Results & Photos of the Cork City Sports...Tues 8th July 2014

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Sprinter Amy Foster equals Irish 100m record and qualifies for European championships...

Some more Irish athletes were in action over the weekend in Florida and in England.

Amy Foster (City of Lisburn) was in action on Sat 10th of May in the womens 100m at the Sprint Elite meet in Clermont in Florida. In the preliminary round, she recorded a time of 11.59 seconds before going on to run 11.40 seconds in the final. This equals the Irish record held by Ailis McSweeney of Leevale AC which was set in July of 2010.

The time also equals the 'A standard' required to qualify for the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich in August. The time is also inside the qualifying time of 11.45 seconds for the Commonwealth Games in late July in Scotland where Amy will represent Northern Ireland.

Also on Saturday, both Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC) and Maria McCambridge were in the Highgate Harriers Night of 10000m PBs event. The required 'A' standard here for the European Championships was 32:15. Only Jo Pavey from England managed to get within the 'A' standard while the current European Cross Country champion Sophie Duarte was second in 32:36. Fionnuala Britton faded in the second half of the race to finish in 4th place in 32:57. Her PB is 31:29 which was set in April 2012. Maria McCambridge ran a personal best time of 33:19 which moves her up to 17th on the all time Irish list.

1 32:11.04    Jo Pavey V40 Exeter  
2 32:36.32    Sophie Duarte         SEN   FRA             
3 32:45.69    Beth Potter    PB    Shaftesbury Barnet/St. Mary's Uni 
4 32:57.49    Fionnuala Britton    SB    SEN    W    Ireland
7 33:19.43    Maria Mc Cambridge    PB    V35  Letterkenny//Ireland

Full weekend results here.. https://sites.google.com/site/runninginireland/weekend-atheltic-results-10th-11th-may-2014

Athletics Ireland announce Marathon and 50k walk nominations...

The Athletics Ireland Selection committee met this morning to consider the nominations for Olympic selection in the marathon and race walking events. Following the meeting, the athletes nominated for selection are:

50km Race Walks: Rob Heffernan, Brendan Boyce, Colin Griffin
Men’s Marathon: Mark Kenneally
Women’s Marathon: Linda Byrne, Ava Hutchinson; Caitriona Jennings

 Athletics Ireland Director of High Performance, Kevin Ankrom explained their stance. "There is a nomination policy there and we went through the process of looking at each girl and making sure she met with the criteria. As a group of selectors this is what we came up with. It was a good decision and a lot of thought went into the nomination process. We were very fortunate to have four girls who competed and performed at a high level. If that happened in every event we would be happy but this was not a win-win situation because someone was not going to be selected. I accept that people may want to focus on the one who did not get nominated but I feel that’s unfair on the other girls. It’s a no-win situation, but let’s focus on being positive and get behind the girls who have been nominated. It’s the biggest ever team with ‘A’ standards."

This brings to an end the debate about which three of the four Marathon women should go. Maria McCambridge who had the slowest Marathon time is now likely to concentrate on the 10,000m for the European Championships or to try and achieve the Olympic 'A' standard of 31:45.

Someone suggested in a comment to an earlier post that if Maria were to reach the Olympic 'B' standard of 32:10 then she should be sent. She did after all reach the 'A' standard for the Marathon. That decision I would guess would be in the hands of the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Newspapers.....(updated 22nd May)

1) McCambridge gutted after missing out on Olympic Marathon place...Irish Independent...
2) McCambridge won't appeal decision...Irish Times...

Dublin Marathon loses sponsor for 2012...

At the recent launch of the 2012 Dublin City Marathon, it was announced that the race would be without a sponsor for the first time since 1992. The organisers said that they were unable to reach agreement on the terms for the 2012 sponsorship with last years’ sponsors the National Lottery.

Race director Jim Aughney said..."We had a great partnership with the National Lottery last year, and they did a huge amount to help us raise the bar yet again in terms of the professionalism of Dublin, and having live TV for the first time in over twenty years was a real boost as well. As organisers, our task now is to deliver the best possible Dublin Marathon for the runners, joggers and walkers and to continue to grow the event, as we have done for the past 32 years”

(Pictured above...Irish Marathon hopefuls Linda Byne, Maria McCambridge and Caitriona Jennings with race director Jim Aughney)

Aughney admitted that the lack of a title sponsor will mean they will have to cut back on certain elements this year, so for starters there will be no live television or highlights package this year, but he is adamant that he and his fellow volunteer organisers will ensure that the core elements that make Dublin such a popular marathon will remain in place.

