National Intermediate XC Champion and county glories in the wind, rain and mud - Feb 26th, 2026

The early weeks of 2026 have seen the cross-country season come to a close and from Bweeng to the Other Capital there were some great successes for the club.

National Intermediate XC Championships – Frank O’Brien is our latest National Champion!
It’s hard to believe that up until a week ago, the 2025/2026 cross country season had nearly passed without seeing East Cork represented at national level. However, at the last opportunity, Frank O’Brien dutifully stepped in to save the club’s blushes up in Abbotstown, as he lined up at the National Intermediates. And he did it in style.

As the Dublin-based media has kept reminding us, the weather on the east coast has been somewhat damp in the past few weeks. The effects of the rain on the national cross-country course resulted in race distances being cut and the races being run on a shortened kilometre-long lap. The men’s intermediate was thus run over six kilometres as the last event of the day, which may have played to Frank’s benefit, the finely tuned track athlete that he is.

The Dublin-based East Cork man was in the mix from the start and by half-way the race essentially distilled down into a battle between Frank, Clonliffe Harriers’ Mahad Mohamed Egaal and Thomas McStay of Gallway City Harriers. Frank had battled with Egaal two years ago at the national seniors in Enniskillen, coming out on top but the two of them were well behind McStay on that day. With conditions deteriorating underfoot, the two Harriers each took turns at the front, taking a strong headwind, but neither could make a decisive break and so it all came down to the last lap.

Fresh from glory at a prestigious Cork BHAA race the previous week, Frank sniffed another opportunity and with two hundred metres or so left he put on the afterburners. All three pushed hard for the line but it was Frank who prevailed by the slimmest of margins. Three seconds covered the top three at the line with Egaal one second behind Frank and McStay a further two seconds back.

After such a great performance, Frank now joins a select club of East Cork individual national champions. He is our fifth national intermediate cross country champion, following in the footsteps of Bryan Meade (1988), James McCarthy (2007), Mike Harty (2018) and his sparring partner, Paul Hartnett (2024).

Congratulations Frank!

Munster Indoors
We had two individual medals in the Munster indoors in Nenagh at the start of February. Ollie continued his good form for silver in the M50 800m in a swift time of 2.20. And the ever young Niamh O'Connor took gold in the 1500m F45 in 5.37. Well done both.

County Masters XC Championships – club gold in a battle against the elements
On 11th January, The County Masters (& Intermediate) Cross Country Championships returned to Bweeng after a successful trip there in 2025.

Those who were present last year remembered a lovely firm field with a tough climb or two into a cold, stiff breeze. It was an honest course and a tough race. Those who were present this year are still recovering from the shock! Mother Nature was on the entry list again this year and she turned up in force. Stormy winds topped the bill, ably supported by horizontal rain and healthy lashings of mud. Add to that a course designed to make the most of the headwinds and crosswinds and you had all the makings of an ordeal that those who were present on the day will not forget easily. And nor should they as this is what makes cross-country what it is!

The venerable masters athletes have seen it all over their many years mind you, so such conditions should hold no fear for them. There was much relief, however, when word spread at the start line that the race would be reduced from 7k to 6k. Just three long laps so.

So off they went with St. Finbarr’s Barry Twohig, seemingly unperturbed by the conditions, taking up the early running and winning with relative ease. Donal Giltinan initially led the East Cork charge, with Matt Horrigan taking less time than usual to ease himself into the race. Matt passed Donal early doors and knuckled down to finish 6th with Donal not too far behind in 7th. That translated to silver M35 and M40 medals respectively for the two gentlemen. In his favourite racing conditions, Stephen O’Brien found the time to pause and breathe it all in a couple of times on the last lap, stumbling over the line in 14th while Martin Hennessy finished in 39th to complete the East Cork quartet, securing M55 gold for himself in the process.

East Cork thus won club M35 gold for the fourth time in the past five years.

On the roads and in other business….
- Frank O’Brien won the J&J 5k BHAA race in Little Island with a reasonably punchy 15:03. In the same race Eoin Hartnett put his recent training form to good use breaking 18 minutes in a 5k for the first time (24th in 17:51).

- Eve Buckley made her East Cork debut in January’s edition of the Cloyne 4k – the first of many appearances we hope. The running public have continued to strongly support the series and the February race saw Ollie Smiddy, Eric Meade and Dave O’Dwyer claim their t-shirts.

- The ever-popular John Treacy 10 miler in Dungarvan saw a smattering of East Cork athletes taking part in perfect racing conditions.

- Kevin O’Brien dusted off the East Cork singlet, but only for two IMRA races, finishing in 2nd place to Nick Hogan in the Curragh Woods (10k) and 3rd in the Ballyhoura Moonlight Challenge (28k).