Barry Drake from Youghal continues his new athletics podcast with a chat with East Cork runner Michael Harty.
Barry writes... "Michael Harty needs no introduction. A regular winner over the last number of years he has clocked some fantastic times on the roads. The East Cork man talks all things athletics including his great Cross Country success. Harty has a few big targets upcoming."
The interview with Michael can be heard below...
The Youghal Bay Half-Marathon & 10k was held this year on Sunday 10th Aug 2025.
So far in the 10k, there has been a huge jump in numbers compared to last year. In 2024, there were 653 finishers in the 10k. This year, it's almost 900!
Results...
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| First 3 women in the 10k (L-R)... Kate Veale 2nd, Sharon Rynne 1st & Breda Gaffney 3rd |
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| First 3 women in the Half-Marathon (L-R)... Ciara Hickey 2nd, Niamh Moore 1st & Laura Noonan 3rd |
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| First 3 men in the Youghal Bay Half-Marathon (L-R) Pat Hennessy of West Waterford AC 2nd, Kane Collins of Donore Harriers AC 1st & Barry Twohig of St Finbarr's AC 3rd |
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| When one race isn't enough! After starting at 9:30am to do the Youghal Bay 10k, Kerry Constant was back at the start line again at 11:30am to do the half-marathon!!! |
There seems to be some confusion about the start times for the Youghal Half-Marathon & 10k on Sunday 10th Aug 2025. A visitor to the blog said that there were different start times on different sites.
Just to be sure I checked with Youghal AC and the times shown above are correct. The 10k starts at 9:30am and the half-marathon starts at 11:30am.
Youghal AC have consistently given the correct times on their Facebook page. The information that I have in the race post HERE is correct. The chip timing company has the correct info.
The Cork Athletics Board are giving the wrong start times of 9:00am and 11:00am and it's probably been like this for weeks if not months. Unfortunately, the Youghal tourist website seems to have copied this wrong information onto their own website. I don't know if the wrong times got copied elsewhere.
It seems likely that the Cork Athletics Board just copied and pasted the start times from 2024 without checking if they had actually changed.
Just note the correct times for your travel plans before and after the race.
Clonakilty results... https://www.parkrun.ie/clonakilty/results/492/
Someone informed me that Aidan was the son of Fozzy Forristal who is a well known runner and a pacer at many running events.
Condolences to Fozzy and his family.
This is the notice... https://rip.ie/death-notice/aidan-forristal-kerry-lixnaw-601897
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam
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...
The Cork BHAA Sterling 5k in Ringaskiddy was held this year on Wed 6th Aug 2025 on what was an overcast but dry evening.
There were 293 finishers this year which is down a fair bit on the 394 in 2024 and just below the 307 in 2023.
Full results HERE
Photos...
1) Mick Dooley has two albums up on the Cork BHAA page HERE and HERE
IRISH 10-MILE RANKINGS - End July 2025
What follows is a ranking list over the popular 10-mile distance for all men (under 55:00) and women (under 65:00) for the six months from February to July 2025.
The list shows the time (gun), name/club/category, the race and finishing position, along with the date. Where an athlete appears more than once, just the surname is used after the initial listing.
At the end of 2024 we mentioned the decline in standards compared to previous years - but what a difference a few months make.
In early April a new Irish record of 45:59 was established by Peter Lynch from Kilkenny at the Cherry Blosson race in Washington, while at Dungarvan in February two hugely impressive course records were set by Fearghal Curtin (47:42) and Niamh Allen (52:51).
This time last year, a total of 81 performances by men had been achieved inside the 55:00 cut-off, this year the number has risen to 108. Dungarvan can take the credit for this upsurge as a total of 31 broke 55 minutes there compared to just seven in 2024.
While Lynch’s Irish best was the standout performance (incidentally, he’s also credited with a 53:42 in his local Danesfort race - no doubt an easy tempo run!), Ryan Creech has three performances in the 49-minure range, one of which gained him the national title in the Phoenix Park.
Niamh Allen has certainly made her mark in the past year on track, cross-country and road and her 52:51 is the second fastest by an Irishwoman over the distance after Sonia O’Sullivan’s 51:00 at the Great South Run in September 2002.
