Photo of the 1984 Cork City Marathon...

This photo taken by Joe Healy is of the 1984 Cork City Marathon and the runners are turning onto the South Mall after coming down the Grand Parade.

Do you recognise anyone? Any names? Leave a comment.

John Walshe sent on the following info...

According to the race programme, the names of those identified in the photo include;

Seamus Casey (732) from Cobh, running with the Navy. Seamus is now very involved with the Cork BHAA and on that day in 1984 finished in 3:02:22.

John Moloney (473) from Waterford, finished in 3:10:28.

Robert Curtin (911) from Foxrock, Dublin, finished in 3:15:28.

John O'Kelly (654) from Glounthaune, finished in 3:18:55.

That was the controversial BLE Irish championship and Olympic trial where the late Jerry Kiernan was disqualified - full story and results elsewhere on your site. 

https://corkrunning.blogspot.com/2020/06/guest-post-controversy-in-1984-cork.html

Guest Post: Controversy in the 1984 Cork City Marathon as both winners were disqualified over breaking rules on logos... by John Walshe

1984 was probably one of the more famous Cork City Marathons when the two winners were disqualified by petty officials in the BLE, the forerunner of Athletics Ireland.

Controversy in the 1984 Cork City Marathon as both winners were disqualified over breaking rules on logos... by John Walshe

THE Olympic Year of 1984 promised much for Irish athletics.

The previous August, Eamon Coghlan had won the 5000m at the inaugural World Championships with Regina Joyce seventh in the marathon.

At the ’84 World C-C, John Treacy showed he was getting back to his best when finishing a 13th.

The Los Angeles Olympic Marathon was being touted as the most eagerly awaited race ever at the distance. To qualify for this classic was the aim of Ireland’s leading exponents as the year made famous by George Orwell got underway.

A major coup for the organisers and sponsors of the third Cork City Marathon came when the Irish governing body BLE designated it the national championship, incorporating the Olympic trial.

With this added boost, entries showed a big increase to almost 1,500. “It will be the most competitive race of its kind to be held in Ireland for years,” declared BLE President Paddy MGovern in the race programme.

For the elite, BLE had set stiff times of 2:14 (men) and 2:35 (women) as Olympic qualifying standards. The race was seen as the big showdown between Cork holder Jerry Kiernan and three-time national champion Dick Hooper.

Kiernan had already won the national cross-country at Kilmacow in February while Hooper, as was his style, had concentrated solely on the 26.2 mile distance. Ever meticulous with his preparation, the Raheny-man even travelled down to Cork to train on the route.

The weather on this Easter Monday was unseasonably warm, with the date of April 23 being later than normal. The course was unchanged from the previous year and when the gun cracked on the South Mall, Kiernan immediately took the lead.
Action from the 1984 marathon.
Action from the 1984 marathon.

After the first mile he had only Donie Walsh for company, with daylight stretching between them and a group which included Hooper, Ray Treacy, Bulgarian Nemov Stanimar and Galway’s Jimmy Fallon.

Kiernan reached three miles in 14:46 with Walsh dropping back to the chasers. At five miles, reached in 24:36, Kiernan was 150 yards clear with the group now working together in an effort to close the gap.

Nearing the Regional Hospital, Hooper surged clear and started to eat into Kiernan’s lead. The gap was down to 11 seconds at 12 miles with Hooper occasionally checking his watch and the splits written on his arm. Coming into the city, Kiernan started to pull away again and was over a half-minute clear at 15 miles reached in 74:42.

Along with the warm sunshine, the runners also had a strong easterly breeze to contend with as they headed down the Marina. Coming up to 19 miles, Kiernan appeared to be in some sort of distress, almost coming to a halt. After passing 20 miles in 1:40:48, he was forced to stop on two occasions.

Although word of Kiernan’s plight had reached Hooper, there wasn’t much he could do about it. “I was getting reports back but I had hit the wall myself at 12 miles. It was a bad run for me,” he related afterwards.

With two miles left of this epic encounter, Kiernan’s lead was just 28 seconds and it looked like he was just about going to hang on. However, coming into the South Mall with the finish in sight, he had to stop again to ease the leg cramps.

