Ballycotton 10 mile road race

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Sunday 9th of March saw the running of the 37th Ballycotton 10 mile road race. over 2500 athletes finished the race which was ran in almost perfect conditions. Sergiu Ciobanu of Clonliffe Harriers made it his 4th Ballycotton win in a time 48:58 which was also a PB for him. Siobhan O’Doherty of Borrisokane AC won the woman’s race in a time of 57:32. East Cork AC won the men’s team prize, It was a great day for Cork clubs with 6 male and 3 female cork runners in the top 10. At a more local level club members Tom Laffan and Fergus Wall ran in breaking the hour to give them times of 59.37 and 59.52.
There was a big number of Bandon runners who ran well and finished in good times.
A full list of results and photos can be found on the Ballycotton running web site or on the running in Cork web site.

Report by Kevin Wilmot

Schools XC Results

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The Aviva Irish Schools’ Cross Country Championships took place in Cork CIT on Saturday March 8th with a number of club members representing their schools.

Naoise Ni Fhaitheartargh running for Hamilton High School competed in the Minor boys race. Naoise ran a very competitive race to finish 24th out of the 124 boys who competed in the minor race. We were represented on the Junior Girls race by Carina Crowley (Sacred Heart, Clonakilty), Clodagh Young, Laura Nicholson, Lilly Carey and Moira Barrett (Bandon Grammar School). All girls ran really well over the challenging 2500m course. Laura led the Grammar School team home to finish in 7th place earning herself a place on the Irish Schools team and helping the team to win the silver medal place. Carina also had a great race to finish in 11th place.
Fiona Everard (Maria Immaculata CC, Dunmanway) and Aoibh Cassidy (Bandon Grammar School) competed in the Intermediate Girls race over 3500m. This was a very competitive race with the girls having to cover two large laps of the CIT course which included a few soft challenging sections. Fiona challenged from the start of the race setting the pace with the other lead runners. Setting the pace with the lead group meant she was always in contention for the top placings and she finished the race in a very strong 3rd place also earning herself a place on the Irish Schools team. Aoibh Cassidy also ran a great race in her first outing at intermediate level.
Louise Keane (Bandon Grammar School) competed in the Senior Girls race where she ran a strong race to finish in 32nd place. Mark O’Sullivan running for CIT in the Intervarsity Race finished in a very competitive 9th place.

Well done to all who competed and all the best to Fiona and Laura will now go on to represent Ireland in the SIAB Cross Country International in England on the 22nd of March.

Report and photos by Tom Laffan

Recent 5k results.

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The 3rd race of the Killarney 5k series was held on Saturday the 22nd of February. Mark O Sullivan was the sole Bandon AC athlete taking part and was first home to take the win in a time of 16:00.

The Bord Gais BHAA 5k Race was held on the 2nd of March and as usual attracted a large crowd with 336 finishers. The course covered the two loop flat marina route. Bandon AC members competed well on the day with some fine performances. Ronan Duggan was the first Bandon man home in 16:25. Carmel Crowley was 3rd female home in 18:21 Fergus Wall was first over 45 in 17:16. Tom Sheehan continued his good form of late by wining the over 50s in 17:54, his first race in this category. Mathew Geden finished in a time of 18:53 and Ronan Sheehan 21:42.
Full results are available on the Cork running blog.

Report by David Craig

Upcoming activities

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A number of activities on this weekend.
The Aviva Irish Schools’ Cross Country Championships takes place in Cork CIT this Saturday and see’s a number of club members representing their schools.
The West Cork Road races are taking place in Dunmanway at 12noon on Sun, more info on West Cork site.

And from a training point of view, Munster Performance Squad are holding a session in UL on Sun which will see a number of club members taking part, while on Sat the National Throws Squad is being held in Tullamore and Laura McSweeney is the sole club members on that squad.

All-Ireland ‘B’ XC

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The All Ireland B Juvenile Cross Country championships took place on Sunday 23rd February in Dunboyne, Co. Meath. In the juvenile races the club was represented by a team in the Boys U11 race and two athletes in the Boys U13 race.

Although still windy, the weather held up after an extremely wet and windy night and the ground was very heavy underfoot which provided for a very challenging course for all athletes. The U11 team of Callum McCourt, Luke Quinlan, Mark Collins, Ruairi Harrington and Jacob O Driscoll ran very competitively and just missed out on a club team medal, finishing in 4th place. Callum, Luke and Mark scored for the Cork team, with Cork finishing in 2nd place and so earned themselves a silver county medal. Callum ran a great tactical race and crossed the line in 1st place to earn himself the gold medal and the national title, a great achievement as he was also running out of age.

In the U13 race, the club was represented by, Fionn Harrington and Andrew O Leary. Again these boys competed very well, as they too were out of age. Fionn’s experience from the National Championships in November paid off and he earned a well-deserved, gold medal, scoring for the Cork team. All these boys, along with two other U11 team members, Keelan Crowley(who got a Cork medal in the As) and Max Hallahan who unfortunately was unwell at the weekend and could not compete, have trained very hard over the last six months and will have gained great experience from their races this season. They, along with all our other club cross country teams, did the club proud and wrapped up a very successful XC season for the club
Report and photos by Susan McCourt