Owen Roes overwhelmed by success of Sunrise to Sunset Run

THEY initially hoped the Sunrise to Sunset 200 kilometre run would raise around £2,000 for five local organisations but members of Owen Roes GAA Club have been left speechless by the local community’s generosity after they raised more than 10 times that amount.

The success of the event, which saw 46 club members each run 5K around Moorlough during the hours of daylight on Saturday, means Strabane Foodbank, Covid wards in Altnagelvin, AWARE NI, Dennet Interchange 
meals on wheels and speech and language therapy in Altnagelvin are set to benefit massively.

“We’re more than chuffed with how it went!,” beamed club captain, Stephen Kelly, who ran the third stint at 6.31am.

“We put together an idea a couple of weeks ago and set ourselves what we believed was a big enough, a reasonable target in the current situation, but in the past fortnight we surpassed that and then it just snowballed.

“We couldn’t believe how generous people have been in the local community and supporters of the club to the frontline workers, the generosity was massive.

“For a club of our size, compared to other clubs in the county, it’s a massive achievement and it’s something we’ll remember for quite a while. It’s great for the club but the main thing is the charities are going to get a massive boost out of it.”

Saturday couldn’t have gone better at or away from the lake for Owen Roes. The sun shone from start to finish and as each member completed their three laps of the lake, while maintaining social distancing at all times, the money flowed in.

“Over the course of the weekend, no one could believe how much had been raised and as Saturday went on we were wondering when it was going the stop! It was crazy,” Stephen added.

“Everything went off without a hitch, the day ran pretty quickly and smoothly. We had set out 22 minute blocks for each runner and social distancing was adhered to, so it was very good.

“It was nice because there was always an Owen Roes person running around the lake and everything went off without a hitch.

“There was a great buzz and everyone was in good form considering for a lot of us, we haven’t seen each other in weeks and we’ve been cooped up at home.”

The Owen Roes club members who each completed 5K around Moorlough on Saturday for a total distance of 230 kilometres were as follows: Ryan McShane, Cathal McShane (injured, so cycled it), Jordan McFadden, Oran Roddy, Michael Dooher, Jake Sharkey, Tony Devine, Davy Harte, Peter O’Flaherty, Ruairi Kelly, Brendan Boggs, Shauna Kelly, Pearse Devine, Damien McCrossan, Seamus Dooher, Martin O’Neill, Barry Tracey, Charlie McLaughlin, John Harper, Gemma and Aine Coyle, Connor Donaghey, Oisin Dooher, Chloe Devine, Art Anderson, Aodhan Gormley, 
Conall McCormack, Barry McDaid, Niall McAleer, Charles O’Doherty, Ronan Parker, Peter Kirk, Eamonn McBride, Andy Devine, Connor Devine, Rory Devine, Stephen Harper, Ryan McAleer, Jack Kelly, Conor O’Neill, Ronan McNulty, Gerard McShane, Ryan Devine, Kevin Kelly, Stephen Kelly, Paul Devine, Gerard Devine.