With the large crowd urging him on and the thought of final release in sight, he crossed the line a relieved man, just nine seconds ahead of the equally gallant Hooper.

In the circumstances, the times of 2:14:30 and 2:14:39 were remarkable. “There must have been 50 times when I thought I was not going to finish,” admitted Kieran. “I had cramps everywhere.”

Almost unnoticed, Gerry Deegan had finished strongest of all to take third in 2:18:20.

Once again, the spectacle up front took from the women’s race where Emily Dowling was determined to make an attempt on the standard of 2:35. But the strong breeze coming up to 18 miles slowed her and after reaching 20 miles in 2:03, she realised she wasn’t going to achieve her aim and retired.

Her DCH team-mate Deirdre Nagle didn’t realise she was in the lead until nearing the South Mall and was therefore surprised to take her first marathon win in a time of 2:48:26, over a minute clear of Christine Kennedy from Galway.

In third, after attracting a lot of pre-race publicity as the local hope, 1983 winner Lucy O’Donoghue recorded a personal best of 2:56:06 after moving up from 12th at halfway.

As the remaining finishers struggled to cross the line in various states of exhaustion and exhilaration, they were unaware of the drama unfolding alongside them in the Imperial Hotel.

Because the size of the advertising logos on Kiernan’s and Deirdre Nagle’s vests transgressed the IAAF rules, the two winners were disqualified. The ironic fact was that both were wearing adidas apparel, the sponsor of the marathon.

“It’s not our ruling,” pointed out Eddie Spillane, PRO of BLE. “It is an IAAF rule and all athletes are aware of it. Before the race, officials approached individual athletes and told them they were wearing illegal vests.”

It also put the Cork County Board and its chairman Reg Hayes in a quandary as adidas sponsored the Board, along with most of the races in the county. The decision was also not lost on Michael O’Connell of adidas who called on BLE to clarify the position regarding sponsorship in writing.

But it wasn’t over yet.

At the prize presentation, Dick Hooper was declared the winner of the national championship. When presented with the winning trophy and medal, he turned and handed it to Kiernan and in a brief emotional speech said: “As much as it breaks my heart, I didn’t win this race and I now hand over the trophy to the real winner.”

The packed room broke into thunderous roars of applause and both Kiernan and Hooper were given standing ovations, much to the obvious embarrassment of the BLE officials.

There was a happy ending later when Kiernan and Hooper were both selected for the Olympics. Often much maligned for their selection policies, BLE for once played a trump card by awarding the third spot to John Treacy who went on to take the silver medal on that unforgettable August evening on the streets of Los Angeles.

Running the race of his life, Kiernan finished a magnificent ninth in what was the greatest marathon line-up in Olympic history.

His performance was understandably overshadowed by Treacy’s silver and the publicity he received paled in comparison to the front page news which dominated from that warm Easter Monday four months before.

RESULTS:

MEN:

1 Jerry Kiernan 2.14.30; 2 Dick Hooper 2.14.39; 3 Gerry Deegan 2.18.20; 4 Paddy Murphy 2.19.03; 5 Nemov Stanimar 2.19.25; 6 Martin Deane 2.19.53; 7 John Bolger 2.20.13; 8 Greg Hannon 2.21.29; 9 John Griffin 2.23.26; 10 Murt Coleman 2.23.57.
Deirdre Nagle crosses the line at the Cork City Marathon in 1984.
Deirdre Nagle crosses the line at the Cork City Marathon in 1984.

WOMEN:

1 Deirdre Nagle 2.48.26; 2 Christine Kennedy 2.49.46; 3 Lucy O’Donoghue 2.56.04; 4 Audrey O’Brien 2.58.35; 5 Catherine Hennessy 3.00.14; 6 Nuala Logan 3.00.37.

Other well-known names among the finishers included:

Youghal native Christy Crowley won a silver team medal with Raheny when finishing 29th in 2.33.58.

Another Youghal man, George Walsh, just made the top sixty in a time of 2.45.21.

Seamus Casey of the Naval Service, now part of the Cork BHAA committee, ran 3.02.22 in his first-ever race.

