East Cork AC win Masters National Road Relay Championships - 24th Apr 2022

East Cork AC team (L-R) Stephen O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien & James McCarthy

The National Road Relay Championships were held in Raheny in Dublin on Sunday the 24th of April 2022. The course consists of a 1-mile loop with participants doing various legs.

East Cork AC finished first team in the Men's O35 Masters category with a combined time for 4 laps of 19m 28s, 14 seconds ahead of their rivals in second place.

Stephen O'Brien did the first lap (1-mile) in 4m 52s, James McCarthy did two laps in 14m 56s which is an average for 4:52 for each of the two miles and Kevin O'Brien did the final leg in 4m 52s.

The full results are up on the Athletics Ireland website HERE

Community Radio Youghal interview with Michael Harty of East Cork AC

Leading Cork athlete Michael Harty speaks to Barry Drake (CRY 104FM and Evening Echo) about some of his biggest achievements, recent success and about his latest journey.

East Cork AC win National Intermediate Cross Country Championships

The Athletics Ireland National Intermediate Cross Country Championships were held this year in Galway on Sunday the 11th of February 2018. In the men's team competition, East Cork AC finished in first place to take the national title!


Place Club Positions Points
1 East Cork A.C. 1, 11, 20, 23 ...55 pts
2 Celbridge A.C. 14, 15, 17, 18 ...64 pts
3 North Sligo A.C. 3, 16, 22, 49 ...90 pts

Not only did the club take the title but Michael Harty (#207) of East Cork AC finished in 1st place to win the National Intermediate title.

The East Cork AC members taking part were....
207 30:39 1 Michael Harty East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C. Cork
208 32:30 11 Kevin O Brien East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C. Cork
205 34:05 20 Nick O'Donoghue East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C.
210 34:17 23 Brian Harty East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C. Cork
211 35:03 31 Frank Hayes East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C. Cork
206 35:09 33 Shane Harrington East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C. Cork
275 36:03 42 Diarmaid Collins East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C. Cork

Full results at http://www.athleticsireland.ie/competition/results/

Photo courtesy of Nick O'Donoghue of East Cork AC.

Michael Harty of East Cork AC wins Rock n Roll 5k in Dublin

While the Rock n Roll Half-Marathon in Dublin was held on Sunday, the associated 5k race with 2,302 finishers was on the previous day, Saturday the 12th of August.  The winner of the race was Michael Harty of East Cork AC in a time of 15m 17s.

1    Michael HARTY    00:15:17.43
2    Eoin FLYNN    00:15:49.96
3    Efrem GIDEY    00:16:33.17

Michael Harty of East Cork AC sets new course record to win the 2017 Adare 10k

This year's Adare 10k road race in Co.Limerick a record crowd of 726 runners, a jump of 22% on the 2016 figure. While many of the races in Munster have seen their peaks a few years back, this one continues to grow and is now one of the main 10k races in the province. The race was organised by West Limerick AC.

The winner of the mens race was Michael Harty of East Cork AC who set a new course record in the process. The person in second place was Sean Hehir who is a former National Marathon Champion.

1 Michael Harty MS East Cork A.C. 00:30:59
2 Sean Hehir MS Rathfarnham W.S.A.F. A.C. 00:31:12
3 Andrew Connick MS Ferrybank A.C. 00:31:46
38 Sorcha Mac Domhnaill FS Donore Harriers 00:38:37
39 Carolyn Maria Hayes FS West Limerick A.C. 00:38:40
42 Caitriona Farrell FS An Bru A.C 00:39:00

Some of the clubs with 10 or more members were....
Mallow AC...27, West Limerick AC 25, Dooneen AC 23, Bweeng Trailblazers 19, An Brú AC 16,  Kilfinane AC 12, St.Nicholas AC 11.

Results & photos on the Running in Munster site.

Michael Harty of East Cork AC wins National Master Cross Country title

The Athletics Ireland Masters Cross Country Championships were held on Sunday the 12th of February in Waterford IT. The winner of the mens race was Michael Harty of East Cork AC.