Aughney expects there will be some changes to the route for the 2012 Marathon. “We are still finalizing the 2012 route with the relevant local authorities and the Gardaí, but there will be some changes to the current route”...he said.

Expected to change is the existing route in the Phoenix Park with runners this year only using only the Back Road, Chesterfield Avenue and Wellington Road. The second change if implemented will see the runners cutting out Roebuck Road and Fosters Avenue just after the 20 miles mark.

The 2011 Dublin City Marathon attracted a record crowd of some 14,000 runners and was worth over €10 million in terms of economic benefit to the city.

Fastest Irish women over 5000 Metres

While I was looking some records for Joanne Cuddihy's best times over 400 metres, I came across a chart for the best times for Irish women over 5,000 metres. Needless to say, all of the middle distance records are dominated by Sonia O'Sullivan who was in a league of her own when it comes to Irish records. Her record in the 5000 metres came during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when she won the silver medal in a time of 14:41.02.

Maria McCambridge and Rosemary Ryan at the 2012 Ballycotton '10' race....photo by Gearoid O'Laoi

Also included on the list are two athletes who were took part in the Ballycotton '10' last Sunday. The winner of the race Maria McCambridge of Letterkenny AC is the third fastest Irish woman over 5,000 metres having run 15:05.86 in Belgium back in 2004. In third place last Sunday, Rosemary Ryan of Bilboa AC is the sixth fastest Irish woman with a time of 15:17.57 set back in 2000.

The 27 women who have run under 16 minutes for 5,000 metres are shown below...
# Time       Athlete                 Pos   Location    Date
1 14.41.02 Sonia O'Sullivan  2 Sydney AUS 25.09.00
2 14.49.40 Catherina McKiernan  7 Cologne GER 16.08.96
3 15.05.86 Maria McCambridge  3 Huesden BEL 31.07.04
4 15.09.07 Marie McMahon-Davenport  4 Waltam USA 29.05.04
5 15.12.83 Breda Denehy-Willis  5 Huesden BEL 05.08.00
6 15.17.57 Rosemary Ryan  7 Huesden BEL 05.08.00
7 15.18.34i Mary Cullen  3 Boston USA 07.02.09
8 15.19.12 Una English  8 Huesden BEL 14.07.01
9 15.27.5 Monica Joyce  1 San Diego USA 20.05.83
10 15.28.28 Kathy McCandless  8 Oslo NOR 05.07.96
11 15.31.26 Fionnuala Britton  11 Hengelo NED 29.05.11
12 15.33.34 Sinead Delahunty  11 Hechtal BEL 22.07.95
13 15.35.60 Regina Joyce  6 Oslo NOR 26.06.82
14 15.36.71 Valerie Vaughan  2 Walnut USA 18.04.98
15 15.45.72 Valerie McGovern  1 Durham USA 02.06.90
16 15.46.47i Stephanie Reilly  1 New York USA 05.03.11
17 15.46.64 Hazel Murphy  12 Palo Alto USA 01.05.10
18 15.47.73 Ann  Keenan-Buckley  3 Dublin IRL 14.07.02
19 15.51.28 Deirdre Byrne  2 Stanford USA 02.05.09
20 15.53.47 Teresa Duffy  Paris FRA 03.06.96
21 15.54.29 Linda  Byrne  2 Watford GBR 13.06.09
22 15.56.01 Jolene Byrne  3 Izmir TUR 19.08.05
23 15.56.30 Caroline Mullen  4 Baton Rouge USA 06.06.87
24 15.57.15 Monica O'Reilly  23.04.92
25 15.58.64 Roisin McGettigan  6 Stanford USA 04.05.08
26 15.58.67 Kerry Harty  8 Manchester GBR 28.05.11
27 15.58.93 Ava Hutchinson 16 Mt. Sac USA 17.04.09