East Cork Road Champs, National Record, Club Record and more.. - May 5th, 2022

East Cork Road Champs:
The East Cork road championships were held in Ballynoe last Thursday night. We had 11+1 athletes running on the night. The 3k ladies race was up first and Fiona lead the team to a gold medal finishing 4th overall. Niamh O'Connor was next in 9th with Eadaoin just pipping Avril for the final medal in 15th. Avril was 16th, Lorna 17th and Claire 23rd. Well done for winning the team title. It is a pity the press corps did not get a picture of the team accepting the trophy. They will have to win it again next year now!

The mens race was split in two. Nicky was in one race and the rest of the field were in the other. Nicky comfortably took out the win with an impressive solo run in 27.09. I will have to trawl through the record books but this might be the first time in the East Cork roads that the trophy was passed from one brother to another. John Spelman, the +1 in the above was running as an individual until his limbo period ends on May 1st, was second home after a good battle with Chris Kelly in 28.47. Chris faded a bit on the last lap and gave the ever present Stephen a chance to snipe past him in the final 100m for 6th with Chris just behind in 7th. Diarmaid Collins was 11th with Denis in 32nd. This was good enough for the team silver medal.

National M40 track Record:
Some unfortunate news came in this week that the Streets of Kilkenny course was a bit short and the Road natoinal record that mike won was scrapped. However that might of provided more motivation to go get another one. This time Mike got the National M40 record on the track while racing in the high quality IMC meet in Dublin on Saturday. Mike was 5th and ran a time of 14.24. Congrats Mike.

Great Limerick Run and Club Record:
We had four runners competing in this event. Firstly Graham and Donal (affectionately known as "the splinter group") completed the marathon. Graham showed his experience at the distance to clock a very impressive 2:38.52 for 6th overall. And Donal who only decided to chance the marathon a couple months ago ran a very competitive 2:44.45 for 11th.

Tim and Chris McGrath ran in the half marathon. Tim was 2nd overall and ran a new club record of 65.04. This is 4.58 miling for 13+ miles. Super going. Chris ran in 1:44.17.

Other races:
James ran the first MTU track night of the year in the 3k and ran a solid 8.49 for 7th overall. And Eric was 9th Bartlemy 6k in 23.46.

Up Next:
- Tonight is the long standing Midleton 5 mile race. Starting at 8pm.
- A part of the County Track and Field championships are on next Monday night in MTU. Championship events are 800m, 3000m (for all women and masters men only). Enter online per Liams email.
- The Wicklow Way relay - On Saturday May 7th at 7am. You should know your route by now and have reccie done or planned. More details to follow by email.