Results of the Bantry AC Flying 5-mile - Sun 13th Apr 2025

This was the second year of the Bantry AC Flying 5-mile and it was held on Sunday 13th April 2025. There were 97 finishers this year which is down a bit on the 122 for 2024.

Top 3 men & women...

 148 1 Naoise O FLAITHEARTAIGH Bandon A.C. M 27:24  
137 2 Alan OSHEA Bantry AC M 27:42  
1017 3 Briain MADDEN Togher A.C. M 29:51   
1065 8 Julie O BRIEN Durrus A.C. F 32:17  
1005 13 Sinéad O REGAN Courcey A.C. F 34:37  
1006 17 Deirdre O SULLIVAN Beara A.C. F 35:31

Full results HERE

Results of the Bantry AC Flying 5-mile - Sun 14th Apr 2024

The inaugural Bantry AC Flying 5-mile was held on Sunday 14th Apr 2024 with 122 runners taking part.

Top 3 men & women...
 26 1 Danny MULLINS Bantry A.C. M 0:27:41 0:27:41  
90 2 Briain MADDEN Togher A.C. M 0:29:19 0:29:19  
109 3 Eoghan MC ELHINNEY Bantry A.C. M 0:29:58 0:29:58
108 11 Julie O BRIEN F40 0:33:27 0:33:27  
93 12 Carmel CROWLEY Bandon A.C. F50 0:33:34 0:33:34  
33 22 Hilje VEENSTRA F 0:38:04 0:38:05  

Full results HERE

Photos...
1) Bantry AC has a gallery HERE

End of the road for the Mealagh Valley 10 mile race?

Bantry AC announced yesterday that the Mealagh Valley 10 mile road race in West Cork will not take place in 2017.

As the chart shows, it was doing pretty well in the early years but like a lot of other races in West Cork, the numbers have dropped in recent years. The 2016 figure was particularly low despite the face that it was a sunny day in contrast to the rain in 2015.

Maybe it will a re-appearance again but for now, there will be nothing in 2017.

Results of the Mealagh Valley 10 mile road race...Sun 14th Feb 2016

Just 63 runners turned out for this years Mealagh Valley 10 mile road race near Bantry, a drop of about 25% on the 2015 numbers. This was despite the fact that the weather conditions were dry in contrast to the rain of last year.

1 0:54:37 O'SHEA, Alan    Bantry AC    M    05:27.6
2 1:01:56 DEANE, Paul   Clonakilty Road Runners   M    06:11.5
3 1:04:05 MCCARTHY, Patrick    unatt/Drimoleague    M40    06:24.4
11 1:11:21   WALSH, Karen    unatt/Cork    F35    07:08.0
18 1:15:28   O'SHEA, Geraldine    St. Finbarrs AC    F45    07:32.7
23 1:19:30   HARRINGTON, Deirdre    Bantry AC    F40    07:56.9 

The full results can be seen HERE

Photos...
1) Bantry Photo have a few photos HERE

Notice...Mealagh Valley 10 mile road race - Sun 22nd Feb 2015

This 10 mile road race is coming up in the Mealagh Valley near Bantry in West Cork on Sunday the 22nd of February 2015. Organised by Bantry AC, it has been measured accurately by Jones Counter and has an Athletics Ireland licence.

It's probably best described as a small but well organised 10 mile race in a small secluded valley near Bantry in West Cork. It's not one for setting personal best times but it's in a nice quiet location.

Funds raised from the race go towards The Mealagh Valley Community and the Build4Life Cystic Fibrosis charity.

You can pre-enter HERE for €15 or on the day for €20.

Preview...You can see a preview of the 10 mile route with maps, directions, photos, etc HERE

5 k Fun Run......For those who may find the thought of a hilly 10 mile race too tough then there is also a 5 km fun run on offer for runners, joggers and walkers. You can find a preview of the 5k route HERE

The race now has a new website. All the info is there including maps, directions, past results, etc. Visit http://mealaghvalley.wordpress.com/

Event notice...Mealagh Valley Ring 10 mile road race, Bantry - Sun 9th Feb 2014

This 10 mile road race is coming up in the Mealagh Valley near Bantry on Sunday the 9th of February 2014. Organised by Bantry AC, it has been measured accurately by Jones Counter and has an Athletics Ireland licence.

It's probably best described as a small but well organised 10 mile race in a small secluded valley near Bantry in West Cork.

Funds raised from the race go towards The Mealagh Valley Community and the Build4Life Cystic Fibrosis charity.

You can pre-enter HERE for €15 or on the day for €20.

Preview...You can see a preview of the route with maps, directions, photos, etc HERE

5 k Fun Run......For those who may find the thought of a hilly 10 mile race too tough then there is also a 5 km fun run on offer for runners, joggers and walkers.

Race notice...Mealagh Valley 10 mile road race - Sun 12th Feb 2012

This 10 mile road race is coming up on Sunday, the 12th of February at 12 noon. Located near Bantry in west Cork, the Mealagh Valley is a scenic location for this challenging 10 mile course.

The entry fee is €15 or €20 on the day. You can enter online HERE. For more information, call Geraldine on 087 6173376 or bantryac@gmail.com

Proceeds from the race go towards local schools in the valley and towards Build4life4kids, a Cystic Fibrosis fundraising group aiming to raise €2 million to provide a specialised kids unit within Cork University Hospital (CUH) in Cork City.

Please note that if you are interested in doing the Bay Run Half-Marathon from Glengarriff to Bantry on the 6th of May, there is a 20% discount to anyone taking part in the Mealagh Valley race by use of a special discount code.

Full preview of the race closer to the date...

Alan O'Shea from Cork runs 2:19 in Nice Marathon

Alan O'Shea of Bantry AC ran 2:19:35 in the Marathon Des Alpes-Maritimes Nice-Cannes in the south of France on Sunday, the 20th of November 2011.

Finishing 10th out of 7000+ entrants, his time was almost 4 minutes faster than the 2:23:22 that he posted in the Dublin Marathon just 3 weeks earlier when he was the 3rd Irish finisher.

His time of 2:19:35 is just over 4 minutes outside the 2:15 required to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Alan O'Shea of Cork finishes 2nd in Copenhagen Marathon

Alan O'Shea of Bantry AC finished 2nd in the Copenhagen Marathon last Sunday, the 23rd of May. The West Cork athlete who won the Cork City Marathon back in 2007, finished in Copenhagen in an impressive time of 2:22:52........a mere 23 seconds behind the winner and nearly 3 minutes ahead of the 3rd placed runner. That time of 2:22:52 works out at an average pace of 5:27 per mile!!

Alan's time at the Half-Marathon mark was 1:10:36 which works out at 5:23 per mile.

It's one thing to win a race over a short distance but to sustain that kind of pace over the full Marathon distance  is really impressive.