By Sue Struthers

Amnesty International Orkney’s 5 Barriers Fun Run was held on Sunday 1^stSeptember, largely in sunshine and with good conditions, despite the headwind, for the 27 participants and many dogs! First across the line of the 6.5-mile quarter marathon was Chris White, in a time of 54 minutes 8 seconds. Close behind was Ruth Spence at 55 minutes and 1 second.

There was a 3-generation family effort from Rosie Cursiter, daughter Kristina MacPherson and granddaughters Elena and Aria, the youngest participant at 7 years old and with a very respectable run time of 1 hour 41 minutes and 27 seconds. The two other junior participants were Finn Macleod and Owen Small, with Owen deserving a special mention for raising a huge amount of sponsorship for Amnesty. 

Once again, everyone completed the course in under 2 hours, even those enjoying a sedate walk and with all the dogs well behaved and safely through to the finish line!

Many thanks go to Celina Rupp jewellery shop and Barrier View Café for accommodating the mild chaos at the start of the event – and to the Sands Hotel in Burray, who once again, provided very welcome soup and refreshments for the finishers and organisers. Thanks also to all the many volunteer marshals, drinks station providers, first-aid- and back-marker vehicles and the much-appreciated starter and time-keepers. We also appreciated the presence of Orkney Islands Police at the start of the event.

With over £520 collected on the day, and considerable sponsorship still to come in, it is expected that this year’s 5 Barriers Fun Run will raise over £800 for Amnesty Internationals’ work to defend universal human rights. Naming of the Churchill Barriers after some of the barriers to human rights – ‘torture’, ‘disappearances’, ‘death penalty’, ‘child soldiers’ and ‘injustice’ – also raised awareness of some of the issues AI are involved with.