Peter Gaffney from Mallow, another regular on the road race circuit, finished in 3.07.26.

Denis Murphy from Glanmire was close behind in a time of 3.08.14 with well-known shoe repairer Noel Muckley recording 3.08.37.

The late Tom Rawley finished in 3.09.18, just ahead of Stephen Murphy - then of Leevale, now with Rising Sun – who ran 3.09.28.

Christy O’Driscoll from Dublin Hill had a time of 3.15.52 with Joe Murphy from Eagle on 3.17.01 and Michael O’Connell of team adidas recording 3.17.15.

Tim-Joe Buckley from Donoughmore ran 3.18.58 with Mary Murphy from Mallow taking the Munster Championship bronze medal in 3.19.50.

Tony Huff from Blackrock (3.32.05) was five seconds ahead of Denis Ryan (3.32.10).

 Patrick Buckley of St Finbarr’s AC, now chairman of the Cork Athletics Board, finished in 3.42.52.

Link...
1) Original article in the Evening Echo

A list of previous guest posts from John Walshe can be seen HERE

Guest Post: CARRIGALINE HALF-MARATHON OF 1984 ...by John Walshe

CARRIGALINE HALF-MARATHON OF 1984 (John Walshe)

During the first running boom of the early 1980s, races over the half-marathon distance and even longer were fashionable. After falling out of popularity in the ‘90s, it is only since the noughties that half-marathons have returned to the fixture list, many of course now held in conjunction with events over the full distance.  

For a couple of years in the mid-1980s the Carrigaline People’s Half-Marathon took place around the Ballygarvan and Five-Mile-Bridge areas. As the attached report and results from Marathon Magazine of the time show, the 1984 event on April 1st attracted a good turnout of around 240 with the race up front featuring two Corkmen who were then at the peak of their powers.

Tony O’Leary of Leevale was the impressive winner, his time of 66:05 giving him a clear advantage of one minute and 21 seconds over Liam O’Brien from Midleton. O’Leary had just returned from New Jersey where the previous week he had had been the sixth scorer on the Irish team who had finished a fine 10th at the World Cross-Country.

O’Leary had gained that Irish representation with a fifth placing at the BLE senior C-C held at Kilmacow on February 26th where Liam O’Brien had finished 12th, 40 seconds in arrears of the Leevale man. But the most significant indication of O’Leary’s form came in between those two races when he turned the tables on O’Brien at the Ballycotton ‘10’ on March 11th, his winning time of 48:22 giving him the title by 16 seconds.

O’Brien’s main ambitions for the year undoubtedly lay on the track and running a half-marathon at the start of the season may not fit the textbook approach. But then that was nothing unusual for the Midleton teacher. The attraction of the first prize of a ‘miniature’ television might have had something to do with his appearance and, as events proved, it certainly didn’t do him any harm.

Over two months later, at the AAA championships held at Crystal Palace, O’Brien established an Irish record of 8:27.24 for the 3000m steeplechase – it still ranks him number two on the Irish all-time list. This qualified him for that year’s Olympics in Los Angeles where he reached the semi-final on the biggest stage of all.

Donie Walsh took third spot at Carrigaline and it marked a busy four weeks for the Leevale man. After a below-par 13th at Ballycotton (despite running 50:43), Walsh finished second to his brother Michael a week later at the Friends of the Irish Wheelchair Association Cork Half-Marathon. He then followed that up on March 25th with another runner-spot at the Cork-Cobh 15 miles behind Tony Ryan from Dungarvan.

The women’s winner at Carrigaline was Catherine Hourihan of St Finbarr’s in a time of 80:49. Catherine had finished third at Ballycotton (58:47) and over the longer distance had well over a minute to spare over Catherine Hennessy from Kilkenny with Mary Sweeney (then of Youghal) in third ahead of her future St Finbarr’s club-mate Marion Lyons.

Incidentally, equal first prizes for men and women had yet to become the norm as the female winner received a bicycle compared to the men’s ‘miniature’ television set!

Guest Post: GLENBOWER 10-MILE AND 10KM RACES ...by John Walshe

In a previous guest article, John Walshe looked back at the Glenbower Half-Marathon in Killeagh in East Cork back in 1978. In this follow up post, John looks at the 10-mile and 10km races which came after it.

