Sanctuary Runners have a successful day at Donegal Half Marathon
Sanctuary Runners members took part in the half marathon and also volunteered
A team from Letterkenny’s Sanctuary Runners (SR) group took the silver medal in the relay aspect of the Donegal Half Marathon yesterday.
It was the second year in a row that the fantastic trio of Opeyemi (Hopsy) Adeyemi, Chibuzor (Victor) Ogoegbunam and Menad Yahioaui romped home second, with an impressive time of one hour, 31 minutes and 43 seconds amid a strong field of 50 teams. In the team event, each member covers 7K individually of the 21K course around Letterkenny.
Another member of the Letterkenny Sanctuary Runners family, Emmanuel Phillip, ran the entire tough course, half of it under extremely difficult weather conditions, in just under two hours. This amazing feat wasn’t Emmanuel’s only achievement. He also fundraised for the organisation, which uses sport to help communities get to know each other and foster integration, all while improving physical and mental health.
Hopsy and Victor, who are originally from Nigeria, along with Menad from Algeria, trained hard together in the Letterkenny hills in the months leading up to the race, as well as regularly joining up with their fellow SR group members every other Saturday, when they participate in the local parkrun.
The ‘Donegal Half’ has become an important and highly anticipated fixture in Sanctuary Runners’ calendar, with members not only running the race, but many others putting themselves forward to help out via the Donegal Volunteer Centre.
This year, Sanctuary Runners were tasked with manning the important and extremely busy first water station, where they, in their distinctive blue tops, cheered on the participants as well as handing out the much-needed refreshments.
The Letterkenny SR group, which is almost 40 strong, will mark its fifth anniversary this month. Sanctuary Runners is a solidarity-through-sport initiative which uses running, jogging and walking to bring together asylum seekers, refugees, migrants, and Irish residents
“The Donegal Half Marathon is always such a wonderfully inclusive and positive occasion and aligns so well with what Sanctuary Runners is all about,” said Letterkenny group leader, Kelly Bonner.
“We are grateful to the organisers for putting on such a well-run and joyous community event and were delighted to be able to offer our support to both the organisers and the participants.
“I was proud to represent Sanctuary Runners yesterday in the Donegal Half Marathon Relay Event,” said Victor. “There was a really great atmosphere as usual, and it was especially wonderful to have the support of my friends in SR along with the hundreds of people from Letterkenny who lined up to cheer us on. We’ll definitely be aiming for the Gold next year.”
As well as the Letterkenny group, Sanctuary Runners also has a group in Buncrana and is always keen to welcome new members. For details on how to join, contact [email protected]