Results of the Cork City Sports...Tues 17th July 2012

Despite the dull and overcast conditions, a large crowd still turned out on Tuesday evening for the 2012 Cork City Sports at the CIT track. Certainly, moving the event from a Saturday afternoon to a weekday evening seems to have been a big success.

In terms of conditions, it was hardly ideal with a strong westerly breeze but that still didn't stop some fine times being posted by the Irish and International athletes.

In the mens 200m, Steven Colvert posted a time of 20.68 seconds despite a strong breeze. His time was just 11 hundredths of a second outside his personal best time of 20.68. The Olympic A standard is 20.55

Steven Colvert of Crusaders AC...Second in the 100m with a time of 10.71 seconds

1   126 Luke Fagan          88 Great Britain            20.65  -2.5  2
  2   125 Steven Colvert      90 Ireland                  20.68  -2.5  2
  3   121 Manteo Mitchell     87 USA                      20.88  -2.5  2
  4   135 Leemarvin Bonevaci  89 Curacao                  21.20  -2.5  2
  5   123 Joel Redhead        86 Grenada                  21.39  -2.5  2
  6   129 David Hynes         85 Ireland                  21.43   0.5  1
  7   138 Julien Watrin       92 Belgium                  21.54  -2.5  2
  8   131 Dara Kervick        91 Ireland                  21.67  -2.5  2
  9   105 Ofentse Mogawane    82 South Africa             21.98   0.5  1
 10   130 Marcus Lawlor       95 Ireland                  22.05  -2.5  2
 11   137 Tim Crowe           91 Ireland                  22.26   0.5  1
 12   136 Greg O'Shea         95 Ireland                  22.30   0.5  1
 13   132 Jamie Davis         89 Ireland                  22.34   0.5  1
 14   128 Andrew Boudrie      85 Australia                22.99   0.5  1
 15   134 Andrew Barnes       88 South Africa             23.02   0.5  1 

In the womens 400m, Joanne Cuddihy looked like she might take first place but faded a bit in the last 100 metres. Her time of 51.86 seconds was just fractions of a second behind the winner and close to the Olympic A standard of 51.55 seconds.

1   153 Keisha Baker        88 USA                      51.51   (Heat 2)
  2   141 Shericka Williams   85 Jamaica                  51.74   2
  3   142 Joanne Cuddihy      84 Ireland                  51.86   2
  4   143 Carol Rodriguez     85 Puerto Rico              52.69   2
  5   145 Jessie Barr         89 Ireland                  53.78   2
  6   146 Catriona Cuddihy    86 Ireland                  54.69   2
  7   147 Grainne Moynihan    94 Ireland                  55.80   (Heat 1)
  8   148 Becky Pile          81 Great Britain            56.26   1
  9   151 Jessica Neville     93 Ireland                  57.96   1
 10   149 Tamara Hamond       81 Australia                58.36   1
 11   152 Christine Neville   93 Ireland                  58.75   1

In the womens 3,000m, Stephanie Reilly took second place in 9:02.91. Just to put into context how fast that is, it's 4:51 per mile pace! Stephanie will be going to the London Olympics in a few weeks to take part in the 3,000m steeplechase.

 Stephanie Reilly in the middle of the 3,000m pack...(fourth from right)

1   350 Kim Conley          86 USA                    9:01.47 
  2   347 Stephanie Reilly    78 Ireland                9:02.91 
  3   341 Eloise Wellings     82 Australia              9:03.82 
  4   354 Alemitu Heroye         Ethopia                9:08.32 
  5   342 Maria McCambridge   75 Ireland                9:10.81 
  6   346 Charlotte Purdue    91 Great Britain          9:11.54 
  7   349 Beverly Ramos       87 Puerto Rico            9:13.38 
  8   344 Emma Pallant        89 Great Britain          9:15.63 
  9   353 Michelle Finn       89 Ireland                9:52.51 
 10   351 Lizzie Lee          80 Ireland                9:57.23 
 11   352 Mary Mulhare        93 Ireland               10:21.51

The highlight of the evening however was probably the mens mile and they didn't disappoint with no less than five runners breaking the 4 minute barrier!

  1     1 Ryan Gregson        90 Australia              3:57.98
  2    10 Liam Boylen-Pett    85 USA                    3:58.38
  3    13 Elliott Heath       89 USA                    3:58.48
  4     5 Paul Robinson       91 Ireland                3:58.70
  5     8 Ciaran O'Lionaird   88 Ireland                3:58.84
  6     7 Bartosz Nowicki     84 Poland                 4:01.23
  7    12 Malcolm Hicks       87 New Zealand            4:02.33
  8    11 John Coghlan        88 Ireland                4:02.44
  9    14 Mark Hanrahan       85 Ireland                4:02.92
 10     6 Zane Robertson      89 New Zealand            4:03.05
 11    16 Michael Coe         87 USA                    4:17.99

Of special in this race was of course Ciarán Ó Lionáird who finished in 5th in 3:58.84. Having struggled through the spring with a Achilles injury, he has now recovered and is putting in the final touches to his preparation for the 1500m in London. Post race, he posted this on Twitter......"So happy to be out and competing again. Didn't think it would happen this year with injuries and doubts. Went out at the back, moved up throughout. Perfect position with 100 left, pulled trigger and nothing there. That's called rust. More to come."

In a post race interview, he said......"Right now I’m as healthy as I’m going to be this year but I’m able to train at almost full capacity. With the Achilles injury, it’s been difficult. When you train through injury you have to manage it and the other obstacles that may occur. In my case the obstacles involved my other leg — my right side took a lot of beating. But I have done some good sessions in the past thee weeks — the kind of stuff I was doing before the World Championships in Daegu. The only thing missing has been competitive racing and that’s why Cork City Sports is a crucial part of my build-up to the Games. I need to race competitively to show me where I’m at. More likely than not, I’ll race again in Dublin next week but that will depend on how I come off tomorrow’s meet and if my Achilles holds up. I have really good momentum right now. I am training well and I am confident we can get it turned around. I’ll be having a hard session after this race tomorrow night and I’ll be working right up to the day of my heat in London. I’m really excited about the sessions over the past three weeks."

The full results can be seen HERE 

 Rob Heffernan and Olive Loughnane...respective winners in the mixed 3,000m race walk.

Photos.......

1) Series by Sean Power HERE 
2) Gearoid O'Laoi has 171 photos HERE

Photos courtesy of Gearoid O'Laoi