March and April Update 2024 - May 2nd, 2024

Championship Races County Roads:
Firstly well done to all who competed in the County and East Cork Roads the past number of weeks. We have had some great success individually and teamwise.

First up was the special Ballintotis 4 mile held on April 18th on a lovely balmy spring evening. For the first time the County Road championships were held in conjunction with Ballintotis and it added an extra element of spice with medals up for grabs. Paul blazed a trail for the first few miles leaving all but Sean Doyle in his wake but unfortunately for Paul, Sean pulled away becoming the 5th ever winner of the race putting his name on the trophy with esteemed company. Paul ended up 2nd in a great time of 19.26 so took the silver senior and gold novice medals home. Next home was Tim in 5th and 2nd M35 in 19.36. Kenneth who will always be competitive in any age category was 2nd M45 in 21.40 as he returns from injury. Donal was 3rd M40 and just dipped under the 22 minutes. Tamzin had a great run for 6th lady overall and earned her first medal for East Cork with 2nd Novice in 25.08. Avril like a fine wine keeps on showing she is one of the best F50's in the county with 2nd in F50 category in 27.12.

We also had a bumper team haul (the home advantage might have helped) with team wins in Senior Men (Paul, Tim, Tony and James), Senior and Novice Women (Tamzin, Niamh, Avril and Sarah), Novice Men (Paul, Nicky, Donal and Graham), and M35+ Men (Tim, James, Nicky and Kenneth)

Others who ran but did not medal were Michael in 22.51, Stephen 23.00, Ollie 23.58, Martin 24.45, Denis 32.02 and Claire 31.48. This group has two options for next year 1) Either train harder or 2) Hope they move into a new age category.

Championship Races East Cork Roads:
Also on were the East Cork roads in their usual spot in Ballynoe, the place with "the hill". Tony turned the tables on James from last year and took the win in 26.34 with James in a comfortable 2nd in 27.46. Graham was a very uncomfortable 3rd battling all the way with youngster Timmy Hawkings and Donal with only 2 seconds separating the three of them at the finish line. With the top three not included for the team results Donal, Michael, Ollie and Denis combined to take 3rd team and the bronze medals. Well done all.

In a dominant performance Tamzin blitzed the womens field to take the gold in the Senior womens race in a great time of 11.51. Niamh had a gutsy run to finish 6th in 12.44 with Christine in 9th in 12.54 and Avril 12th in 12.59. With Tamzin excluded they were the scoring three for the gold winning team. Backing them up was Sarah in 19th in 13.33 and Eibhlin in 17.23. Well done all.

Other Road Races:
There were plenty of other road races on some notable results were Tim winning the Cobh 10 miler in 51.37. John Spelman was 2nd in Cloyne 4k Race 5 and wrapped up the overall series win, importantly winning the trophy back from Leevale hands. Niamh O'Connor was 3rd lady in the same race. Christine Kelly and Chris McGrath took to the roads of Rotterdam for a big hit at a fast flat big European marathon. Christine stormed home in an amazing 3:19, this great time was richly deserved after getting through a 'savage' training block. Chris McGrath ran a solid 3:34 but will be looking forward already to his 25 marathon later in the year to get back down to his PB level. Frank ran a decent 15.12 in the Podium 5k race in the UK, showing the high standard of races there this was good enough for 177th! A full list of all others racing is below, if anyone was missed please let me know.

Track and Field:
John Spelman was our sole representative in the IUAA T&F Championships running the 3000m S/C in 11.05. He was also on the UCC 4X400m team that reached the final.