Cork runners take top two places in MSB 5k race in Dublin

The MSB St. Patrick's Festival 5k Race was held in the centre of Dublin on Sunday the 20th of March 2016 and attracted a large field of 1312 runners. The winner of the race was Colm Sheahan of Leevale AC pictured above closely followed by Michael Harty of East Cork AC.

Place   Name           Net Time         Gross Time      Bib     Cat     Sub Cat Club
1       Colm SHEAHAN  14:43   14:43        1175    MS (1)  Leevale AC
2       Michael HARTY   14:42     14:44        1236    MS (2)  East Cork
3       Sean HEHIR      15:05        15:05        313     MS (3)  Rathfarnham WSAF

This is a photo of the top 3 men out on the course.... L to R...Sean O'Hehir, Michael Harty and Colm Sheahan.

If you examine the results closely then you'll see that Michael Harty actually ran the 5km course one second faster than Colm Sheahan but finished second. This was due to the fact that for whatever reason, it took Michael two seconds to cross the start line whereas Colm started at the front.

It doesn't change anything of course as the first person to break the tape wins the race but it reminded me of the recent Ballycotton '10' comments when some runners were debating whether the times should be in order of gun time or chip time.

The photo above shows the holding area before the start of the race. Colm is on the left and Michael is on the right. By the time the runners had moved up to the start line, Michael had lost his front place resulting in a two second delay.

Photo by Stephen McGuinness

Those two seconds would make all the difference though at the finish line.

Photo by Stephen McGuinness

It's just one of those quirks of road racing that is unusual and rarely seen.

The full results can be seen on the MyRunResults website.

Photos...
1) Stephen McGuinness has a nice gallery HERE
2) Sportsworld Running Club has some HERE