It is that time of year again with the Annual General Meeting of Bandon Athletic Club scheduled to take place on Friday 18th November at 8pm. The venue is the Munster Arms Hotel. All adult members and parents of Juvenile members are invited to attend. The club has had another very successful year with many winning performances throughout the various athletic disciplines. New ventures in the past year which exceeded expectations included the launch of the Fit 4 Life running and walking group which continues to attract new members. The inaugural Bandon Half Marathon and 10K road race held in May in a joint venture with Bandon Rugby Club was deemed literally a runaway success with overall entries in excess of 700. The club continues to provide training for Juvenile members two evenings a week at the Grammar School currently and in the Town Park during the summer months. Among its ongoing activities another action packed summer camp was held in July and the club hosted the annual Primary Schools Cross Country Championships in September.

The Club again hosted the County Junior and Senior Cross Country Championships in Bandon on Sunday 6th November. It was a bright sunny autumn day with ideal ground conditions. Carmel Crowley had a second place finish in the Senior Women’s race which brought the team to third position. Team members included Louise Cavanagh, Oonagh Brady, Margaret Callanan and Pauline Callan. Tom Laffan was the first Bandon man home finishing in 23rd position. The team along with Tom consisted of Tom Sheehan, Liam Murphy, Ben Gaffney and John Donegan and they finished 2nd in the ‘B’ section. Mark OSullivan had a good run in the Junior men’s race, coming in fourth. Thomas McCarthy finished 12th.

Top of her form in the throwing arena, Laura Mc Sweeney was presented with the award for Cork Athlete of the Month at a luncheon recently in the River Lee Hotel. She was selected on the basis of her considerable successes this July winning the U17 All Ireland titles in Shot Putt, Discus and Hammer. She is also the Cork County Senior Shot Putt champion and is second in Munster at Junior (U20) level in Shot and Hammer and third in Discus. Laura was also part of the Irish Schools U17 team which competed in Wales in July. The awards were presented by Cork City Sports in conjunction with the Evening Echo, Cork 96FM, C103 and the River Lee Hotel. Well done to Laura who is a very deserving recipient of this recognition.

A large number of athletes from the Club competed in the second Bandon Gael Scoil 10K road race which was held on Sunday 30th October on day where the rain never stopped. It was a double for Bandon AC members with Kevin Wilmot winning the men’s race and Carmel Crowley the women’s. Kevin who had a fourth place finish last year won the race in a time of 34.14 with Carmel Crowley completing the women’s race in 37.50. The Juvenile and Novice B County Cross Country Championships took place on the same day in Carrig na bhFear. The wet conditions made the running tough but did not deter the Juveniles from achieving medal positions. Results as follows; Girls U0, 2nd Amy ODonoghue, 3rd Orla OSullivan, 9th Maeve OFlynn, 10th Deirdre Bowen. They won the team gold. Boys U11, 6th Fionn Harrington, 9th Aodh O Gallchóir, 11th Jack Lucey, 12th Jack Payne, Andrew O’Leary 14th and 16th Mark Gash. The team were placed first. Eamon OSullivan was third U13. David Laffan finished 10th and James Daly 13th U15