The combined County Junior & Masters T&F Championships take place this Friday the 15-Jul-2011 at the CIT track in Bishopstown. Masters class athletes intending to participate should notify the competition secretary of their chosen events as soon as possible. The timetable of events is as follows.
The Route 2 Crook is a popular 5M road race between Goleen and Crookhaven. It is held annually in August as part of the Goleen & District Summer Festival. The beautiful west cork coastline and the Crookhaven peninsula provide a backdrop for what must surely be one of the most scenic 5 milers anywhere in the country. St. Finbarr’s A.C. provided invaluable assistance to the Goleen & District community in helping to set up this annual event and, needless to say, we are eager to promote the race to all our members and friends. Watch this space!
It looks like the Kinsale Regatta Race is back by popular demand. The fast downhill and subsequently flat 5 mile circuit remains the same, starting at the Kinsale G.A.A. Grounds and finishing at the Bank Of Ireland in Kinsale Town. The presentation of prizes and refreshments will be held in the Temperance Hall about one minute walk from the finish line. Entry on the night is €10.00 and entries close at 7.15 p.m. The organisers took a brave decision to schedule this race for the evening after Churchtown South. I’m sure the young guns will easily take the double whammy in their stride, but the rest of us will be a write off for the remainder of the long weekend.
Congrats to Joyce Wolfe and Katie Cooke who both completed the Austrian Ironman with two amazing performances! Joyce was 7th woman home and was 23rd overall in a national record of 9.15.42. After completing the 2.4 mile swim and the 112 mile cycle Joyce ran the marathon in 3.07.04! Incredible stuff. Katie who recently won the Schull triathlon (a trifling little warm up event! 🙂 ) did a fantastic time of 10.07.17 which was faster than the 29th placed pro! Katie’s marathon time was a brilliant 3.41.16. Both deserve our heartiest congratulations for not just finishing but for competing so brilliantly. I hope they are enjoying a well deserved rest.
Corkbeg 2009 was my very first road race and a night out to remember. I could have written the following synopsis myself, but in the interest of fairness and impartiality, I thought it more appropriate to give you an honest and independent appraisal of this charming little road race.
Thu, 13-Jul-2006,
This was my first time doing this race and I was very pleasantly surprised. Corkbeg has the reputation of a connoisseurs road race, something a bit special, and I was not dissapointed. Unfortunately, in recent years it is held the day after the EMC 5km at Ovens, which means that it gets a much the smaller crowd. Many of those at Ovens have never been to Corkbeg. Speaking for myself, as a wonderful racing night out Corkbeg wins hands down.
The dressing room facilities are at the Corkbeg Sports and Social Club. This lies down a leafy wide lane half a mile from Whitegate Village. The clubhouse and bar are sited just above the pitch and putt greens, beyond which lies the Lower Harbour in all its beauty. The 13th was a glorious evening, and I have never yet come across such a beautiful race headquarters with such a stunning view. Liam O’Brien describes Corkbeg as ‘an informal little race’, to which one can add ‘charming’ and ‘atmospheric’.
The course had been described to me as being a bit hilly, but this really was not the case. The race leaves the clubhouse and goes gently downhill for maybe one third of a mile, into Whitegate, a lovely harbour front village. A bit beyond the village the only real hill of the race is encountered, but this is not very big or long and the downhill on the other side is lovely. Then sharp left and back the way we came, helped along by the cheers of the bemused populace of Whitegate, and finishing fast up the hill to the clubhouse in the welcome shade of the trees. This is a classic five mile course, a fast start, mostly level apart from the short hill, and a gentle drag at the finish.
This year 67 ran the race. It was won in 26.16 by Cathal O’Connell. This was about all the Barr’s had to shout about, however, as it really was Eagle’s night. (Oh please, give us a break – jcbarrs). Part of the charm of the race is the marking system, which gives age category prizes to older runners who have better times than younger athletes in the relevant category (if I understand it correctly). All in all, it was a wonderful evening in high summer, and a race to be visited again and again.
(Paul MacCotter, Eagle A.C.)
Great success again last week as Karina Teahan followed up on her Sive triathlon win with another win, this time in the Sneem triathlon. That’s great stuff, congrats Karina! In the same event Neil Murphy (recently engaged!) came third while Neil Creedon continued his good form to finish 6th overall and Fergal Sargent was 25th. Also last week Aidan O Gorman put in an excellent performance in the Hell of the West triathlon in Kilkee and in a very tough, high quality event he finished in 2.29.47 which is brilliant going.