GLENBOWER 10-MILE AND 10KM RACES... by John Walshe

Following the interest in the Glenbower Half-Marathon of 1978, yes, as mentioned in the comments, a 10-mile race did take place in Killeagh for three years beginning in 1983. That first race took place on a Thursday evening (June 2nd) and had a total of 116 finishers (results shown below).

The following year of 1984 saw a move to the warm Sunday of May 13th, actually the same day as that year’s London Marathon. Along with the after-race refreshments, the participants got the opportunity of seeing Charlie Spedding winning London in a time of 2:09:57 from the portable television kindly provided in the hall. That win qualified Spedding for the Olympic Games the following August where of course he took the bronze medal behind Carlos Lopes and John Treacy, his time there just one second slower (2:09:58) than London.

Back to Glenbower, and that year of 1984 saw a women’s race taking place at the same time as the men, attracting a fine turnout of 50. (Results of both races are shown below). In 1985, exactly 100 finished the 10-mile race on Sunday May 19th. Although no results are currently available, it is recalled that the first two runners were inadvertently taken on a shorter route by the lead car, leading to some confusion at the finish!

From 1986 to 1994, just one race over 10km took place for both men and women. Usually held on a Thursday or Sunday evening in late April or May, numbers taking part varied from 50 to 80 and so brought the curtain down on an enjoyable decade or so of racing around the Killeagh countryside.

(A full list of John Walshe's guest posts can be found HERE)

Glenbower 10-Mile results - 1983

Follow up to the 1984 Cork City Marathon post & Course measurement back in the 1980's

Last week, I had a guest post up by John Walshe on the 1984 Cork City Marathon. Included in the post were the results for the marathon itself which showed just how fast the times were back then.

Some of the questions raised were why the times were so fast and how were the courses measured back then?

As for the times, the running boom of the early to mid 80's was largely due to young adult men running. i.e. men in their mid 20's to early 30's. That's in contrast to the latest running boom which is largely a mix of men and women in their early 30's to mid 40's. As such, it's probably no great surprise that times are slower now.

As for course measurements, John Walshe has written a short follow up article and you can see it below...

As that Cork Marathon of 1984 was the BLE National Marathon, in all probability it was measured by a surveyor’s wheel. This necessitated walking the full course (probably in stages) pushing a small wheel on a handle. It would not be as accurate as measurements nowadays, but if done diligently and correctly there wouldn’t be a significant difference.

The calibrated cycle method was pioneered in the UK over 50 years ago by a man named John Jewell of the Road Runners Club. It was then adopted by the RRC of America and later by the governing world federation, the IAAF. This consisted of riding a bicycle fitted with a counter which had been calibrated over a short distance measured on the road with a steel tape.

Although the Ballycotton ‘10’ and associated races had been using the method here in Cork since the late 1970s, BLE (now Athletics Ireland) were slow off the mark and did not officially introduce it throughout the country until more than a decade later.

The first calibration course in Ireland was laid down prior to the inaugural Ballycotton ‘10’ in 1978. It was measured on the long straight just before the six-mile mark which would be familiar to many runners. The distance was a half mile long and the device used to measure the full course was a Veeder Rootes counter, supplied by John Jewell of the RRC.

This was the forerunner to the Jones Counter which was invented by an American named Alan Jones and his son Clain – the principle was exactly the same but the new counter was easier to use and slightly more sophisticated!

In 1988, Ballycotton Running Promotions purchased a Jones Counter from the New York Road Runners (NYRR), at a cost of $35 (around €30 in today's money). This – the first one in Ireland - was used (still in use today!) to measure many of the races in the Cork area before Athletics Ireland, mainly through Tom McCormack, took an interest in the late 1990s and then started to train and appoint a number of measurers throughout the country.

*Just as a footnote, with regard to the times of the first three in that Cork Marathon of 1984, it should be noted that these were class athletes. As mentioned in the article, Kiernan would go on to finish ninth that summer in the Olympic marathon, his time of 2:12:20 over two minutes faster than he ran in Cork. He had run 47:04 for 10 miles in Ballycotton the previous year and was also a sub-four-minute miler.