The numbers of performances for women under 65:00 this year is 90, up slightly on last year’s 86 with Trim having the highest number at 17, the same as 12 months ago.
As usual, any additions or corrections are welcome and can be made on the comments section wherever this list appears.
The Youghal Bay Half-Marathon & 10k in east Cork is coming up this year on Sunday the 10th of August 2025.
The 10km race will start at 9:30am while the Half-Marathon will start at the later time of 11:30am.
Entries HERE
Please note that entries close at 10pm on Fri 8th August.
Info from Youghal AC... "A multi-lap course through the medieval streets of Youghal, the beautiful scenic Front Strand area and the Greenway. This is the perfect course to set a PB and is an ideal warmup up for those training for an Autumn Marathon.
The National Track & Field Championships were held in Dublin over the weekend and Niamh Allen of Leevale AC finished first. She is shown above with her 11-month old daughter Lily.
Fellow team mate Anika Thompson of Leevale AC finished second while Fiona Everard of Bandon AC took bronze.
Photo : Sportsfile/Sam Barnes
There were 113 finishers in the Rockchapel 5k this year, up 10 on last year.
Full results HERE
The annual Kinsale Regatta 5-mile road race was held this year on Fri 1st Aug 2025 on a dry fine evening.
Full results HERE
Photos...
1) Mick Dooley has the following albums... Pre-Race ... Post-Race
2) Pop-Up Races has a large gallery of finish line photos HERE
Runner and YouTuber Daniel Toal took part in this years Joe Duffy Clontarf 5-mile race in Dublin and posted a video of his experience afterwards. He asked the question... "Ireland’s Worst 5-Mile Race?". Looking at the video, the race seemed a bit of a horror show.
First some background.
The Clontarf Half-Marathon & 5-mile is held twice a year, once in July and once in November. In 2024, the November half was the 4th largest half-marathon in Ireland and the July edition was the 6th largest half for the year.
The most recent race in the video was held on Saturday the 5th of July 2025. There was a total of 5172 finishers between the two events, 3819 finishers in the Half-Marathon and 1353 finishers in the 5-mile.
The Half-Marathon started at 10am and went off in four waves. The 5-mile race started at 10:30am and again started in four waves.
The map above shows the start. The Half runners head east towards Bull Island and Sutton before turning back. The 5-mile course as you might expect turns around a lot sooner.
Analysis... The first red flag here is the start time of 10am and 10:30am. The course is on a walkway in Dublin on a Saturday morning and it should have started a lot earlier. Daniel is one of the lead runners in the 5-mile race and this screenshot from the race shows the walkway full of pedestrians.
In a properly organised race, this should never happen as the potential of a collision is high. An early start would have avoided a lot of this.
The next problem was that the front of the 5-mile race ran into the back of the fourth wave of the half-marathon.
Again, in a properly organised race, the back of the half should have gone past the 5-mile turnaround point so the two races couldn't overlap.
As a race progresses, it behaves like a long snake and the further it goes on, the longer it gets. The next problem is that the frontrunners in the 5-mile go around the turnround point and then face all the slower 5-mile runners going out.
As you can see from the image above, there is no clear path through the oncoming traffic. Note that the image above is not from a photographer standing on a bench, it's the view of a runner heading towards oncoming traffic at 3:30/km pace.
At least in the section above, there was the option of running on the grass.
In some sections, there was no option but to run through the oncoming runners.
Video... After reading the description above, you should have a good idea of what transpired. Now, have a look at Daniel's video...
To put this race in context, the entry fee for the half-marathon was €55 and it was €36 for the 5-mile. That doesn't include the additional fees for online registration and the Athletics Ireland one day permit.
Doing some rough calculations, the organisers would have taken in a gross figure of about €300k for this event. As the vast majority of runners are not members of a club, Athletics Ireland would have taken in the best part of €10k.
In conclusion... Is this the worst 5-mile in Ireland? You can make up your own mind but note that this event is held twice a year and gets huge numbers. Most people taking part probably felt that they had a great time.
I think everyone can agree though that the organisers could do a lot better. If I was working as an insurance broker and we covered this event, I'd have serious concerns.