The McCarthys had a great night in Macroom on Thursday 30th June with Claire winning this 5k race and Martin coming 3rd overall after a hard fought battle for 2nd. Michael Murphy was 1st in the M50 category and Willie Hayes was 2nd M55. Meanwhile in the ladies Orla Crosby was 1st F40 and Leonie Merrick was 3rd F40 while Marion Lyons was 1st F55.
In Ballinascarthy on Friday 1st July Geraldine O Shea was the third lady home in 41.37. Overall Darren Mulcahy was 32nd in 41.50 maintaining his consistent form in recent 10k’s and Eddie Barry was 58th in 45.24.
Due to the re-fixing of the County Senior T&F Championships 2011 (Fri 8th Jul), the Cork Graded T&F Meeting originally scheduled for Sat 9th July has been moved to Sat 23th July. Therefore, the remaining dates for the Cork Graded T&F Leauge are as follows.
Entries for the County Junior, Senior & Masters T&F Championships 2011, originally scheduled for Sun 29th May, are to be considered null and void. Club members wishing to participate in the re-scheduled County Senior T&F Championships (Fri 8th Jul) and County Junior & Masters T&F Championships (Fri 15th Jul) must submit new entries for their chosen events.
Cathal O Donovan was 4th just the day after his Shanagarry 5 performance! Incredible stuff as he ran 35.07 which is 5.39 pace. In the ladies race Eileen Buckley was 4th home in 44.05. Sandwiched between Cathal and Eileen was Darren Mulcahy. Darren finished 19th in a very good performance in a time of 41.10 (6.36 pace) which was 1.45 better than his Dunmanway 10k time the previous week.
Brilliant performances in this race left the mens team 2nd and the womens team 3rd. Performance of the week though went to Cathal O Donovan who was 4th in 27.14. A fantastic run that had him finish ahead of Cathal O Connell and John Meade who were 5th and 6th. In a performance to rival Cathal, Claire McCarthy put in a very strong run to win the ladies race in 29.59. Claire has now won both of the Ballycotton 5 series races run so far and having finished 2nd in the Cork Half Marathon is showing just the form she needs in her preparation for the Dublin Marathon. While those were the stand out performances mention should also be made of mens captain Paul Gallagher, in his first race back from a bad cycling injury, who raced well for 21st position in 29.17.
The full results are as follows:
Pos Time Name Category Min/Mile
004 27:14 O’DONOVAN Cathal M 05:26.7
005 27:17 O’CONNELL Cathal M45 05:27.3
006 27:26 MEADE John M 05:29.1
018 29:07 HOULIHAN Michael M 05:49.3
021 29:17 GALLAGHER Paul M 05:51.3
025 29:22 DUGGAN Paul M40 05:52.3
027 29:24 LYONS Dennis M 05:52.703
0 29:29 MURPHY Declan M 05:53.7
035 29:59 MCCARTHY Claire F 05:59.7
039 30:14 RAHILLY Patrick M 06:02.7
068 31:37 O’HERLIHY Niall M 06:19.3
080 32:01 GEOGHEGAN Stephen M 06:24.1
096 32:33 O’TOOLE Paul M45 06:30.5
102 32:41 SARGENT Fergal M 06:32.1
167 34:37 O’NEILL Trevor M 06:55.3
17 06:56.5188 35:15 KELLY Kathleen F35 07:02.8
190 35:21 BARRY Eddie M55 07:04.0
230 36:35 O’BRIEN Tony M50 07:18.8
236 36:41 O’MULLAIN Micheal M 07:20.0
263 37:33 BUCKLEY Eileen F45 07:30.4
281 38:06 CARROLL Chris M55 07:37.0
307 38:58 COLEMAN Barry M 07:47.4
324 39:35 MCEVOY Rebecca F 07:54.8
325 39:39 MCEVOY Eamonn M55 07:55.6
354 41:03 MULCAHY Mary F45 08:12.4
366 41:36 CREEDON Hilary F 08:19.0
376 42:06 STAVROU Amanda F50 08:25.0
390 43:11 CURRAN Barbara F 08:38.0
392 43:15 GRIFFIN Hazel F 08:38.8
393 43:15 KELLY Ciara F 08:38.8
411 44:09 MANNING Denis M40 08:49.6
413 44:12 WALSH Anne F45 08:50.2