Although Dick Hooper was primarily a marathon runner, he would run 48:12 the following year in Ballycotton while Gerry Deegan – who finished well back in third – had personal bests of 13:35/28:48 for 5000m and 10,000m on the track.

JW

Cork City Marathon of 1984...by John Walshe

Following on from an earlier post about a publicity photo for the 1984 Cork City Marathon, more info has come to light. In this guest article which was written by John Walshe back in 1997, he gives an account of the 1984 Cork Marathon and the race wasn't without controversy!

If anyone has any photos or additional info about this race, please let me know.

CORK CITY MARATHON 1984 (John Walshe)
The Olympic Year of 1984 promised much as far as Irish running was concerned. The previous August, Eamon Coghlan had won the inaugural World 5,000m Championships at Helsinki with Regina Joyce finishing seventh in the marathon. In March, John Treacy showed he was returning to his best form when finishing thirteenth in the World C-C in New York.

The Los Angeles Olympic Marathon was being touted as the most eagerly awaited race ever at the distance. To qualify for this classic was the aim of Ireland’s leading exponents as the year made famous by George Orwell got underway.

A major coup for the organisers and sponsors of the third Cork City Marathon came when the Irish governing body BLE designated it the national championship, incorporating the Olympic trial.
 “It will be the most competitive race of its kind to be held in Ireland for years,” declared BLE President Paddy MGovern in the race programme.

The numbers participating in races, along with the events themselves, continued to grow. A month before the marathon, the Cork Examiner /Guinness Half-Marathon in aid of the Friends of the Irish Wheelchair Association took place for the first time and had over 1,200 finishers.

With the added boost of national championship status, entries for the marathon showed a big increase to almost 1,500. Michael O’Connell, Managing Director of sponsors Three Stripe International said: “For the vast majority of runners a personal best time will be the main target. This personal achievement is the true magic of the marathon and every individual finisher can be a winner.”

For the elite few, BLE had set stiff times of 2:14 (men) and 2:35 (women) as qualifying standards for the Olympics. The race was seen as the big showdown between the Cork holder Jerry Kiernan and three-time national marathon champion Dick Hooper.

Kiernan had already won the national cross-country crown at Kilmacow in February while Hooper, as was his style, had concentrated solely on the 26.2 mile distance. Ever meticulous with his preparation, the Raheny-man even travelled down to Cork to train on the marathon route.

As often is the case, the weather on this Easter Monday was unseasonably warm, with the date of April 23 being later than normal. The course was unchanged from the previous year and when the gun cracked on the South Mall, Kiernan immediately took the lead. At the first mile mark he had only Donie Walsh for company, with daylight stretching between them and a group which included Hooper, Ray Treacy, Bulgarian Nemov Stanimar and Galway’s Jimmy Fallon.

Kiernan reached three miles in 14:46 with Walsh dropping back to the chasing group which now included Robert Costelloe, Jim McGlynn, Johnny Bolger and Michael Walsh. At five miles, reached in 24:36, Kiernan was 150 yards clear with the group now working together in an effort to close the gap.

Nearing the Regional Hospital, Hooper surged clear and started to eat into Kiernan’s lead. The gap was down to 11 seconds at twelve miles with Hooper occasionally checking his watch and the split times written on his arm. Coming into the city, Kiernan started to pull away again and was over a half-minute clear at 15 miles where he was timed at 74:42.

As well as the warm sunshine, the marathon runners had also to contend with a strong easterly breeze as they headed down the Marina. Coming up to 19 miles, Kiernan appeared to be in some sort of distress as he slowed down, almost coming to a halt. After passing 20 miles in 1:40:48, he was forced to stop on two occasions.

Although word of Kiernan’s plight had reached Hooper, there wasn’t much he could do about it. “I was getting reports back but I had hit the wall at 12 miles. It was a bad run for me,” he related afterwards. 

With two miles left of this epic encounter, Kiernan’s lead was just 28 seconds and it looked like he was going to hang on. However, coming into the South Mall and the last three hundred metres, he had to stop again to ease the leg cramps that were causing him such agony. With the huge crowd urging him on and the thought of final release in sight, he crossed the line a relieved man, just nine seconds ahead of the equally gallant Hooper.

