For the first time, Ukrainians took part in the 10-kilometre Killarney Run.

Julia Kolesnyk pictured holding her national flag after finishing the 10-kilometre Killarney Run at the weekend.

Julia Kolesnyk and Alex Ashkolunenko both took part in the 10-kilometre Killarney Run at the weekend.

Yaryna Sereda and Olga Tkachenko from Ukraine happy to have completed the 10-kilometre Killarney Run at the weekend.

RUN: Tkachenko Olga Yarina Sereda Alex Ashkolunenko and Julia Kolesnyk who took part in the 10-kilometre Killarney Run at the weekend.

A small team of four Ukrainians decided to join the race to express gratitude to the local community for their hospitality, as well as to join the sports life.

Olga Tkachenko runs five kilometres every week with Killarney House parkrun, but this time she decided to increase the distance and run 10 kilometres.

Yaryna Sereda from Chernihiv says that she participated in marathons and races as a volunteer in Ukraine, helping with organisation including distribution of food and water. She ran for herself, mostly in the park.

Yaryna decided to take part in the race in Killarney because she realised that she had wanted to do it for a long time, but had always put it off for later. With the beginning of the war, she realised that life is short and you have to use all the opportunities here and now.

"My impressions from the race are incredible, I am proud of myself and everyone who took part. This is an opportunity to challenge yourself," says Yaryna.

Alex Ashkolunenko took the initiative and created branded T-Shirts for the mini team. Alex completed the race distance with his girlfriend Julia Kolesnyk. "We are both from Odessa. He has been in Ireland for four months."

They had never run such distances before, but Ireland is exciting, you want to run here! Initially, the idea was simply to participate. Then they decided to assemble a small Ukrainian team.

"A cool atmosphere awaited us at the race, it was very nice to be a part of this grand event," says Alex.

Other Ukrainians joined the support group of our runners. Ukrainian flags and joyful shouts in their native language at the finish line added strength and emotions to the runners.