Barry Drake Sports Interview - Top Cork runner Ryan Creech of Leevale AC

Over the last few years, Barry Drake from Youghal has conducted numerous interviews for a variety of sports including athletics and running. He is also a regular contributor to Community Radio Youghal where he often be heard on the airwaves.

He recently caught up with Ryan Creech of Leevale AC who recently won the Irish national 10-mile championships.

The interview can be heard below...

Cork runner Ryan Creech wins the 2025 National 10-mile Championship

Cork runner Ryan Creech wins the National 10-mile Championship title in the Phoenix Park, Dublin this morning with a time of 49m 54s.

Runners from Cork & Munster listed in their respective top 50 places in the championships...

1 Ryan CREECH 49:54 288 M Nat Champs MS Leevale A.C. - 1st
32 Michael MORGAN 56:53 462 M Nat Champs M50 St. Finbarrs A.C.
40 Nathan Ryan O'HEHIR 57:59 463 M Nat Champs M35 St. Finbarrs A.C.
44 Vivian FOLEY 58:59 254 M Nat Champs M55 Eagle A.C.
3 Dee GRADY 59:09 591 F Nat Champs F35 Ennis Track A.C. - 3rd
16 Emma DOYLE 1:06:28 287 F Nat Champs FS Leevale A.C.

Full results HERE

Cork runner Ryan Creech runs 2h 12m marathon in Seville - Feb 2024

At the Seville marathon in Spain on Sunday 18th Feb 2024, Cork runner Ryan Creech managed to finish the 42.2km course in an impressive time of 2h 12m 28s.

That time is an improvement of 35-seconds on the time of 2:13:03 that he set at the same event in 2023. 

Ryan's time keeps him in 11th spot on the all time Irish performance list...

1 2:09:49 Stephen Scullion London 4 Oct 2020
2 2:09:56 John Treacy Los Angeles CA 12 Aug 1984
3 2:10:09 Kevin Seaward Sevilla 23 Feb 2020
4 2:10:25 Paul Pollock Valencia 1 Dec 2019
5 2:10:54 Mark Carroll New York NY 3 Nov 2002
6 2:11:30 John Woods Wexford 24 Apr 1988
7 2:12:19 Dick Hooper Wexford 24 Apr 1988
8 2:12:20 Jerry Kiernan Los Angeles CA 12 Aug 1984
9 2:12:21 Louis Kenny Huntsville TX 13 Dec 1980
10 2:12:26 Hugh Armstrong Sevilla 23 Feb 2020
11 2:12:28 Ryan Creech Sevilla 18 Feb 2024
12 2:13:06 Danny McDaid Limerick 11 Apr 1976
13 2:13:19 Mick Clohisey Dublin 27 Oct 2019
14 2:13:25 Roy Dooney Duluth MN 20 Jun 1992
15 2:13:55 Kingston Mills Berlin 28 Sep 1986
15 2:13:55 Mark Kenneally Amsterdam 16 Oct 2011
17 2:13:59 Tommy Hughes Marrakech 12 Jan 1992
18 2:14:06 Martin Fagan Dubai 18 Jan 2008
19 2:14:42 John Griffin London 21 Apr 1991
20 2:14:43 Ryan Forsyth Dublin 29 Oct 2023

Over 4000 runners take part in Raheny 5-mile last weekend...

One of the big running events in Ireland last weekend was the Raheny 5-mile road race in Dublin on Sunday 28th Jan 2024. I knew it was a big race but I was surprised at the sheer scale of it with a huge 4,287 finishers.

This wasn't a cheap race either to enter with a €30 entry fee. Assume that say 200 or so didn't turn up then we get 4,500 X €30 = €135,000! It may not be exact but it's in the ballpark and it shows what kind of money is involved in a race of this size.

Looking at the results, there seems to be just under 2,100 non-club runners in the results. Add on say 200 no-shows and we get 2,300. They would have all paid the additional €2 Athletics Ireland 'One-Day Licence' fee which gives a rough figure of €4500. That's what Athletics Ireland roughly made from this one race which shows what a money spinner the 'One Day-Licence' is.

The first man home in the race was Cork runner Ryan Creech of Leevale AC in a time of 23m 58s.

1 Ryan CREECH 23:58 3123 M MS Leevale A.C.
2 David SCANLON 24:30 1262 M MS Rathfarnham W.S.A.F. A.C.
3 John Paul WILLIAMSON 24:32 1763 M MS

The first woman home was Shona Heaslip of An Ríocht AC in Kerry in a time of 26m 12s to make it a Munster double.