In the circumstances, the times of 2:14:30 and 2:14:39 were remarkable. “There must have been 50 times when I thought I was not going to finish,” admitted Kieran. “I had cramps everywhere.” Almost unnoticed, Gerry Deegan had finished strongest of all to take third place in 2:18:20.

Once again, the spectacle up front took from the women’s race where Emily Dowling was determined to make an attempt on the standard of 2:35. But the strong breeze coming up to 18 miles slowed her and after reaching 20 miles in 2:03, she realised she wasn’t going to achieve her aim and retired.

Her DCH team-mate Deirdre Nagle didn’t realise she was in the lead until nearing the South Mall and was therefore surprised to take her first marathon win in a time of 2:48:26, over a minute clear of Christine Kennedy from Galway.

In third, after attracting a lot of pre-race publicity as the local hope, 1983 winner Lucy O’Donoghue recorded another remarkable personal best of 2:56:06 after moving up from 12th place at halfway. 

As the remaining finishers struggled to cross the line in various states of exhaustion and exhilaration, they were unaware of the drama unfolding alongside them in the Imperial Hotel. 

Because the size of the advertising logos on Kiernan’s and Deirdre Nagle’s vests transgressed the IAAF rules, the two winners were disqualified. The ironic fact was that both of them were wearing adidas apparel, the overall sponsor of the marathon.

“It’s not our ruling,” pointed out Eddie Spillane, PRO of BLE. “It is an IAAF rule and all athletes are aware of it. Before the race, officials approached individual athletes and told them they were wearing illegal vests.”

It also put the Cork County Board and its Chairman Reg Hayes in an embarrassing position as Adidas sponsored the Board along with most of the major road races in the county. The decision was also not lost on Michael O’Connell who called on BLE to clarify the position regarding sponsorship, and to do so in writing.

But it wasn’t over yet. At the prize presentation in the Imperial, Dick Hooper was declared the winner of the national championship. When presented with the winning trophy and medal, he turned and handed it to Kiernan and in a brief emotional speech said: “As much as it breaks my heart, I didn’t win this race and I now hand over the trophies to the real winner.”

The packed room broke into thunderous roars of applause and both Kiernan and Hooper were given standing ovations, much to the obvious embarrassment of the BLE officials.

There was a happy ending later that summer when Kiernan and Hooper were both selected for the Olympic Marathon. Often maligned for their selection policies, BLE for once played a trump card by awarding the third spot to John Treacy who went on to take the silver medal on that unforgettable August evening on the streets of Los Angeles.

Running the race of his life, Kiernan finished a magnificent ninth in what was the greatest marathon line-up in Olympic history.

But his performance was understandably overshadowed by Treacy’s medal and the publicity received paled in comparison to the front page news he had made on that warm Easter Monday four months before.    
    
RESULTS (MEN)
1 Jerry Kiernan                       2:14:30
2 Dick Hooper   2:14:39
3 Gerry Deegan  2:18:20
4 Paddy Murphy  2:19:03
5 Nemov Stanimar  2:19:25
6 Martin Deane   2:19:53
7 John Bolger    2:20:13
8 Greg Hannon  2:21:29
9 John Griffin   2:23:26
10 Murt Coleman  2:23:57
RESULTS (WOMEN)
1 Deirdre Nagle  2:48:26
2 Christine Kennedy  2:49:46

Additional info...Click on the link below to see the full post including the full results.

Cork City Marathon...1984

I came across this photo recently for the 1984 Cork City Marathon...

I'm not sure if it was a race flyer or was it the front of the results booklet? No websites and blogs back in those days!

So lets see if it'll jog a few memories.

Q. Who is in the photo?
Q. Did anyone do it?
Q. Has anyone got any photos from that period?
Q. Are there any results anywhere?

Irish women in the Marathon at the Olympics...1984 to 2016

Following the women's marathon at the Rio Olympics last weekend, I had a closer look at the history of the event which was first introduced in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games. One of the most suprising findings is just how few Irish women have actually taken part in this Olympic event.

