National Junior and Masters, Denis' 2000th race and New Members

National Junior and Masters:

This weekend is for the young guns and the old codgers.

Frank O'Brien competes in the 3000m S/C on Saturday and Sean McGrath in the M35 1500m on Sunday. I am not sure if this will be live steamed.

Best of luck to both of them as again competing at the National level is where we all should be aiming to test ourselves.


Denis McCarthy:

There could be a book written for the number of interesting and obscure records Denis holds. He has added another one to his collection this week by completing his 2,000 race of his glittering career. Fittingly it was at his local GAA club at St Catherines monthly 3k time trial. This is a staggering amount of races, equating to one a week for more than 38 years! Congrats Denis and long may it continue. While the times have slowed somewhat there are still many current challenges that Denis is engaged in.  Denis' 3k track PB of 8.33 is a considerable one for any of the current club to try and beat.

Denis also gave a very thorough and engaging interview with Barry Drake on CRY 104FM last week on the history of the East Cork Road Championships. You can listen to it on the link below, it is well worth a listen:
https://soundcloud.com/barrydrake88/denis-mccarthy-athletics

Cross Country:

There was white smoke from the Cork County Board during the week. They have given the green light for East Corks to go ahead, These are penciled in for September 13th (Conna) and September 20th (Whites Cross). More detail will be available at the weekend regarding which is Senior and which is Novice. We will be making a big attempt to have competitive teams for men and women for all races.

On top of that Cork Athletics have sanctioned all grades of racing (Novice, Intermediate, Senior and Masters) and will have races every Sunday in October for these. The exact race each day will also be confirmed in the coming weeks.

New Member:

East Cork would like to welcome Jen Preston who will be a strong new member  to our ladies team. Jen is a Ballintotis local and have been one of the most dedicated trainers through out the lockdown. Her transfer was approved this week and will be eligible to run officially for us from October 1st.
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