Guest Post: KILMALLOCK FOUR-MILE ROAD RACE ...by John Walshe

KILMALLOCK FOUR-MILE ROAD RACE, Friday May 24th

Two days after the town of Kilmallock welcomed the riders on the first stage of this year's Rás Tailteann, the local athletic club staged its annual four-mile road race.

On an ideal evening for running, Declan Moore from the Bilboa club was certainly an impressive winner. His time of 19:31 gave him an advantage of over a minute on runner-up, Karl Lenihan of West Limerick (20:41), with Killian Lynch from the same club finishing third in 20:49.

Pamela Kirby, also Bilboa, was the winner of the women’s race in 24:41 from Sinead McDermott of Dooneen (27:28) with Louise Matthews, also Dooneen, third in 27:55.

Along with his prize, Declan Moore received the Jim Hogan Perpetual Cup in memory of the locally-born runner who famously won the 1966 European Marathon while representing Great Britain. The cup was presented by Mary Murphy, a sprightly 92-year-old sister of the late Jim.

Born in 1933, Jim Hogan changed his name from Cregan to Hogan after moving to England and ran for Ireland in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. There, he closely tracked eventual winner Abebe Bikila for more than 20 miles in the marathon before being forced to drop out in the closing stages due to severe dehydration.

In 1966, he went on to win the European Marathon title in a time of 2:20:04 – on this occasion wearing a British singlet, having declared for the UK citing indifferences and frustrations with the way in which Irish athletics was being run. A number years ago a book was published on his life titled ‘The Irishman who ran for England’.

Jim Hogan passed away at the age of 81 back in January 2015. Such was the esteem in which he was held that former world 10,000m record holder Dave Bedford travelled over for the funeral which took place in the little village of Athlacca.

In one of his earliest interviews, Bedford – who also served as Race Director of the London Marathon - was asked if he admired any particular athlete. He replied: “At one time I used to like Jim Hogan’s running, partly because he was a very controversial character – I like controversial characters – but also he had guts and said what he thought.”

Well done to Kilmallock Athletic Club for keeping the memory of this great athlete alive.