, the 31 year old maths teacher was fully tested by the late entries of last year's winner Stephen Scullion (who has rarely raced since with an injury) plus the Annadale pair of Eddie McGinley and Andrew Agnew.
All 4 athletes kept a wary eye on each other in the early stages of the race before first Scullion and then Agnew dropped off the pace. McGinley and McAlister then fought a private dual from halfway until the St Malachy's man made a decisive break into the wind at the 7K mark.
From then on there was only one winner with Joe taking the tape in a useful time of 30 mins 40 secs with McGinley a further 11 secs back. Agnew held onto 3rd with Scullion struggling to 4th ahead of North's Eamon White and Ballymena & Antrim's Jarlath Falls.
Joe was asked how he managed to secure this win only one week after a hard half marathon when pacing Irish athletes in the Rotterdam Marathon.
He said; "Rotterdam was certainly a hard work out but I took it easy in training this week. All the years of training mean I can come back quickly. I am delighted to win this race as the quality field contained the North's top 4 athletes".
An equally pleased Julie Turley of Dromore took the Ladies title in 35 mins 53 secs some 14 secs ahead of Beijing Olympic marathon runner Pauline Curley. North Belfast Harriers's Clare Connor was 3rd.
Julie admitted she was a little apprehensive when she heard that Curley was racing.
She said; "It was tough out there but I kept pushing on and was always ahead of Pauline. I felt a lot better than in my race a week ago in the Great Ireland Run. I will now race in the Queens 5k to be followed by the Newry Half Marathon.
In the U15 Junior Mile races Tom Baird took the boys' title and Lois Hagen won the girls' race.
It was another record-breaking year for the event, with total entries 1978, 131 in kids mile and 1847 in 10km.
Sponsored by Titanic Quarter Ltd and Belfast City Council, and organised by Athletics Northern Ireland, the Titanic Quarter 10K is now in its sixth year and has established itself as Northern Ireland’s premier 10K road race.
Athletics NI would like to thanks the vendors and partners that came along on the day including Podium 4 Sport, BodyLab NI, The Brew Crew, The Crepe Makers, Dale Farm, Red Bull, Marathon Photos, Audi and Deep RiverRock.
Official photos will follow early in the week and also video highlights soon. Vets prizes will be listed also.