1 Shona HEASLIP 26:12 10 F FS An Riocht A.C.
2 Nakita BURKE 27:01 2761 F FS Letterkenny A.C.
3 Cheryl NOLAN 27:05 4043 F FS St. Abbans A.C.

Full results HERE

Photos...

1) Lindie Naughton has a gallery HERE

Ryan Creech from Cork is the best of the Irish at the 2021 Antrim Coast Half-Marathon

In the recent Antrim Coast Half-Marathon, Ryan Creech of Leevale AC in Cork was the best of the Irish when he finished in a time of 1h 03m 26s.

As can be seen from the extracted results below, Ryan was the first Irish athlete home.

1 Jemal YIMER ETH Male 1:00:30  
2 Tesfahun AKALNEW ETH Male 1:00:31  
3 Shadrack KIMINING KEN Male 1:00:32  
4 Marc SCOTT GB & NI Male 1:00:35  
5 Nigel MARTIN ENG Male 1:03:22  
6 Ryan CREECH IRE Male 1:03:26  
7 Paul O'DONNELL IRE Male 1:03:37  
8 Ross SKELTON ENG Male 1:03:40  
9 Yalemzerf YEHUALAW ETH Female 1:03:44  
10 Stephen SCULLION IRE Male 1:03:54  
13 Jake O'REEGAN IRE Male 1:04:16  
32 Kyle DOHERTY IRE Male 1:08:41  
38 Eoin HUGHES IRE Male 1:10:47  
41 Alexander WALLACE IRE Male 1:12:05  
42 Tommy HUGHES IRE Male 1:12:27  
43 Declan POWER IRE Male 1:12:51

Ryan's splits are shown below which shows he was running at roughly 3:00/km pace which is around 4:50 per mile.

Splits
Time of Gun Time    Speed/Pace 
Start 0:00:01.2 
5km 0:15:05.3 03:00 min/km
10km 0:30:22.7 03:03 min/km
15km 0:45:22.6 03:00 min/km
Finish 1:03:25.7 02:57 min/km

As you can see from the splits, Ryan went through the 5k mark in 15m 03s and the 10k mark in 30m 22s. He put in a really fast last 6kms to drag the overall average pace down to 2m 57/km.

The screen grab above shows Ryan in the home strait and just ahead of follow Irish team mate Paul O'Donnell who finish 11 seconds behind.

The results of the elite field can be seen HERE

It's a bit surprising that Athletics Ireland have nothing up on their website about the results of this race despite the fact they submitted an Irish team!

Top 3 finish for Cork runners at the Kilbeggan 10 mile last Sunday - 8th Aug 2021

The annual Kilbeggan 10-mile road race in Co Westmeath was held on the 8th of August 2021 and attracted a field of 381 runners split over two waves.

Some of the top 10-mile runners in the country took part with two from Cork in the top three.

In the men's race, Ryan Creech of Leevale AC finished first in a time of 48:50. As can be seen from the results, four of the top five men finished under 50 minutes.

Lead group in the early stages... Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

1 Ryan CREECH 00:48:50 00:48:50 3 M MS Leevale AC
2 John TRAVERS 00:49:12 00:49:12 792 M MS Donore Harriers
3 Jake O'REGAN 00:49:23 00:49:23 9306 M MS St. John's Ennis
4 Conor DUFFY 00:49:55 00:49:55 6 M MS Glaslough Harriers
5 Mick CLOHISEY 00:50:07 00:50:07 1 M MS Raheny Shamrock AC
20 Grace LYNCH 00:55:46 00:55:46 70 F FS Iveragh AC
35 Ciara HICKEY 00:57:41 00:57:41 71 F F40 Brothers Pearse AC
59 Claire MCCARTHY 00:59:38 00:59:38 27 F F40 Leevale AC
78 Niamh CLIFFORD 01:01:31 01:01:39 701 F FS
106 Mary WALSH 01:04:32 01:04:32 101 F F40 Raheny Shamrock AC

Claire McCarthy of Leevale AC took the 3rd position spot in the women's race with a time of 59:38.

Claire McCarthy on the approach to the finish... Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

Quite a number of other runners from Cork also made the trip north.

The results of the first wave can be found on the MyRunResults website

Photos...

1) Peter Mooney has a large gallery up on his Flickr account

(You may need a Flickr account to view)