Some stats...

1) Only 11 Irish women have taken part in the Olympic Marathon.

 
2) Prior to the 2012 Games in London, only five Irish women had run an Olympic marathon. The three in 2012 and the three in 2016 brought the total up to eleven.

3) Amazingly, there were no Irish women in the Olympic Marathon from 1992 to 2004.

Year - Venue - Number of Irish Women
1984 - Los Angeles - 2
1988 - Seoul - 2
1992 - Barcelona - 0
1996 - Atlanta - 0
2000 - Sydney - 0
2004 - Athens - 0
2008 - Beijing - 1
2012 - London - 3 (Max team of 3)
2016 - Rio de Janerio - 3 (Max team of 3)

Following the 2008 Games in Beijing, the Irish Marathon Mission was established to improve the standards of elite Irish runners. This has been mostly financed by the organisers of the Dublin City Marathon and as you can see, it has helped in getting full teams for 2012 and 2016.

This chart shows more clearly the times of the 11 Irish women between 1984 and 2016. As you can see, Fionnuala McCormack's performance in Rio was exceptional when compared to the rest.

Note that these times were all set on different courses and with different conditions so we can't do an exact comparison. Still though, they are all Olympic Marathon finals so they are similar in that respect.

An Unforgettable Marathon Finish by Gabriela Andersen-Schiess in the Los Angeles Olympics

The very first womens marathon in the Olympics was held in Los Angeles in 1984. While the race was won by Joan Benoit in a time of 2:24, one of the finishes that stood out was that of Gabriela Andersen-Schiess of Switzerland.

With the LA sunshine and temperatures hitting nearly 30 deg C, the conditions were very warm for running the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles. At the time, the rules stipulated that there could only be five water stations and the contestants couldn't be given water anywhere else. Unfortunately for Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, she missed the 5th and last station and got badly dehydrated as a result.

Her entrance to the Olympic stadium and the struggle over the last 400m which took five minutes and forty four seconds to complete would make it a memorable finish. What's maybe even as amazing if that despite her tortured finish, she still managed to finish 37th out of 44 in a time of 2h 48m 42s.

The video is about 10 minutes long...

John Treacy won silver in the Olympic Marathon 30 years ago today

30 years ago today on the 12th of August 1984, John Treacy won a silver medal in the marathon at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Video clip of the Olympic Marathon in 1984...

The John Treacy Dungarvan 10 mile road road is coming up at the end of this month in West Waterford. With that in mind, it might be appropriate to look back at the 1984 Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles and the performance that put the man from Villierstown on the podium.

Radio Kerry interview with Jerry Kiernan...

During the recent Olympics in London, Jerry Kieran was part of the RTE panel in the studio that provided analysis of the results and performances as they came in. While most will be aware of his involvement in commentating on athletics, many of the newer runners may not be aware of his running career.

Jerry Kiernan (born 1953) is a former long-distance runner who represented his Ireland at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, where he finished in ninth place in the men's marathon. His team mate John Treacy claimed silver in the same race. Kiernan twice won the Dublin Marathon: 1982 and 1992. A former Irish record holder over 3000 metres, Kiernan was also a sub-four minute mile runner.

In this extensive interview with Weeshie Fogarty of Radio Kerry (47 mins long), he looks back at his career, many of his road races that he won, the 1984 Olympic Marathon.......and how John Treacy robbed his water bottle!! Tut tut ;o)

It's a fascinating insight into a time when Irish distance athletes were to the fore. After listening to it however, I can't help wondering where are the 'John Treacys' and 'Jerry Kiernans' of today???

(Credits....Photo...Old Mallow 10 finish - Stephen Murphy, Video/Radio interview - Shane Mullaney)

Zola Budd and the 1984 Olympics...

The year...1984. Venue...Los Angeles and what was probably the most famous 3,000m race in Olympic history. 17 year old Zola Budd from South Africa was running for Britain in the Games and was a source of some controversy as all South African athletes were banned from international competitions at that time due to the apartheid system in that country. Also in the race was home favourite Mary Decker.

