The 63rd Cork City Sports were held at the CIT track in Bishopstown on Tuesday the 8th of July. The numbers attending seemed to be pretty much the same as last year with the stand area mostly full and plenty of people spread around the ground area as well.
The weather on the evening was sunny but there was a strong blustery wind from the north-west. As well as keeping things a bit on the cool side, it resulted in a strong headwind in the back straight and a tailwind in the home straight.
Overall, there was a very good atmosphere with the crowd really getting behind the Irish athletes.
These are a few of the performances that stood out for me...
Mens 400m hurdles....The Irish record holder 22 year old Thomas Barr finished 3rd in a time of 49.95 seconds. This was about 1 second outside his best of 48.90 seconds which he set in Geneva last month. Any result under 50 seconds in those conditions is really an excellent performance.
1 Culson Javier 84 PUR 48.41
2 Dutch Johnny 89 USA 49.27
3 Barr Thomas 92 IRL 49.95
In the womens 3000m, Fionnuala Britton finished 3rd in a time of 9:01.01. For much of the race, Fionnuala was at the front with Helen Clitheroe sitting behind looking comfortable. Eventually Hall and Duncan took over at the front and the field began to string out behind. It looked as if Fionnuala was beginning to fade away in the penultimate lap but then really pushed for home with about 300m to go and passed Clitheroe and then Penney to finish third.
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| Womens 3000m. Photo: Gearóid O Laoi |
1 99 Hall Marielle 92 USA 8:54.48
2 94 Duncan Melissa 90 AUS 8:58.14
3 82 Britton Fionnuala 84 IRL 9:01.01
4 83 Penney Lauren 90 USA 9:01.33
5 104 Clitheroe Helen 74 ENG 9:03.95
6 86 Mori Yuika 88 JPN 9:05.57
7 81 McCambridge Maria 75 IRL 9:05.66
8 101 Omori Naksuki JPN 9:09.54
9 85 Nowakowska Dominika 85 POL 9:10.79
10 98 Treacy Sara 89 IRL 9:12.35
14 88 Purdue Charlotte 91 ENG 9:19.86
15 92 Durcan Ciara 86 IRL 9:22.70
Womens 100m...In the womens 100m, Phil Healy of Bandon AC was on fire running a time of 11.36 seconds. A significant factor here was the tailwind of 3 metres per second which for sprinters makes a huge difference. The legal limit is 2 metres per second so any times set don't count as personal bests or as records. However note Phil's time....11.36 seconds. The Irish national record is 11.40 seconds. Phil is still only 20 years old so the chances of her breaking the Irish record in the future must be a real possibility.
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| Phil Healy of Bandon AC...2nd in the 100m. Photo: Gearóid O Laoi |
1 VanBuren Cleo 86 USA 11.35
2 Healy Phil 94 IRL 11.36
3 Whelan Niamh 90 IRL 11.68
4 McManus Catherine 92 IRL 11.73
5 Kiernan Louise 87 IRL 11.83
6 Buys Elzette 92 RSA 11.95
Mens 3000m race walk....One of the top performances of the evening was that of Alex Wright in the mens 3000m walk. Alex used to be one of the top race walkers in the UK and declared for Ireland at the start of this year. He is a part of Rob Heffernan's training group in Cork and they are often seen out on the roads locally training. Alex's time of 10:58.47 was a new Irish record and beats the previous record of 11:10.02 which was set back in 2002 by Rob Heffernan. Rob who is of course the world champion over 50 kms also broke his old record.
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| Alex Wright of Leevale AC...setting a new national record in the mens 3000m walk. Photo: Gearóid O Laoi |
1 238 Bird-Smith Dane 92 AUS 10:56.23
2 239 Campion Kevin 88 FRA 10:58.16
3 235 Wright Alex 90 IRL 10:58.47
4 230 Heffernan Robert 78 IRL 11:09.08
5 233 Hickey Luke 94 IRL 11:27.81
6 232 Boyce Brendan 86 IRL 11:35.92
7 237 Treanor James 92 IRL 11:44.96
8 234 Lynch Evan 95 IRL 12:06.33
(The Irish Examiner have an article on this race HERE)
Womens 100m hurdles...In the womens 100m hurdles, Sarah Lavin from Limerick finished second and only two one-hundredths of a second behind the winner. She possibly could have won except for knocking a hurdle in the middle of the race. Sarah's time of 13.30 seconds was very close to her personal best of 13.23 seconds which she set in Geneva last month. The following wind for this race was 1.7 metres per second so it was ok for records.
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| Sarah Lavin in the 100m hurdles. Photo: Gearóid O Laoi |
1 Solomon Serita 90 ENG 13.28
2 Lavin Sarah 94 IRL 13.30
3 Drew Karla 99 ENG 13.69
4 Kleinhaus Erika 99 RSA 14.00
5 Marrs Megan 98 IRL 14.15
6 McManus Catherine 92 IRL 14.33
7 Williams Sirena USA 15.78
In the womens 800m race, Laura Crowe and Ciara Everard finished 6th and 8th respectively.
6 64 Crowe Laura 87 IRL 2:04.64
8 73 Everard Ciara 90 IRL 2:08.29
The full results can be seen
HERE
Photos...(Updated Wed @11am)
1) Sportsfile has some photos
HERE
2) Gearóid O Laoi has 200+ photos
HERE
3) Graham Nudds has a gallery of photos
HERE
Video...
1) Video coverage of the whole meet from AerTV...
Coverage starts at 36 mins.
0:36 to about 1:30.....coverage of the juvenile races
0:58...start of the field events
1:34...1500mjunior women
1:43...1500m junior men
1:55...400m hurdles men
2:07...400m women
2:20...400m women
2:32...3000m women
2:47...100m women
2:51 & 2:58...100m men
3:08...3000m walk men
3:25...100m hurdles women
3:32...Mile men
3:44...800m women
3:52...3000m men
2) Flotrack has interviews with several of the international athletes
HERE
