East Cork Road Championships April 25th 2019 - Hillish Hell

East Cork Road Champs:
Well done to all who competed last night at the 40th East Cork Road Championships on the fearsome course in Ballynoe. James has now become the most successful individual winner of all time with 6 individual titles. He is standing on the shoulders of Denis and Sean who have won 5 each. With Meade brothers Eric and Bryan on 4 each.

In a calm but chilly evening we had 11 athletes in total. James took out the win in 26.41 with trackman Kevin O'Leary 2nd in 27.10. The remainder of our men made up the silver winning team. Congrats to Graham on his debut at this course with 5th in 28.35, former 3 time winner Frank Hayes was 6th in 29.16, Donal also on his debut with a sub 30 7th of 29.57 and Denis who has won medals at this event in the last 4 decades in 35th.

The womens event of 3k and twice up the infamous hill was fast and furious from the start with eventual winner Claire O'Brien (not Liams lovely wife) pushing the pace from gun to tape for a comprehensive win. Eadaoin, former champion from 2012, was our first lady home in 5th with Michelle closing fast not far behind in 7th and Niamh with another good run in 10th. This made up the gold winning team so congrats all. Eibhlin after only just arriving back from a long drive form Dublin was 31st and Lavinia close behind in 36th. Well done to Tamzin Muldowney too for finishing 2nd overall and first Junior.


JB Graded League - 1 Mile
The first round of the John Buckley Graded League was held on Wednesday night in CIT. In all we had 5 athletes from the club running the 1 mile event along with numerous others from the training group. In the first race Kevin O'Brien retained his mens title from last year this time holding off fast finishing Jake McCarthy from Youghal. Kevin O'Leary in his first ever track race ran a controlled 4.49. Tim Crowley continuing his return from injury broke the 5 minute barrier by a second to finish 11th.

The second race was won by John Spellman of Midleton AC in 5.02. John was only just back from a weekend orienteering at the JK in England. He pushed hard from 650m out and maintained this advantage despite strong late efforts from Patrick Kelly and Stephen O'Brien. Stephen on his debut finished 2nd in a PB of 5.04 with Patrick just behind. Donal also on his debut ran a strong race in 5.06 and is showing good range in the last few weeks from 1 mile - 10miles.


Stryker BHAA 4 Mile
Also on Wednesday night was the Styker 4 Mile. Niall Murphy had a storming run to finish 2nd overall in 22.15 with Donogh in 17th om 23.56.