This week, the Guardian had an interesting article on Zola Budd and her role in the Games. Click HERE

Interview with Irish Olympic Silver medalist John Treacy at the 2012 Brighton Marathon

Prior to the Brighton Marathon in mid-April, there was a Saucony seminar which included an interview with John Treacy, winner of the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles. In this interview, he talks about his running career, his success in winning the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Glasgow in 1978 and in Limerick in 1979. He also goes through his race in that 1984 Olympic Marathon final when he was up against Carlos Lopes of Portugal and Charlie Spedding of Britain. The interview is here...

Focus On....Former Olympian Liam O'Brien

In the Sunday Independent dated 11th Dec 2011, there was a short article titled 'Where are they now' which looked back at the running career of Liam O'Brien of Midleton. While Liam retired from competitive running back in the 90's, he is still very much involved in the sport. Besides being technical director for the Cork City Sports, you will often find Liam behind the scenes at all of the East Cork and Ballycotton road races. Here is the article...

* * * * *

Former Olympic athlete Liam O'Brien won 11 national steeplechase titles over a 17-year period, but the Corkman believes that having such a long career was his greatest achievement in the sport. In many ways it was more special than being an Olympian.

O'Brien started running at a young age. His father worked at the Whitegate refinery and it was at their sports day that he first experienced the joy of athletics. In the mid-1960s, the Midleton Athletic Club was formed so O'Brien joined up and started to race competitively at juvenile level.

From there he went on to teacher training college in Limerick and his career prospered. He was always a middle-distance runner but at that time he was running shorter distances on the track, like the 400m and 800m. Then as he got older he started to compete in more long-distance events and those were the races that he performed best in, particularly the steeplechase.

"It's a very specific event. I found out pretty quickly I could beat people in the steeplechase that might often beat me on the flat. There is a little bit of technique involved in it; you're jumping up over barriers, landing and absorbing shock and I was just able to do it. It suited me," says O'Brien.

In 1977, the Corkman won his first national title and he went on to claim 10 more national titles, winning his last in 1994. In many ways that time was a golden era for Irish steeplechasers with the likes of Brendan Quinn, Kieran Stack and Joe Hartnett all competing in the event. A lot of the records that stand today were recorded back then. O'Brien also achieved success on the international stage. In 1984, he qualified for the Los Angeles Olympic Games and reached the semi-final. Three years later, he went to the World Championships in Rome.

Just over a year ago, he retired from teaching at Midleton CBS. However, he is still involved in athletics and orienteering at the school. O'Brien is also one of the organisers of the Munster Schools athletics and is technical director of Cork City Sports. From working with so many young athletes, the former Olympian thinks the future looks bright for Irish athletics.

Looking back...The Dromina 10 Mile Road Race - 1984

The next big race on the local calendar is of course the Charleville Half-Marathon which is coming up next Sunday, the 18th of September at 10am. The race is being organised by North Cork AC and the race director is Michael Herlihy, a former winner of the Cork City Marathon. While this may be the first year of this particular race, what inspired Michael to start this particular Half-Marathon was the history of previous medium distance events in this part of North Cork. The Charleville '10' mile road race was a popular event back in the early 90's which in turn had it's origins in the Dromina '10' back in the mid 80's.


The Dromina 10 mile road race in it's day was as big a race as the Ballycotton '10' and attracted runners from all over the country. One of the main people behind the race at the time was a local priest Fr. Liam Kelleher. The first race was in 1982 just as the running boom at the time was starting and lasted for just 5 years until the last race in 1986.

It's best year was possibly in 1984 when Jerry Kiernan won the race in 46.30, just a short time after finishing 9th in the Marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and a couple of weeks before running a high class time in the Chicago Marathon.

In that year, there were 720 finishers with 126 beating the hour mark with 9 runners running faster than 50 minutes. Compare that to the 2011 Ballycotton '10' with 2,384 runners and 107 beating the hour.

A full 3 page report with results was printed in an Irish running magazine at the time called 'Marathon'. I have put these pages up on another website and you can see them HERE

Hopefully over the next few weeks, I will put the results for all 5 of the Dromina '10' races online. If anyone has any old photographs of the Dromina race and would like to share them then send me an e-mail......address shown on the right hand side of this page.