255 23:24 1 Michael Harty East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C.
408 23:50 2 Tim O'Connor An Riocht A.C. An Riocht A.C.
260 23:55 3 Tim Twomey Leevale A.C. Leevale A.C.
112 14:51 1 Rosemary Ryan Dooneen A.C. Dooneen A.C.
48 15:02 2 Sara Doohan Corran A.C.
72 15:04 3 Barbara Cleary Donore Harriers Donore Harriers

The full results are up on the Athletics Ireland website

Photos...
1) West Waterford AC have a gallery HERE

Photo courtesy of John Cashman

Michael Harty of East Cork AC finishes 3rd in Irish Runner 5 mile road race in Dublin

Well done to Michael Harty of East Cork AC who finished 3rd today in the Irish Runner 5 mile road race in Dublin.

Results for the 15th SSE Airtricity Irish Runner 5 Mile event:

Men's Race:
• Peter Samba in 1st 00:23:55
• Mick Clohisey in 2nd 00:23:56
• Michael Harty in 3rd 00:24:08

Women's Race:
• Gladys Ganiel in 1st 00:28:36
• Catherina McKiernan in 2nd 00:28:54

Liam O'Brien & The Ballyandreen '5'

Anonymous article by a well informed source ;o) .......

He will be there as usual on Thursday night, taking entries and inputting them into the laptop. Making sure the results are correct. And at the CIT the following night for the Graded Leagues, he will again oversee operations. Just as he did last Saturday and the two previous weeks at the Munster Schools T&F. And then there’s the Cork City Sports on June 28th. For a man who achieved so much, all the way to an Olympic semi-final, he now gives back equally if not more to the sport that has been enriched by his involvement for close on half a century. In case you didn’t know (and he won’t tell you), the
following are his achievements in this particular race.

LIAM O’BRIEN & THE BALLYANDREEN ‘5’
1981: 24:25 First
1982: 24:19 First
1983: 24:24 First
1984: 24:36 First
1985: 24:28 First
1986: 24:21 First
1987: 24:17 First
1988: 24:13 First
1989: 24:23 First
1990: 24:15 First
1991: 24:23 First
1992: 24:26 First
1993: 24:14 First
1994: 24:00 (course record) First
1995: 25:15 (M40 course rec) First
1996: DNF
1997: 25:17 First
1998: 25:49 Third

Total number of Summer Series 5-mile races ran by Liam from 1977 to 1998: 67
Total number won: 59



(Photo source : Gearóid Ó Laoi)

Denis McCarthy of East Cork completes his 1,000th race

Denis McCarthy of East Cork AC is a well known figure on the road race circuit and reached an important milestone in his running career last Thursday. The Ballintotis 4 mile race was actually his 1,000th race and the race organisers presented him with a special prize to mark the occasion.

Denis is also the holder of the longest running streak in Ireland. Having started on the 5th of June 1985, Denis ran at least one mile per day up until the 10th of June 2013...a total of 28 years and 4 days without a break, an incredible 10,232 days of running.

Cork runners take top two places in MSB 5k race in Dublin

The MSB St. Patrick's Festival 5k Race was held in the centre of Dublin on Sunday the 20th of March 2016 and attracted a large field of 1312 runners. The winner of the race was Colm Sheahan of Leevale AC pictured above closely followed by Michael Harty of East Cork AC.

Place   Name           Net Time         Gross Time      Bib     Cat     Sub Cat Club
1       Colm SHEAHAN  14:43   14:43        1175    MS (1)  Leevale AC
2       Michael HARTY   14:42     14:44        1236    MS (2)  East Cork
3       Sean HEHIR      15:05        15:05        313     MS (3)  Rathfarnham WSAF

This is a photo of the top 3 men out on the course.... L to R...Sean O'Hehir, Michael Harty and Colm Sheahan.

If you examine the results closely then you'll see that Michael Harty actually ran the 5km course one second faster than Colm Sheahan but finished second. This was due to the fact that for whatever reason, it took Michael two seconds to cross the start line whereas Colm started at the front.

It doesn't change anything of course as the first person to break the tape wins the race but it reminded me of the recent Ballycotton '10' comments when some runners were debating whether the times should be in order of gun time or chip time.

The photo above shows the holding area before the start of the race. Colm is on the left and Michael is on the right. By the time the runners had moved up to the start line, Michael had lost his front place resulting in a two second delay.

Photo by Stephen McGuinness

Those two seconds would make all the difference though at the finish line.

Photo by Stephen McGuinness

It's just one of those quirks of road racing that is unusual and rarely seen.

The full results can be seen on the MyRunResults website.

Photos...
1) Stephen McGuinness has a nice gallery HERE
2) Sportsworld Running Club has some HERE